The Rising

Since the 2010 Earthquake Haiti has suffered from an epdiemic of sexual violence - But survivors are finally making themselves seen.

- Shobian Morrin

MARIE—not her real name—was a student looking for a job in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. “I met this guy on the street,” Marie says. “We started to chat. He said that one of his friends was looking for someone like me. He said that he needed to go to his place. When we got there, he pulled out his gun. This is when it happened.”

Marie’s experience is all too common in Haiti. During the military’s rule from 1991 to 1994, it used rape as a weapon to intimidate and punish women, and after a coup in 2004, thousands of women and children were sexually assaulted, including more than a hundred victims who alleged assault by U.N. peacekeepers, according to recent investigations. Women’s organizations have pushed for reforms to the penal code to improve legislation protecting women, though government inaction and political instability have stalled the attempts. Rape became a serious crime only in 2005, after a group of women pushed for a change in the law. (Previously, a rapist could pay off or marry his victim.)