tured; the girls have been raped and some of our comrades were forced to drink the blood of others who had been seriously injured. Brothers and sisters were forced to have sex.
Many students disappeared.
After pressure the dictator consented to an inquiry into these horrible crimes.
We considered this a victory. The Nicole Ake IVORIAN women have been fighting for justice for a long time.
Men fighting for independence were often arrested by French colonisers.
There were important marchs by UPHODET women protesting against these arrests. They became the subject of a novel.
It was the women who won freedom for their husbands.
The Ivorian dictator learned early that women can also threaten his regime. To avoid this he created a women's movement. The Association of Ivorian Women (AFI) became a branch of the party in power. Even in May 1991, when the Ivorian President send soldiers into the Yopougon university campus to rape the girls and to kill students the movement which was supposed to promote women's rights organised a meeting around the dictator Houphouët Boigny to congratulate him.
Since then opposition parties have created another womens' movement. the Ivorian movement of democratic women (MIFED). This movement is fighting to promote and to defend women's rights in the ivory Coast.