The Man Who Raped Me
By Abdulkadir Rafiat Dear Individual, It’s been over eleven years since you raped me, yet it often feels as if no time has passed at all. The memory of the weight of your body pinning mine down, the scent of your sickening sweet cologne, the rough sensation of your unshaven face rubbing my cheeks and neck raw as you slammed your hips into me…these are things I cannot forget. You see, when you raped me, you didn’t just violate me, you stole something I was not yet ready to give freely. You didn’t just take away my innocence, you forced your depravity on me, then accused me of being a poor lover because I was not “into it”. You laughed in my face when I told you to stop while pushing you away, and insisted that you knew I wanted you because I had “flirted” with you just hours before (newsflash: not every woman that looks your way is flirting with you, and if she were in fact flirting, that does not equal an open door to the most intimate part of her body). At the time, I was tr...