What does resisting mean to you?
Resisting is to disagree with an ideology that’s not mine. So, resisting is accepting to take responsibility, and refusing to be influenced by others. That means that to resist, it is imperative to be clear about what you want and understand the needs of others. That’s when you’ll properly resist. It’s about respecting your ideologies and commitments and staying focused on your goals.
Could you tell me what your first act of resistance was?
The first time was with the club. It was the first time I had to handle a case of early marriage. We had just founded the club, and a friend of mine came to tell me about a forced marriage. Hadja Idrissa Bah, the club’s president was on a trip, and I had no experience in handling cases like that. We were doing our best, but I didn’t have anyone supporting me. No one would listen to me. People advised me to give up. We called the girl’s parents, but instead of helping, they threw her out on the same day. So, I told the girl to come and live at my parents’ house without their consent. While she approved, my mother didn’t think it was a good idea to have her in our house without the consent of the girl’s parents or the police.
My resistance began at this point. My mother, on her way out, told me that she didn’t want to find this girl at home without a consent document when she came back at night. But the girl stayed with us for three days. I told my mother that I couldn’t put her out. So, I resisted, and that’s how it started. The girl, seeing that there was no other way out, agreed to get involved in the process, and together, in less than two days, we were finally able to talk to her parents who canceled the marriage.
When you think about your dedication and your resistance, what kind of resources can make your work easier or more efficient?
I need funding. Recently, I spent two weeks in the regions and sub-regions inland and I realised that they did not have any funds to take care of victims of violence. Furthermore, the existing OPROGEs, i.e., the Offices for the Protection of Gender and Childhood, do not have operating funds, or the necessary equipment to help those in need. Moreover, the country only has one shelter. We are vulnerable because, for most of the cases we handle, we provide shelter for these girls in our homes. I can’t give you the exact number of girls that we have had to accommodate in our homes. There is a need for shelters for girls who need reintegration and guidance. That’s what I focus on currently: how do we gain funding to open new shelters?
What is also discouraging is that OPROGE staff cannot handle cases of little girls who have been raped because there is no operating budget, and salaries are minimal. So, when the girls come, they are sent back home. Can you imagine? You do all this work in the field to get people to report their assaults, and when they do, you can’t meet their needs. It’s disheartening even for those that we sensitised to report these cases. Eventually, they might not do it and the violence will go on. In the end, the fight will have zero impact. Because we cannot handle the complaints. Currently, 20 to 30% of cases are reported. Imagine if this 20 to 30 % refuse to report because of the lack of care for the girls. We must fix the funding issue to fix the numerous issues of effective care.
When you look to the future, how do you imagine the world that you are trying to build for girls? What does it look like?
A big world, a big family. I often say that the club is a big family, and that all the girls who meet there are at home. The goal is to create a big family to gather all the young girls in Guinea and beyond so that we speak in unison, give the same information everywhere we go, say the same things everywhere we show up and fight together. So that we can say one day, that we have been able to change something in the world. It is to be granted our rights, to be listened to, and to be able to impose what we want in life.
It’s about setting up a safe, protective environment where women will be free to do what they want, and where they won’t be judged. A place where no one will say “You are beautiful” just because you are a woman; where they won’t hear “we put you in this position” because you are a woman; where they won’t be told, “because you’re a woman, I forgive you”, “because you’re a woman, I abandon you”. A place where nobody will say “because you did something wrong, I punish you”, or “because you made a mistake, I’ll fire you”, or “No, because you’re a mother you can’t take on this job”. All over the world, girls are born with an inferior status that’s given to us by society. Directly or not, it’s a feeling we always carry.
My vision, my dream, is to see all over the world, women presidents, ministers, entrepreneurs…who will be able to say that they succeeded thanks to the club. Because they met great girls who made them who they are.
