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.
A photo posted by Amber Amour (@ambertheactivist) on
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.
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: