This is a power rape, with the victims, so helpless to even ask for help, because of the language barrier, along with other things, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
Two years ago, when the Indonesian nurse’s aide, Nini came to Taiwan to work, six months after she’d started working, she was raped, by her male employer who was drunk. After she’d reported it, the agency asked her to resolve the matter privately, settle, and not go to court, and, her employer had even, made overseas phone calls to her family and friends in Indonesia, to threaten them to get her to, drop the charges. And, Nini, in the support of her family members, finished the arbitrary processes, and her employer was found guilty, and received a four-and-a-half year’s jail sentence passed down by the Highest Courts.
With the accompaniment of her older sister, Nini accepted the interview from the papers, she looked tense, and as she’d recalled those nights she’d been raped, she’d become wide awake, at night now. But, there were, a lot of those related to her, those she’d known, who’d had similar things happening to them, that they’d feared getting sent back home, that they’d chosen, to stay quieted, she’d wanted to, use her own personal experiences, to encourage more victims to, speak up and out for themselves.
Nini who is thirty-two years-old now said, that in 2014, she’d started working for a family in Shulin, Hsinbei City, normally, she’d slept in the same rooms as grandma, and her employer and his daughter would take the master bedroom. “My employer never smiled, is very serious.”, Nini pointed out, that before the incidents, her employer never behaved out of line, or verbally harassed her, or touched her inappropriately. But, he’d restricted Nini’s freedom to go out, that she’s only allowed to go for a walk, or shop at the market places with the members of his family, she wasn’t allowed outside on her own, not even to the super convenience shops. The employer had even, barred her from phoning her families and loved ones, and, in order to keep her job, she could only use her own cell phone when nobody else was in the house.
Nini said, that on the weekends or the holidays, her employer would often invite a ton of friends over to get drunk; that on the day of the incident, she was about to go to bed, and, the employer showed up at her bedroom doors, wreaked of alcohol, told her, “Go to check the master’s bedroom.” Nini thought he had something to tell her to do, after she’d entered into the master’s bedroom, her employer who’d followed her in stripped down to only a pair of boxers, and used a taunting, toying way to ask her, “are you ever lonely working in Taiwan? If you sleep with me, I’ll pay you $500N.T.s each time.”
She’d refused, turned around to run, but her employer grabbed her arms by force, in the pulling, the employer threatened, “If you don’t let me, then, I’ll kill you!”, to force her to comply, and, Nini couldn’t fight him off, he was too strong, and she was, raped by him. “I’d never imagined that this could, happen to me………” as she recalled, she’d still shivered and quivered, and cried.
Afterwards, as the employer fell asleep, she’d hid out in grandma’s room, and, because she felt ashamed, she started scrubbing her body hard, and, locked the doors from inside the room, fearing, that her employer may hurt her again. And the very next morning, very early, she’d taken grandma out for a walk, and, until after her employer left for work, did she come home and called out for help.
“I can’t stay for a minute longer in there,” Nini cried as she’d talked, later on, as her friends helped her report the rape, the police immediately took her to the hospital for a rape kit, then, placed her in a shelter. During the period of the trials pending, the employer, as well as the agency both consoled with her to drop the case, asked her to accept the $100,000N.T. in settlement; and the agency even promised, “I’ll find you a better job next!”, and the people who’d hired her had, made threatening phone call back to her Indonesian families, warned them, “Have her drop the claims, or else!”
Nini said, she’s very grateful toward her family and the shelter, the lawyers too, who’d stood by her side in support, and that at the end, the justice system in Taiwan had, fought for her, and sentenced her employer for rape.
And, you CAN imagine how scary it must’ve been, for this woman, she’s working here, in a place that she’s unfamiliar in, and, she was raped, and, threatened, and she had, nowhere she could turn to find the help she’d needed, imagine how helpless she must’ve felt, and, in the end, the employer was found guilty of rape, and sent to jail, and, she had won her court case, but, is it enough? I mean, how can a price be put on rape? It’s just, NOT something you can, pay a fine, like a traffic offense, and be done with it, and, no amount of money that the government or the man and his families can pay the woman, will be enough, to make her forget!