MANILA, Philippines -- According to the former Philippine Deaf Resource Center (PDRC), one out of every three Deaf women in the Philippines is sexually harassed or raped. Half of the cases happen in the victim’s own home, with neighbors and even family members being the most common perpetrators. Despite the general decrease in rape cases throughout the country, rape remains the most widespread crime against Deaf women.
Imagine living in a home that is also, strangely, a foreign country, where you can neither fully understand what is going on, let alone be understood. Now imagine your life was like that 24 hours a day every single day. This is the plight of women like Anica and Diane, two Deaf women in their 20s, who like many other Deaf women have been sexually abused.
Anica, born Deaf, is a petite woman with a bubbly disposition. But behind the sunny demeanor lies a deep scar. During her teenage years, she was sexually molested by an uncle. The case remains unreported because she is too afraid to file a report.
Living in the same compound as her uncle, she harbors a terrible fear not only of family retaliation but also of being misunderstood by the police, given a lack of trustworthy interpreters. She has little motivation to push through with her case.
Many abused Deaf women share Anica’s plight. Desperate, they feel there is nowhere to turn for help. Most are hesitant to confide in family members because of long-standing communication barriers.
Diane, both taciturn and mercurial, is another survivor. Linguistically isolated since early childhood, she can only communicate through gestures and drawings. Her chronicle is heart wrenching: she was trafficked from her rural hometown to a large city, where she was forced to work in the sex trade, from which after several harrowing experiences she finally escaped.
Then she went through what the system had to offer: Diane was shuffled from one government agency to another; lived in a shelter for women and children; was put into foster care for one and half years before her family was found and she was eventually returned home.
Tragically, these are not anomalies. Indeed, the numbers in this context are genuinely disturbing: according to the former Philippine Deaf Resource Center (PDRC), one out of every three Deaf women in the Philippines is sexually harassed or raped. Half of the cases happen in the victim’s own home, with neighbors and even family members being the most common perpetrators. Despite the general decrease in rape cases throughout the country, rape remains the most widespread crime against Deaf women.
To press charges against her traffickers, Diane would have needed an accredited interpreter to give her testimony (otherwise, the authorities might deem it hearsay), but she was not provided with one. Indeed, throughout her entire stay at the shelter, she had no access to any interpreters at all.
Diane also appears to be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but has never been diagnosed or treated because her deafness makes communication a constant challenge.
In a 2012 report by the PDRC, it was noted that a lack of awareness and sensitivity in dealing with disabled persons continuously bogs down our legal and judicial systems. For example, the inappropriateness of assigning male interpreters for female victims of rape and sexual violence may cause further trauma...
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