PORT-AU-PRINCE — Manoucheka Faustin was eight years old when a good friend of the family came to spend a night at her house. Manoucheka’s parents allowed the visitor to share a room with the children, and he tried to rape the girl.
“I started screaming when the man tried to undress me to rape me,” Faustin, now 26, recalls. “He quickly put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming and decided to leave me alone.”
When Manoucheka told her mother, she thought the child was lying and whipped her.
That was the first time someone tried to rape Faustin. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last, not the only pain she experienced from then through young adulthood.
“I grew up with a huge inferiority complex and a lack of self-confidence,” Faustin said. “I suffered from a lot of body shaming, physical bias in my circles, especially in my school, because I am a tiny woman and my lips are dark.”
Faustin is the founder of Moteur Activant la Femme, called MA Woman for short with the English ‘woman’ purposefully used to draw attention to its focus. The advocacy group supports women and girls, helping them regain confidence and combat low self-esteem. She hopes that by sharing her journey, others will gain more determination and strength to heal from the trauma of sexual assaults and Haiti’s systemic failures in recognizing and addressing the bullying so many of Haiti’s women and girls confront daily.
On March 8, in front of a crowd gathered to celebrate International Women’s Day, Faustin shared her story. Dressed in a black suit and sitting behind a microphone at a hotel venue, she spoke about her childhood and adolescence, alternately drawing groans, chuckles and sighs during her tale.
“People used to call me bony legs, broomstick, big forehead,” Faustin recalls, citing a litany of name calling. “What hurt me the most was when they told me my mouth was as dark as a dog’s that steals eggs.”
The insult is a hyperbolic reference to dogs, some with black snouts, that raid chicken coops.
Body shamed by bullies
The second born in a family of six children, Faustin spent her childhood in Jacmel. Relentless teasing made Fausin hate her physical appearance. She became afraid to speak in public, feeling like people only talked about her looks when they saw her.
At one point, Faustin refused to go to school to escape bullying, her big sister Roseberlande Faustin said. Sometimes, she tried to arrive late or hid after her father dropped her off at the school entrance.
“The family was very worried when she refused food,” Roseberlande said. “[She] decided to let herself go and not be interested in anything anymore.”
After completing high school, Faustin moved to Port-au-Prince to major in diplomacy at university, thinking the knocks against her physical appearance were over. But they followed her too.
“All these verbal attacks traumatized me a lot,” she says. “I lived alone in Port-au-Prince, far from my family who stayed in Jacmel, which made me more depressed. I hid often to cry.”
Faustin said she chose the diplomacy field initially to help her build the confident persona needed for debates and to be able to represent Haiti abroad. But alas, the situation did not improve for the student. Feeling ashamed for being thin, Faustin began taking injections in her buttocks to make them bigger, leaving her unable to sit down for two years.
“I took injections and swallowed tablets to try to gain weight in 2019,” the young woman said. “It made me sick.”
A too-common, ignored tragedy
Meanwhile, Faustin said she still had to contend with not being safe physically. At 16, a young man jumped her as she walked home from school one day. As he struggled to lower his underwear, a passerby’s quick intervention allowed Faustin to flee.
That instance of sexual violence in Haiti is a common story. In a society where being raped is considered a shame for the woman, victims may be abandoned by loved ones or see their marriage prospects reduced. Until 2005, rape was not legally considered a serious crime and a rapist could avoid jail by marrying his victim.
Even now, Haiti offers little support to girls facing stigma and victims of sexual violence. Amnesty International has reported that in many rural areas, only the justice of the peace might have some say in such matters. However, according to advocates against sexual violence and media reports, justices often encourage the victims to accept financial compensation from their attacker or to marry the perpetrator to preserve the girl’s honor.
Faustin is only one of many the Haiti justice system has failed. A November 2022 United Nations human rights report said at least 30% of Haitian women aged 15 to 30 have been victims of sexual abuse or violence. Amid an explosion of gang violence in Port-au-Prince, children as young as 10 and elderly women have been subjected to sexual violence. The report said armed bandits have assaulted some repeatedly in front of their parents or children.
Faustin’s choice to educate others on how to claim their lives back and strive to build self-confidence is much more remarkable in this climate, some say.
“[Faustin] has a lot of courage,” says Liliane Oscar, public relations manager for MA Woman. “When I heard her story, I said to myself, ‘Here is the model for women who decide to move forward with their lives despite being shamed by others.’”
Making peace with herself
In 2021, tired of fleeing, Faustin began her work in domestic violence services and advocacy. That gave her the self-confidence to create MA Woman to assist women and girls who have been bullied, attacked sexually or subject to other physical harm.
The association brings together young women who are also concerned about the fate of other women who are victims of discrimination or are lost after a traumatic event. Alongside Faustin, a staff of six women work to promote gender equality and to empower girls and women. On a daily basis, they welcome women who are seeking an attentive pair of ears to hear their stories.
MA Woman aims to help girls and women accept themselves and their bodies as well as to educate parents not to use derogatory remarks against their children. Also planned are small projects, training workshops focused on the priorities of young girls and women, conferences and training sessions on leadership, self-esteem and self-confidence.
Faustin said she has changed the way she dresses and participates in certain social activities as a way to open up. Today, she is feeling fulfilled in her spirit, thanks in part to her family.
“Once you love yourself, accept yourself and trust yourself, others will start loving you back,” she said. “I kept reading and watching videos on how to be confident and love yourself.”
