A woman was forced by her husband to sleep with other men for almost eight years while he videoed and photographed them.
This was shared by Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre counsellor supervisor Shobna Devi during an International Women’s Day discussion on the topic “Gender equality and the lived realities of women” in Suva last Friday.
She said the survivor was subjected to marital rape where her husband would force her to sleep with other men while he made videos of her.
“The survivor had enough of the abuse, she moved out of the violent situation and went to stay with her parents, but he continued abusing her,” Ms Devi said.
“His abuse didn’t stop so she took out a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO), but again he continued abusing.”
She said the survivor lodged a report to the police and the perpetrator was charged for breach of the DVRO after COVID-19 struck.
“So he was not able to go and abuse the survivor physically, but then what he did, he went onto social media – virtual abuse.
“He uploaded all the photos and videos that he had forced her to take, then created another fake account and put a normal photo – photos that was taken of her with her families.
“The photo looked very OK, but the caption that he had used was degrading, belittling and the survivor became suicidal so her family members were very concerned about her and they then reached out to FWCC.”
Ms Devi said the FWCC counsellors assisted the survivor. She said despite the survivor moving out, the abuse continued therefore an FWCC lawyer worked together with the counsellor, legal information was provided to the survivor and there was continuous follow up with the police, through which the perpetrator was being charged.
