Rashida Begum (name changed) told her friend Fathima Hakkim that she had a secret to reveal. Rashida spoke about being molested by her uncle when she was five years old. “My uncle said if I told anybody about it, my parents would get hurt,” said Rashida, who grew up with Fathima at Kollam in Kerala.
“I kept quiet for 18 years. It made me a very lonely person. I was scared to talk to anybody.” A shocked Fathima could not sleep that night. Instead, she drew a painting of a girl with dishevelled hair cascading all over her face, one troubled eye staring blankly at the world. On her lips was a butterfly, similar to the Silence of the Lambs film poster a butterfly resting on Jodie Foster’s lips.
