Two Somali-Canadian feminists have developed an educational platform exclusively for racialised sexual harassment survivors, arguing there is a need for a structured road-map to bridge holes in the health services and legal processes that leave vulnerable people behind.
Habon Ali of Toronto and Asmaa Ali of Edmonton said available services are either sparse in nature or distributed across the internet, rendering it impossible for offenders to monitor the assistance they need. The women argue that the problems continue even in the direct wake of sexual assault and farther down the line as perpetrators seek professional assistance rather than legal help.
Spurred on by the patchwork of programs at home as well as the assassination of a Black Lives Matter protester overseas, the women assembled a 28-page paper detailing tools like support lines, legal aid and locations to get sexual harassment kits around the world.
“It was important for us to put together these resources because there’s a barrier in finding them and we did our best to remove them,” said Asmaa Ali, a registered nurse and recent graduate of the University of Alberta.
She said the tools on sexual abuse in Canada are largely targeted towards intersectional groups and sometimes left out of dialogue Aboriginal, Indigenous and other individuals from racialized cultures.
She and Habon Ali found services that involved these groups, and placed their emphasis on empowering disadvantaged people with intersectional experience.
The guide also seeks to offer educational support for students and refugees, communities mentioned by Habon Ali as especially likely to slip between the cracks in existing programs in Canada.
She said language differences sometimes make it impossible for ethnic minority communities to locate support they need and obtain it.
“Sexual violence is pervasive across all social and cultural boundaries globally and its important we acknowledge the systemic inequalities that result in racial health disparities,” she said.
Asmaa Ali said both women were motivated to take steps in Canada after reading about a young activist’s mysterious death in the US.
Oluwatoyin Salau was a 19-year-old lawyer who had gone missing in early June after complaining about a guy being sexually abused. She was declared dead days later, in Florida. Aaron Glee Jr. 49, is now charged in connection with her death with second-degree murder, rape and sexual harassment. All Canadian activists have claimed the death of Salau illustrates a stigma experienced by Black people as they speak out about their attackers.
The idea that others pay a high price for self-advocacy, compounded by an growing amount of viral stories describing specific abuse, is what motivated them to make therapy for sexual harassment more readily accessible at home.
“It’s sad to see the way survivors are treated when they speak up about their sexual violence,” Asmaa Ali said. “When BIPOC women online began to speak up about their experience it made it all the more real.”
This remains true even after an attack incident, at the University of Toronto, according to Siham Rayale.
The lecturer in women and gender studies said systemic racism exists throughout the health care system, citing questionable colored women’s assumptions that shape how medical professionals have historically responded to their concerns.
“We know there have been countless studies that show what medical professionals are taught about the tolerance that women of colour have for pain,” Rayale said, adding such attitudes give women in need of care short-shrift when they need help the most.
To those who do not know how to manage Canada’s complicated processes, she described the latest online tool guide as “necessary and lifesaving.”
