Migration Media Award: Second Place, Print Category, English
Author: Rossalyn Warren
Media: ELLE, UK
Date of Publication: 6 July,2107
Title: ‘My Captor Asked if I Was Still a Virgin. I Said Yes, and Then He Tried to Rape Me’
Short summary: This is the story of Sanae, an 18-year-old Moroccan migrant. She lived with her mother in Morocco, but after her mother fell ill, she left school to earn money to support them, and took a cleaning job in Libya. But it turned out the ‘job’ was slave labour. Sanae was kept as a slave for months, alongside six other women, also kept for slave labour. She risked her life to escape, jumping out of the window – and desperate to get far away from her captor, Sanae fled onto a rubber boat towards Europe. Her story shows an underreported dimension to the migration route from Libya to Italy: while many people are taking the journey to flee conflict, or to find work, women like Sanae are also fleeing from violence against women.
Link to original publication
‘My Captor Asked If I Was Still A Virgin. I Said Yes, And Then He Tried To Rape Me’
Sanae El-Houari wasn’t sure how she’d got here. Aged just 18 years-old, she wished she could be like other normal people her age – spending time with her friends, worrying over her school exams, wondering what it was she wanted to do with her life.
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