A playwright in Africa hopes to break the cultural silence on rape

Associated Press

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — African playwright and actor Oliva Ouedraogo’s “Queen” depicts the fictional journey of a girl who is raped by her stepfather on the night of his marriage to her mother, and decides to speak out against her family’s wishes. Ouedraogo said she wrote the play to address the culture of silence about rape and sexual assault. Ouedraogo began acting in plays at 11 or 12, when she took interest in a theater company near her childhood home in Burkina Faso. She said what pushed her to write “Queen” was her anger that rape victims feel obliged to stay quiet in order to avoid familial conflict.