Directory of Domestic and Gender Violence Programs Serving Asians and Pacific Islanders: https://s3.amazonaws.com/gbv-wp-uploads/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11203020/Directory-ProgramsServingAPISurvivors-Jan2020.pdf

• South Asian Mental Health Initiative & Network: https://samhin.org/

• South Asian Therapists.org : https://southasiantherapists.org/

• Sakhi for South Asian Women - https://www.sakhi.org/

• Another Tamil Queen Blog: https://anothertamilqueen.wordpress.com/blogs/rape-culture-and-tamil-culture-part-1-an-introduction/

• LEAN – Listen-Empathize-Acknowledge-Narrate – Private FB Group for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

• Transparent Malankara – Accountability for Clergy Abuse: https://www.instagram.com/transparentmalankara/?hl=en

• Diane Langberg PhD - Psychologist for trauma survivors & clergy: https://twitter.com/dianelangberg/status/1333454799359053830?s=21

• Book: The Body Keeps the Score” By Bessel van der Kolk

• RAINN – Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network https://www.rainn.org/

SAMHIN

South Asian Mental Health Initiative & Network | SAMHIN

South Asian Mental Health Initiative & Network, SAMHIN , is a non-profit that addresses the mental health needs of the South Asian community in the U.S.

Est. reading time

7 minutes

South Asian Therapists

South Asian Therapist | Mental Health Therapy and Counselling

South Asian Therapist is a mental health therapy and counselling directory network. Find an Asian therapist near you.

AnotherTamilQueen | anothertamilqueen

Part 1: An Introduction

I have been following Australian Tamil blogger and creator of #TheDarkSkinnedGoddessProject and the#TimeToTalkTaboo , who goes by the Nom de Plume, “TheLifeofaSocialButterfly,” on Instagram (IG). Some of this Queen’s posts this year have revolved around sharing various people’s stories about their experiences of abuse, particularly sexual abuse.
Call it the aligning of the planets or the stars but, days after I began reading these posts on IG, I began training to volunteer with a rape crisis centre. The training is based on a framework of feminist philosophies and it is offered through various feminist perspectives.
While there are multiple degrees and types of feminisms in existence, one belief that unifies the diversity of feminist perspectives within the training that I am undergoing is that, most, if not all, societies around the globe still practice rape culture.
Thus far this year, the belief that rape culture is not just alive and well but thriving, has been consistently and constantly reaffirmed in my life through narrative-based evidence. Examples of this evidence include, but are certainly not limited to, the testimonies of the women who survived years of sexual abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar, and, through the personal stories that TheLifeofaSocialButterfly has compiled and shared with her followers.
Bearing witness to these stories and to the evidence before me has left me feeling devastated for the people who have had to suffer this abuse. As a Tamil woman, these stories have also led me to question particularly how Tamils throughout the diaspora respond to reports of sexual violence within our respective communities.
In my experience many of us, particularly those from older or earlier generations, seem to respond with a greater desire to hide the truths of sexual abuse and sexual violence instead of believing survivors, instead of standing in solidarity with survivors, and, instead of feeling confident about being believed if we are survivors. When I ask myself why this seems to have been the case, the response that echoes in my mind is: Because ours has been a culture of rape for far too long.
Hearing this truth whispered in the foggy corridors of my mind, hurts. It hurts my heart, it hurts my soul and it feels like multiple blows falling on my concaving body because I love my culture and my people fiercely. Consequently, I can’t help but ask myself how we have silently sustained the marriage between rape culture and Tamil culture instead of being more vocal about why the cultures are in dire need of a divorce with no chance of reconciliation. In asking myself this question, I am also asking myself what my role has been in sustaining or perpetuating rape culture within the Tamil culture that defines the diasporas to which I belong.
In part 2 of this 5 part series, I will address how rape culture is defined and the ways in which I believe it is tied to Tamil culture. In the meanwhile, I encourage you to reflect on the following question:

What is your understanding of rape culture and what has been your experience with the way that rape, rape culture and believing survivors, have been approached or denied by your respective community or communities?
நட்புடன் (in friendship),
யாரோ ஓர் அரசி (AnotherTamilQueen)
Click here for Part 2: What is Rape Culture?