Claiming that Jamaicans should deflect attention from their own trauma, Tanya Stephens again denounced what she saw as Jamaica’s “rape culture” and the accompanying “code of silence”, especially when it s it is the rape of little girls, echoing the sentiments of many states. and civilian agencies, that sexual abuse is rampant in the country.

A 2016 paper on adolescent sexual and reproductive health issues in Jamaica, presented data that found that “nearly half of all sexually active women in Jamaica aged 15 to 24 have been coerced into their first year. sexual intercourse ”.

More recent statistics have shown that most cases of rape involving children have seen a sharp increase in the number of children between the ages of 2 to 10 and 10 years of age who are sexually assaulted.

Excerpts from data presented by the Jamaican Family Planning Association and Jamaica AIDS Support for Life and Vulnerable Caribbean Communities also noted that “in 2015, 33 percent of people aged 15 to 24 in Jamaica reported having had sex. before 15 years ”even if the age of consent is 16 years.

The report noted that boys were also severely affected, with 16% of teens between the ages of 10 and 15 saying they had not consented to their first sexual encounter.

The results were also presented in a Gleaner article titled FORCE WALL! – Dozens of Jamaican children are pushed into their first sex, and who quoted civil society lawyer Carol Narcisse as saying that “too many adults are coping with children in Jamaica”.

Shortly before nightfall on Friday evening, Stephens took to Instagram Live to stress that Jamaica needs a “reality check.”

In setting out its position on Jamaica’s “rape culture”, the Rebelution The singer said, among other things, that the dialogue, storytelling and environment need to be fixed.

“Help the environment and I take it, change your words,” she said, addressing Jamaicans who sent her supposed words of support.

The St. Mary native said the assault inflicted on her by a prominent reggae artist 30 years ago was just a microcosm of what she described as a cesspool of predatory behaviors having place across the country, which everyone should focus on. .

“It doesn’t affect the resolution of the problem because the problem is bigger than a single man. We have the culture; we don’t have a predator; we have a predatory culture,” Stephens said.

“So what we need is change, these are conversations; we have to change the narrative, so that it becomes less relevant. When it becomes less accommodating – when a predator feels like him has consequences, when he feels like no one is used to putting up with it, it will stop, ”she added.

She also had a few terse words for people who told her that they would support her in her quest to prevent child sexual abuse, but that their support would be conditional.

“And oonu naw guh like mi, caw mi naw fart and pampering oonu.

Damn un.

“Because he is a gwaan roun oonu an oonu knows and gets along with it. And that’s why it keeps happening, ”she said.

“Because instead, try to solve the problem, try to solve the dialogue. Oonu tried to correct my vocabulary. Oonu, try to mend my emotions. And oonu said mi seh for me to be taken seriously, for oonu to join me and come and fix it, I first need to dress how I approach oonu? Guh sucks oonu mom and bloodclaat guh weh. Oonu nuh help mi den. Si mi fi form mi own army inna dis, nm iwi dweet. But nuh come unda di disguise her you want to help me but I haffi first to conform to you. Are you a who? she said, hissing her teeth.

Claiming that many Jamaicans live in a “narrow little bubble of ignorance,” she reiterated her warning that there is a lot to do in Jamaica, as no child is safe from predators.

“Mi seh fix oonu place. Caw you ova yah suh feel like seh yuh safe; you feel like your safe daughter. Your nuh safe enuh bredda daughter, ”she said.

“Dem predator yah dem nuh respect enuh geography. dem nuh respects the economy either. Dem violates anything. And where we create opportunistic rapists with our rhetoric… ”she said, adding that much of the abuse is embedded in some boys by insignificant mothers who tell their sons that they“ can rape girls. As they wish “.

By showing how deeply embedded the culture of rape was in the nation’s psyche, the That’s a shame The singer pointed out that messages are sent subliminally and even overtly in music as evidence, which, as she pointed out, continues to be deemed acceptable as that is the way many Jamaicans think.

“One night mi deh at Asylum (nightclub) enuh and di DJ put on Beenie chune Battery trolley – I love Beenie to death enuh and he knows it, ”Tanya said.

“But yuh if when they slip on Battery trolley – ‘six men came back hard last week on Saturday, caw shi a battery cart’. Why did they come back hard? Because she’s a battery cart? Not because he’s a rapist? Look at the oonu language. Watch your language! She warned.

On Monday morning, a day after sharing a plethora of screenshots of rape victims who had texted him, Stephens reiterated his call for people not to try to help him, but to channel their energies to help them. poor Jamaican girls who are assaulted, and corrective behavior for local men.

“This is one of the 2 objectives. Equally important… healing and ending rape culture. Don’t try to fix me. Correct the culture of rape, ”she noted.

She stressed again that she refrained from calling her attacker’s name because she was thinking of her family members, who had treated her only with kindness.

“Every time I thought of my rapist’s head, I thought of his mother in pain. His sister who had ONLY been nice to me. Years have compartmentalized me. Sporadic therapy grabbed me when I was able to find time outside Jamaica because I don’t trust anyone here. Fix oonu bumboclaat man dem, ”she said.

In June of this year, the Gleaner published an article titled Jamaica Forced to Face Real Problem, which noted that “the very real problem of a culture of silence and near acceptance” has seen the increase continuing sex crimes against Jamaican children.

“The number of child victims of sexual abuse eclipses our murder rate and the number of girls impregnated by rape and carnal abuse threatens to do the same compared to our statistics on road deaths,” notes the article.

Days earlier, the Gleaner had also noted in another report that there were “hundreds of minors steeped in rape, carnal abuse since 2020”, with what he described as “249 stunning girls” being steeped in rape, carnal abuse and other sexual crimes. between January 2020 and March of this year.

During the period, 3,265 children were sexually assaulted during the period, and hundreds are said to have contracted sexually transmitted infections in the process.

The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) had estimated that the numbers could be larger, as a 26% drop in reported cases from 2019 could be the result of COVID-19 preventing children to have access to their teachers, who were a common point of referral, according to The Gleaner.

“Much of the sexual abuse we encounter clinically has to do with filial abuse – siblings, close relatives; and domestic violence, that is, fathers and stepfathers and girls or boys; or the mothers and wives of the family and the boys, ”Dr. Karen Carpenter, director of the sexology clinic and head of the Institute for Gender Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, told the newspaper ( UWI).