Hollywood superstar and UN special envoy, Angelina
Jolie, has continued her fight against the s*xual exploitation of women
all over the world, especially in conflict zones where young girls are
sold off for as little as $40 each and defiled.
The actress appeared alongside former Foreign
Secretary, William Hague, before the House of Lords Committee to speak
about their campaign against s*xual violence in conflict.
“For over 10 years I had been visiting the field
and meeting with families and survivors of s*xual violence who felt for
so long that their voices simply didn’t matter – they weren’t heard and
they carried a great shame. I remember distinctly meeting this little
girl, who was very young – probably about 7 or 8 – and she was rocking
backwards and forwards and staring at the wall and tears streaming down
her face because she had been brutally defiled multiple times.” She said.
According to The Independent, Jolie described how she had felt“absolutely helpless” after meeting one young girl who refused to speak to anyone after being “brutally defiled multiple times”.
She said what was even worse than the physical
violence was the feeling of worthlessness they felt when men bartered
over their monetary value when selling them off as s*x slaves.
“More recently I met a 13-year-old girl in Iraq
who had been kept in a room with many other girls. They were taken out
in twos, brought to this very dirty room with this dirty couch and
defiled repeatedly. They told me what was even worse than this physical
violence was they had to stand in rooms and watch their friends be sold.
To hear men arguing over what they were worth. Were they worth $40,
$50? What was the price, their value? And how humiliating that was.”
Updating the committee on progress since then, Jolie said:
“The most important thing is to understand what
it’s not: it’s not s*xual, it’s a violent, brutal, terrorizing weapon,
and it is used unfortunately everywhere. The most aggressive terrorist
group in the world today knows what we know; knows that it is a very
effective weapon and [is] using it as a center point of their terror and
their way of destroying communities and families and attacking,
destroying and dehumanizing.” She added: “I know what would happen to my
family if I were defiled or my daughters were defiled. All of you
sitting in this room. What would that do to their lives, to your family
structure? You would want to know it was wrong and that the world
thought it was wrong and the person who did this to you didn’t just walk
away.”
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