Being a victim of sexual abuse is a tragic occurrence, let alone having to endure it for a prolonged period. On this week’s episode of #WithChude, Fatima Ishiaku, author of ‘I called him dad’, speaks on enduring over nine years of sexual abuse from her stepfather with host and Co-founder of Joy, Inc. Chude Jideonwo.
Disclosing that the abuse started before she clocked five, she said, “He started using his finger on me first. I remember vividly when he said to me, ‘you are not a small girl, you are going to be five.”
Making matters worse, her mother never heard her out. According to Fatima, her mother mutilated her based on the instructions her stepfather gave. In her words, “she will cut my vagina and put pepper in it. She will break my head.”
Feeling she had no support, Fatima endured the abuse until she got tired of it. Speaking about this, she said, “I was tired. I went to report to an officer in the barracks, but I got scared. I didn’t tell him. I told him [the officer] that he [her stepfather] wasn’t feeding me.”
The officer she reported to saw beyond her story of her stepfather not feeding her. Recounting this, Fatima disclosed that the officer tried to probe to find out what was going on. When she did not respond to any of his questions, he said, “I know this man is defiling you, but since you don’t want to say it I know what to do.”
Click here to read the full story or watch the video at watch.withchude.com.
