There Are More Than 11 Thousand Cases Of Sexual Violence In Indonesia Throughout 2022: Trauma Victims Are Not Easy To Heal

Resistance to cases of sexual violence against women. (Between/Hafidz Mubarak A/foc)

JAKARTA Cases of sexual violence against women are still a serious threat this year. Komnas Perempuan said that she had received 1,759 case reports during the January-November 2022 period. A total of 860 cases occurred in the public sphere and 899 cases occurred in the personal sphere.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA)'s real time data reports a larger number, reaching 11,355 cases from January to December 30, 2022.

The majority of victims were severely traumatized, some even attempted suicide. Look at the story of N (15), a junior high school student in Sumbawa Regency, West Nusa Tenggara. Her life was destroyed after being raped by her biological father, (BK). This incident occurred on May 24 at the BK residence in Tarano District.

One day earlier, BK asked N to help him harvest corn. N, who at that time lived with his mother after his parents divorced, came with his younger brother around 16.00 WITA.

BK then asked the two to stay overnight. N obeyed his father's wishes without fear. When he fell asleep, at around 03.00 in the morning, BK woke N and forced him to have sex.

Even though he had fought back, N was finally helpless and could only cry. BK smothered his mouth and raped him.

At around 06.00 am, N took his younger brother home soon. According to the Head of the Women and Children Protection Unit of the Sumbawa Police, Aipda Arifin Setioko, arriving at the Gapit Village Bridge, Empang District, N pulled over his motorbike, then got down to the edge of the bridge.

He was about to jump, then the younger brother ran away to prevent it. The act was not done. Arriving at the house, N immediately hugged his mother and told her what had happened.

KAF (7) also experienced trauma due to sexual violence. The mother (PL) never thought that the depraved act was carried out by her sister, who is none other than still the victim's uncle.

The incident came to light on December 11 last. The PL, who had just returned home after buying food, suspected that he saw the CAF crying after bathing. PL was getting more and more worried when he saw bloodstains on his daughter's towels and mattresses.

PL then took him to a midwife located near his house in Sukadami Village, Cikarang, Bekasi Regency.

From the midwife's statement, the CAF was in dissurated. But I'm not sure. The next day, while I asked slowly, De never had you with someone holding it, first the child didn't want to talk. I persuaded you, I told you to talk, you don't have to be afraid, "said the PL to the media crew.

Finally revealed. KAF turned out to have been molested by his uncle.

Not only physical, sexual violence can also cause psychological suffering and can destroy the integrity of the victim's life. According to Yulia Kristyanti, victims of sexual violence will usually experience some symptoms of trauma, including post-traumatic symptoms such as nightmare, gloomy, anxious, and even depression.

Meanwhile, children cause dissociative identity disorders, or multiple personalities. They will feel separate from themselves physically or mentally and think of themselves as foreigners. At a more severe level, sometimes they often feel dizzy when they hear a lot of sounds.

Overcoming it, it must be accompanied through good parenting and more integrated. There are several treatments that can be done. One of them is with the tree-phase treatment model," Yulia said in the book "Crisis Counseling: Alternative Solutions to Handling Victims of Discrimination, Violence, and Sexual Harassment in Children and Youth".

The model consists of 3 stages:

This stage is an attempt to create a safe atmosphere so that victims of traumaized sexual violence (conselition) avoid self-injury behavior. Kopisa will develop relationships and treat the constituency as a unique person. Entering their world so that they can be closer and make them comfortable.

Those who provide counseling should not treat convexity, in this case children such as adults or ask them to act as adults. Coordinating needs to understand the development of their language and cognitiveness.

If the child has not been able to express his feelings, play therapy can be used to understand trauma and provide media for expression.

Children can also be invited to play roles. This is where children will be helped to understand their traumatic events and can get a way of adapting," said Yulia.

This stage is called core activity. Cocycle plays an important role in helping children overcome their traumas by: observing behavioral changes, listening to stories, talking about their traumatic experiences in the right atmosphere, supporting children to think the best strategies to foster enthusiasm, and inviting children to pay more attention to themselves.

In the stage of processing the memory of sexual violence, counselors must be able to encourage conseli to share details of the memory of sexual violence from beginning to end. So that a clear narrative is created. This step can also make a more consistent understanding of what happened to him and try to forgive or forgive him.

After that, the counselors process what happens and decide whether the activity can be continued to the next stage or not.

"Kokobih membantu konseli memproses emosi yang intensif terkait dengan kekerasan seksual yang dialami. Kesirasan juga berasal dari dampak menghadapi peristiwa trauma itu di masa lalu dan sekarang," tutur Yulia.

Emotions that can arise from victims of sexual violence can vary. Among other things, experiencing denial, anger, and depression. There can also be shame, hatred for yourself, and tends to blame themselves for the events they experience. In some cases, fear of being abandoned sometimes arises, excessive anxiety, fear, and terror.

Kobihnya harus lebih meyakinkan konseli untuk menunjukkan hal-hal positif guna mengevaluasi apa yang terjadi. Sehingga, secara psikologis konseli akan mengalami proses untuk mengakhiri kebencian dan penghargaan diri dan mencari kerahan Tuhan atas apa yang telah menimpanya.

"Forgiving is the result of the healing process for victims who are looking for spiritual and psychological needs," said Yulia.

However, how long the trauma healing process is uncertain. Most likely it will be longer when the culprit is the closest people.

The recovery is not easy. It is difficult to really know when trauma due to sexual harassment can be fully cured. Victims who recover from trauma do not mean forgetting what happened," said a psychologist from the University of Indonesia, Kasandra Putranto, to VOI some time ago.