Horizons magazine is published by Presbyterian Women (PW) the national women’s organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Issue link: http://horizons.epubxp.com/i/623149
14 O God, hear my prayer, and do not hide from my plea. Attend to me and answer me. 1 A young Mayan girl has watched her father get into her older sister's bed every night for years. Because she's growing older, she knows her father will soon climb into her bed, as well. She turns to CEDEPCA, the Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America, for help. They strategize for her safety, staying mindful of the young girl's context and thinking creatively about the resources available to her. On the night her father comes to his young daughter's bed, he lifts the sheets to discover his daughter wrapped in a bag, tied with rope. The father is overcome with shame and leaves the family. He never touches his young daughter. My heart is in anguish within me, he terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, And horror overwhelms me. Alicia is 17 years old. When she speaks of her dreams for her community in Guatemala, her eyes shine with a deep inner confidence. She started attending workshops at CEDEPCA four years ago with her mother. As she accompanied her mother, she slowly began absorbing the lessons her mother was learning: La violencia contra la mujer es contra la imagen de Dios—Violence against women is violence against the image of God. Many of Alicia's childhood friends are now pregnant or on the verge of marriage. At CEDEPCA, she's listened to countless stories of women trapped in the cycle of violence, raped and murdered at the hands of husbands, fathers, stepfathers and uncles. Alicia recognizes the path her friends are on and wants so much more for them, yet feels intensely stigmatized when she tries to tell them so. "Somebody who protects themselves is somebody who loves themselves," Alicia says. "I want my friends to love themselves." "People make fun of me," she explains. "My male class- mates try to throw away what I accomplish. They try to change my reality. But if somebody doesn't struggle, then nothing is accomplished." Next year, Alicia plans on attending the university to become a civil engineer, own her own business, and invest in her community. She says CEDEPCA gave her the audacity to dream of a better future for herself and for her community. So I said, "Had I the wings of a dove, I wanted to fly away and have rest. See, I wanted to flee far off, and settle in the wilderness, so hurry to my refuge, away from the blast of the wind, from the storm." In October 2015, I was part of a 10-woman travel study seminar in Guatemala, coordinated by Presbyterian World Mission, to listen to the stories of women who have survived sexual violence. Depending on the country, between 15 and 76 percent of women are targeted for sex- ual or other physical violence. 2 In Guatemala, nearly 45 percent of women have suffered some instance of violence in their lifetime. 3 In many ways, the country's history has been shaped by sexual violence. When the Spanish invaded Guatemala and conquered the indigenous Mayan population, the religious discourse they imposed claimed that women needed to have as many children as possible to produce more field workers. This legitimized rape and shaped how women understood their worth, as dictated from an oppressive God. Fast-forward a few hundred years to the twentieth cen- tury, when more than 200,000 people (primarily indige- nous Mayans) were murdered in a 36-year internal armed conflict. 4 Six hundred communities vanished. Violence against women was used not only as a weapon of war to suppress anyone who resisted the genocide, but also as a method of wiping out the Mayan population. Rather than attack the guerillas, the military dictatorship's strategy was A Faithful Response to Violence Against Women Guatemala's Women Empowered by Faith BY EMILY WILKES