Social activist Daya Bai said she too faced rape attempt by a senior priest whom she had held in high esteem at a monastery where she had joined to become a nun. Before joining the monastery she didn’t have any idea of the situation there. “The priest grabbed and tried to force himself on me. I somehow wriggle out of his grasp. But after this incident, it was very difficult for me. I was too shocked that I couldn’t relate my experience with anyone,” said Daya Bai.
Daya Bai who left the monastery after a couple of years to become a social activist recalled how scary it was for her to deal with the situation. “To prevent recurrence of such incidents in future, I burnt parts of my body with candle.” She presumed that she would be spared when the burns become sores. “I avoided going to him afterwards. Even other nuns tortured me when I put my foot down on going to him,” she added.
On the question of the nun not speaking out against repeated rapes by Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Daya Bai said it was difficult for a nun to raise her voice against such incidents. The atmosphere in monasteries is not that conducive. “Even I mustered courage to talk about it much later. When I wrote about my experiences in my autobiography, some people asked me why I should reveal all these unpleasant things,” Daya Bai told a Malayalam website.
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