Fatou Jallow (Beauty Queen)

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Fatou "Toufah" Jallow ( Fatou A. Jallow , born April 19, 1996 in Soma ) is a Gambian beauty queen. She became known for her allegations that the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh raped her in 2014.

Life

Jallow belongs to the Fulbe ethnic group . Her parents are Alpha Jallow and Awa Saho. She attended Nusrat Senior Secondary School through 12th grade.

In July 2014, she won a Miss July 22nd Beauty and Scholarship Pageant , where Yahya Jammeh had come to power twenty years earlier. This also gave her an educational grant. At the time she was 18 years old.

In September 2014 she started to study teaching at Gambia College in Brikama.

According to a June 2015 media report by Kibaroo News , she had been missing for several weeks at the time, having previously been under house arrest for two months. In the period after the competition, Jammeh repeatedly sexually harassed her and tried to make her compliant with gifts. According to the report, she had been brought to Jammeh several times against her will and he had publicly announced several times that he wanted to marry Jallow, which she refused.

As Jallow explained in 2019, she fled across the border to Dakar (Senegal) on July 22 or 23, 2015 , where she turned to human rights organizations. She received asylum in Canada on August 6, 2015 and has lived in Toronto since then . There she completed therapy and studied social work . Around 2019 she worked as a customer advisor for a telecommunications company and was involved in a women's refuge .

Rape allegations

At the end of June 2019, she made her experiences public to the human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and TRIAL that Jammeh had raped her. In addition to Jallow, two other people testified, but they remained anonymous. Jallow's name was mentioned at her request, in order to encourage other women to report on such experiences.

After winning the competition in December 2014, she was invited to Jammeh several times in the months that followed.

Jammeh was pushy several times, gave her gifts and money. According to her statement, she received 50,000 Dalasi and later another 200,000 Dalasi. He also had her parents' house connected to the water supply. Finally, he proposed to her. When she refused, she was invited to a religious ceremony in June 2015, but was taken to Jammeh's apartment and raped there.

Reactions

Jammeh himself did not comment on the allegations. Ousman Rambo Jatta , party official of the Jammeh-founded APRC , called the allegations a lie. Jammeh is godly and always respectful of women. A driver at the time also denied Jammeh's sexual assault.

The Gambian Justice Minister and Attorney General Abubacarr Tambadou and Salieu Taal , President of the Gambia Bar Association (GBA), called their statements courageously and urged others who had experienced similar things under Jammeh to make their experiences public. The women's rights organization Female Lawyers Association Gambia (FLAG) joined this. In fact, further allegations against high-ranking politicians are said to have been reported in the following days.

On July 4, 2019, there was a demonstration of several hundred people on Kairaba Avenue .

In September 2019, the party's interim chairman , Fabakary Jatta , described the allegations as lying. Jallow should be grateful to Jammeh for the financial support rather than damage his reputation. Jallow rejected this.

On October 31, 2019, she testified before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission to come to terms with Jammeh's reign and repeated and clarified her allegations.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Saja: Who is Fatou Jallow? Meet the new Miss July 22nd. Retrieved June 30, 2019 (UK English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e FATOU TOUFAH JALLOW TRRC DAY 102 PT1 31.10.19. Accessed January 11, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ Pa Nderry Mbai: OPINION: Fatou Jallow's Rape Allegation On International Media Is A Fake Media Campaign To Seek Public Sympathy For Prosecution Of Former President Yaya Jammeh And Financial Exploitation Of TRRC. In: Freedom Newspaper. June 29, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ a b c 2014 JULY 22ND BEAUTY QUEEN, MISS FATOU JALLOW, GONE MISSING, AFTER REJECTING PRESIDENT'S INAPPROPRIATE APPROACHES! - Kibaaro News. Retrieved June 30, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ a b c Dionne Searcey, Jaime Yaya Barry: Gambian Minister Calls on All Women With Accusations Against Ex-President to Come Forward . In: The New York Times . June 26, 2019, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 30, 2019]).
  6. ↑ FATOU TOUFAH JALLOW TRRC DAY 102 PT1 October 31, 2019. Accessed January 11, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ a b Human Rights Watch | 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor | New York, NY 10118-3299 USA | t 1.212.290.4700: Gambia's Women Break Their Silence. June 26, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Louise Dewast: 'I was raped by Gambia's ex-President Jammeh' . June 26, 2019 ( bbc.com [accessed June 30, 2019]).
  9. ↑ a b Dionne Searcey: A Beauty Queen Accuses Former Gambian President of Rape: 'I Literally Stumbled Out of There' . In: The New York Times . June 25, 2019, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 30, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b Human Rights Watch | 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor | New York, NY 10118-3299 USA | t 1.212.290.4700: Gambia: Women Accuse Ex-President of Sexual Violence. June 26, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Ex-Beauty Queen Accuses Former President Jammeh of Raping Her. In: Foroyaa Newspaper. October 31, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 (American English).
  12. ↑ Ex-Beauty Queen Accuses Former President Jammeh of Raping Her. In: Foroyaa Newspaper. October 31, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 (American English).
  13. ^ Gambia appeal after ex-leader accused of rape . June 26, 2019 ( bbc.com [accessed June 30, 2019]).
  14. ↑ Pa Nderry Mbai: FORMER STATE HOUSE DRIVER NAMED IN A RAPE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST DICTATOR JAMMEH DEBUNKS FATOU JALLOW'S CLAIMS! In: Freedom Newspaper. June 29, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019 (American English).
  15. ↑ a b Pa Nderry Mbai: Toufah Jallow's Rape Case Exposes More Alleged 'Sexual Pedrators'. In: Freedom Newspaper. July 2, 2019, Retrieved July 2, 2019 (American English).
  16. ↑ FLAG reacts to sex abuse allegations. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  17. ^ Police to probe Melville Robertson rape allegation. Retrieved July 2, 2019 .
  18. ↑ #IAmToufah Campaign: From the Internet to the Street. In: The Chronicle Gambia. July 4, 2019, Retrieved August 7, 2019 (American English).
  19. ↑ Young people show solidarity with Toufah, other rape victims. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Pa Nderry Mbai: Gambians Stand Up Against Rape, Sexual Assaults. In: Freedom Newspaper. July 4, 2019, Retrieved August 7, 2019 (American English).
  21. ↑ FTJ: Toufah should thank Jammeh for financial support - The Point Newspaper, Banjul, The Gambia. September 27, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Toufah Jallow: I did not accuse APRC of rape - The Point Newspaper, Banjul, The Gambia. October 1, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Jallow, Fatou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jallow, Toufah (nickname); Jallow, Fatou A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gambian beauty queen and suspected rape victim
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1996
PLACE OF BIRTH Soma