In 1988, I was 14 years old, and lived in Nicaragua, a country I am a citizen of. That year I began to suffer frequent dizzy spells, so my parents took me to a neurologist, Dr. Foad Hassan Morales. The Doctor ordered a various electroencephalograms (EEG), and a tomography to determine the origin of my dizzy spells, and based on the results, he prescribed the medication Tegretol (prescribed for neurological illness), which I was taking until 1992.
I initially had regular medical appointments with Dr. Hassan Morales, and then very sporadically until I finished high school in 1991. At each appointment, Dr. Hassan Morales would direct me to a private room and would do a physical exam in which he would tell me to pull down my pants and underpants, and would touch me in a manner that was inappropriate and for too much time. I was uncomfortable, but I initially just thought it was part of the medical exam. Later I understood that this was not the case, and that he was doing something wrong. I initially did not protest, because I was a minor and did not know what to do in that situation. It was only after several visits that I did not consent to pull my pants down when I went to an appointment . I remember the time I refused to do so, when we returned to the waiting room, Dr Hassan Morales commented in a mocking tone to my mom that I “seemed to be a little nervous.” The abuse did not resume after that time.
I returned to live in Nicaragua between 2003 and 2008. During these five years of residency in Nicaragua, I shared my experience of abuse as an adolescent with a few people. My family supported me unconditionally, and were surprised to learn about what I had been through. I called an organization that worked on sexual violence to make an accusation, but they did not return my call. I talked about the abuse with a psychiatrist who had his clinic close to Dr. Hassan Morales’ office, but he said that a lot of time had passed already, and that it wasn’t worth it to do anything about it by legal or other means.
Recently, my mom forwarded an article about the rooted culture of silence that exists in Nicaragua, and I told myself that I had postponed sharing my experience for too long. I have generally overcome the trauma of this situation, but I feel a moral obligation to those minors that can be in danger by this neurologist or by other pederasts, and that is why I decided to write this account.
It has been found that 87% of pederasts are men1, and the World Health Organization estimated in 2006 that “in the world there are 73 million boys and 150 million girls under 18 years of age that suffer from sexual violence in the form of molestations and forced sexual relations,”2 Additionally, Doctor Irena Intebi, an expert on infant sexual abuse, makes reference to a study in Buenos Aires in which more than 80% of pederasts are family members of the victims.3 As is evident in the numbers, pederasts tend to be men (and in most cases family members of victims), and victims tend to be girls, but sexual violence does not discriminate by sex, class, race, or sexual orientation, unfortunately it is endemic in the world we live in.
However, there are many organizations and networks that are actively working against sexual violence, and they are having a positive impact with their work. In Nicaragua we have the Movimiento Contra el Abuso Sexual (MCAS), the Red de Mujeres Contra la Violencia (RMCV), among others. And I hope that the fact that I am sharing my experience encourages others to share their own stories, and that together we can start to change the culture of violence that impacts us all in one way or another.
Ronald García Fogarty
