Sahar on Sexual Assault, Grooming, & Consent

Content Warning: Sexual assault and adult themes

Sahar courageously shares her assault story from when she was 16 years old. She had suppressed these memories for the past 8 years, but tells us how confronting them, sharing her story, and accepting is part of her healing process. We discuss the concept of grooming: the act of manipulation by an older person who holds power over a minor. Sahar highlights that our community can often trivialize experiences with assault by making women question whether or not they really are victims, and she gives our listeners guidance on how to identify and understand key signs.

Plus, we dive into “brown boy misogyny” and how certain expectations and attitudes can perpetuate harmful rhetoric and social habits. We talk openly about how this experience has impacted Sahar's self-esteem and her intimacy and trust in relationships. Lastly, Sahar outlines exactly what consent is.

This story is hard to hear, but extremely necessary, as we don’t often enough have open dialogue about this, and this is the only way we can all do better and be more empathetic and helpful toward victims.

Sahar's Twitter thread with her assault story: https://twitter.com/sxharw/status/1274434452492619781?s=10

Brown Boy Misogyny article referenced: https://chelseacommunitynews.com/2020/06/29/unpacking-brown-boy-misogyny/