Activism, 2 min readHilda ImaliGender Violence, Abuse, Kenya

My Muse

Activism, 2 min readHilda ImaliGender Violence, Abuse, Kenya
My Muse

We had had our usual fight. Before it was verbal, but it got physical on this day he came home - on my birthday.

Threw me on my bedroom door (no, we never got below the navel. I was always scared after the rape issues I had gone through, but snogs, strokes and caresses kinda healed the wounds, my assumptions, you guess right). "All these years you are still holding that thing away from me" (it's not just a thing for heaven’s sake ). My hands twisted on the door frames, spurt on my neck and he left.

That night I told him we are over.

And the next thing was flowers, and a note "Can I treat you right for the last time?" It was the most annoying text.

I loved him. I did. My parents knew their daughter was in love with someone, she awakened love before it was due (Song of Solomon 8:4) and the flames of it were consuming her soul, her inner beauty into ashes. She defied her Master's words (Song of Solomon 8:6, Close your heart to every love but mine; hold no one in your arms but me. Love is as powerful as death; passion is as strong as death itself. It bursts into flame and burns like a raging fire).

She let a love fraudster hold her arm. His calls were sweet lullabies, lullabies? Should be keeping awake! Well lullabies, yes, lullabies, they put her heart to sleep, to have a date with nightmares.

His angry voice turned her on, no, not ready for foreplay, but on toes, to fly past his head. But thoughts of "His caresses will heal the wounds rape caused in my uterus, mind, heart and soul" kept her lips grounded in his.

And so life went on. Abuse after abuse, but his abuses were her muse, turning her into a muse.

So will she detest her past especially this relationship that got her into a relationship with ink? No, but she will say, “don't stay in a toxic relationship”.

Activism, 6 min readMariyam BegumReproductive Rights, Sri Lanka

The Life Within Me

I have society to fear, its grueling questions. While you might be the person telling me that it is a sin to kill the embryo growing within me, I also know you are among the people who would question my character and my chastity. I know, I shouldn’t fear the world created by the generations before me, but everyone existing in its aftermath hasn’t made it easier for me. Maybe you can’t be supportive of my decisions, maybe you’ll be in constant disagreement; nor would I ask you not to be.  But please, respect my being, accept my choices and do not decide them for me.

Activism, 6 min readMariyam BegumReproductive Rights, Sri Lanka
The Life Within Me
Family, 2 min read, ▲Nancy MubangaHurt, Abuse, Domestic Violence, Zambia

Pied Emotion

On that day, she had the courage to leave and not look back. It broke my heart, but more than anything else in the world, I valued her peace of mind, her chance at liberation away from the hurricane that is my father. My father made it a note in his mind to remind us every time he came home wasted that we lived in his home and he'd kick us out if he so wished.

Family, 2 min read, ▲Nancy MubangaHurt, Abuse, Domestic Violence, Zambia
Pied Emotion
Fiction, 4 min readEllah HalletsAbuse, Kenya

Picture Perfect

G was at the gate. Perfect. I remembered about my earphones on the bed. I rushed for them, and as I was about to leave the front door, I bumped into him. I didn’t hear him come. I look at G for a second as he closed the gate. He apologized with his eyes. What could he do? A fresh cloud of mist covered my eyes as they darted between him, G and the gate. He is smiling at me. ‘I saw your mother leave. Where are you going?’

Fiction, 4 min readEllah HalletsAbuse, Kenya
Picture Perfect
Activism, 3 min read, ▲Hellen OtienoSexual Assault, Rape, Gender Violence, Kenya

Changing The Statistics

You see, the thing with being raped, or just generally being abused at such a young age, is that you find it hard to open up to people about it. I would know because for me, it started when I was about four years old. I really don't remember much about that time of my life but I can never forget what she did to me. Yes, "she".

Activism, 3 min read, ▲Hellen OtienoSexual Assault, Rape, Gender Violence, Kenya
Changing The Statistics
Activism, 2 min readHilda ImaliFinding Yourself, Growth, Emotional Abuse, Kenya

Wrong

"You have been here long, but no change, in any case, it has been negative. You have lost yourself in him, what now?", the soft yet firm voice, echoed louder in my bones than in my inner ears. I thought I could fix him , I was wrong! My own emotions were in a fix. I thought I could heal him. Wrong, my own wounds of past were there glaring with rage in my heart.

Activism, 2 min readHilda ImaliFinding Yourself, Growth, Emotional Abuse, Kenya
Wrong