Woman ‘Live Blogs’ Her South African Rape On Instagram

Amber the Activist is an humanitarian visiting South Africa. She was in the country to promote her ‘Stop Rape, Educate’ campaign. But six weeks ago, Amber was raped by a friend when he invited her into the shower with him.

She took to Instagram to explain her account:

It was only a few minutes ago but sometimes these things happen so fast it’s hard to remember all the details…. I’ve been sick for the past 2 days and today was my first day out. I went back to my old hostel to leave a note for a friend, Nick. There was another guy there, Shakir, who was desperately trying to get with me. I kissed him once but he seemed drunk so I told him it was bad timing, I had already met someone. Before heading out, I went upstairs to say hi to one more friend, Clyde from the states. Shakir followed me upstairs and said he was going to take a shower. He invited me to join. I said yes because the water at my current hostel is pretty cold and after 2 days of being sick, I just really wanted a hot shower. As soon as I got in the bathroom, he forced me to my knees. I said “stop!” but he just got more violent. He lifted me up and put his penis in my vagina. I asked him to stop, again, as I began to cry. When he shoved it in my ass, that’s when I passed out. I woke up a few minutes later and saw him trying to creep out the door. When he saw that I was awake, he came back to finish me off in the shower. I have all those fucked up feelings that we get after rape…shame, disgust, suffering. I’m here, alone, and any DNA has been wiped away in the shower. The South African police will just roll their eyes when I walk in. Feeling sicker than ever now. Needless today, I’m going to disappear for a bit. Just need to enjoy the freaking sun and call my friends and family in the states. Love you guys. Thank you for always being there for me. All the more reason to continue @stoprapeeducate but not today. Today, I need rest. #StopRapeEducate

A photo posted by Amber Amour (@ambertheactivist) on Nov 21, 2015 at 9:34am PST

Founded by Amber, Stop Rape, Educate is a campaign to end sexual violence against women through awareness campaigns with street art. Active since 2014, Amber is currently representing the organisation on a world tour. She decided to share her experience on Instagram so as to practice what she preaches:

I decided to document what happened to me because it was my way of seeking justice. I didn’t know what was going to happen with the police. I didn’t trust that I would get justice. I had 20 000 followers on Instagram at that time and I knew that I had a community that would support me. I think the only reason they even followed up on my case was because the US embassy was involved. They had the rapist’s details, his phone number and full names but it took weeks for them to follow up. I am not satisfied at all with their investigation.

My view of the rape kit. Thank you all for being so loving & supportive during this time. Your messages pushed me to take action and to stand up for myself and for all rape survivors. For those who wish to BLAME ME or any other survivor out there, I want you to know that you are the very reason that I am so brutally honest. I could have hidden details. I could have kept some info to myself, but NO. You need to know the truth and to see the reality of the situation. No matter what a person does, it is not an invitation for rape. It doesn’t matter if I kissed him. It doesn’t matter if he was drunk. It doesn’t matter if I said yes to a shower. I never said he could get violent with me. I never said he could make me bleed. I never said he could rape me. But still, that’s how the scene went down. I don’t need to explain myself but if you’re wondering WHY I took a shower with him, it was written in the text, I’d been sick with food poisoning for 2 days and needed to sweat it out. My current place of residence has only cold water (third world problems are real!) and it seemed like a miracle to be offered a hot shower. That’s not what he was there for though, because as soon as he got a chance, he threw me to the ground and had his way. Dealing with rape is hard enough but the aftermath is often even more traumatic but I did this for you and I did this for me. The US Embassy and the South African police are super supportive and he may be arrested as soon as this week. Thank you for the love. And for the victim blamers, I send love, peace, and enlightenment to you so that you may be a beacon of light for us, too. #StopRapeEducate #AmberAmour #AmberTheActivist #SouthAfrica #humanitarian #healing #education #africa #survivor #sexualassault #recovery #victimblaming #overcome #rapeculture #staystrong A photo posted by Amber Amour (@ambertheactivist) on Nov 22, 2015 at 11:12am PST

However, not everyone was supportive of her – not even the South African police:

Numerous accounts of victim blaming polluted the comment section of her posts and Amber received a massive amount of hate mail.

I got thousands of people blaming me and telling me I deserved it. It’s so messed up because if you have been through rape the last thing you want to hear is that it’s your fault. Some people ask why did you agree to take a shower with him. It’s just been vicious hate mail.

Here are some of the comments:

Amber is also a part of the neo-feminist club who are growing their armpit hair in an effort to show how strong they are in defying social norms:

[source: news24&news24]