My Rapist Enjoys Diplomatic Immunity

Nadia el-Hajj

…He started kissing me as soon as we sat on the stairs. I did not resist because I had romantic feelings for him. Then he got more and more aggressive — kissing me harder and biting me while trying to touch my breasts. I batted him off but he kept going, getting more aggressive in the process. His face looked dark, angry, and just so…determined. He tugged and tore at my shirt while I repeatedly asked him to stop. He just got angrier and more determined, saying that if we were to date he would have the right to tell me what to do with full control over me and my body. While I kept telling him to stop, I could not scream at that moment. Everything had some sort of slow, dead, surreal quality — as if it weren’t really happening.

Then he moved lower. I kept blocking his hands to no avail. “It is my right and you just have to deal with it,” he barked. He kept encouraging me to touch him back, saying that I had better get used to it. The assault went on until something lit up through my brain like an electric shock: “I don’t have to take this.”…

Nadia el-Hajj campaigns against the perpetuation of abuse and injustice against women. She is also an environmental activist concerned with ways to reduce human consumption of natural resources and energy.

The complete article is found in the February 2010 issue of Kazamaza.