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Activist recounts rape ordeal in the shower

January 13th, 2016 2 min read

By NAIROBI NEWS REPORTER

An activist’s story of how she was raped by an acquaintance when she accepted his invitation to join in for a shower has become a trending topic online.

Amber Amour an American citizen was in South Africa for “Stop Rape Educate” campaign when she visited her old hostel to leave a note to a friend.

As documented in a post that she put up on Instagram and Facebook just after the incident happened, Ms Amour said:

“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.”

Ms Amour went on to narrate how the friend forced her on her knees immediately she entered the shower, right before she could even undress.

INVITATION FOR RAPE

He raped her and even after she passed out and woke up few minutes later the friend went on to engage in non-consensual sex.

After the activist shared her ordeal on social media, critics commented how she had walked into the shower hence blaming her for what happened.

Ms Amour went on to post other messages in relation to the ordeal stating that “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.”

She further explained that she was sick after food poisoning and needed a hot shower hence the reason she accepted the invitation.

“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.”

South African police have since arrested the suspect and released him on bail pending the case hearing on March 29.