She speaks too quickly, without catching her breath. The words slice through the air like knives, a burst of hurt and pain suddenly invades the small room. ” Yes. There is not a single aspect of my life as a woman that he has spared. The desire to do harm was stronger than anything else. Yes. » Lydie, 38, has been coming regularly, since the end of 2023, to the office where the psychologist from the Réunion Association for Legal Aid to Families (Arajufa) receives her, in Saint-Pierre.
Located right next to the competent judicial court for the south of Reunion, the association supports women who have been abused by their spouse. Mandated by the public prosecutor's office, she asserts their civil rights and guides them throughout criminal proceedings. Here, “I was taught to position myself in relation to the unacceptable”confides the young mother, who does not wish to give her name, like the other women interviewed.
The violence began “gradually, until it becomes daily”says Lydie, this Tuesday in December 2024. Hit, humiliated, threatened with death, followed in her every move: the father of her two little daughters, a drug addict, no longer gave her any respite. Lydie then plunged into terror and hypervigilance. “I never slept. When you can't even go pee without the kids freaking out, it becomes hell. I was going crazy. Despite myself, I learned by heart all the license plates of the cars I could come across. » A caregiver at the hospital, the young woman is now being treated there for her post-traumatic stress disorder.
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