Dinah was violated, Dad!

Should he treat our sister, your daughter, like a harlot? Should he?

Should Shechem and Hamor treat Dinah like that? When Shechem knew he was going to come properly for Dinah’s hand in marriage, why did he defile her first? If his soul was truly strongly attracted to her, it shouldn’t make him violate her.

And to think he was the prince of the country and was regarded as more honorable than all the household of his father. What is honorable in a man defiling another woman? Such act was folly in our land, it ought not to be so.

It was not right. Dad, you heard that Dinah was defiled and you did nothing about it!

You didn’t disapprove, you didn’t move a muscle. We wanted you to act. We waited for your reaction. We thought, there was no way our Dad would condone such evil. We expected you to prove that Dinah was not a bastard, that she had a family. We wanted you to show that such act was not acceptable in the land. Apparently, it seemed we expected too much from you.

If it was done to Jacob’s daughter, do you know how many men would take that as opportunity to defile other women in the land? Your silence was intolerable, dad.

It seemed our wait would be forever, so we decided to respond. Our asking them to be circumcised was a plot. We knew what we wanted to do. Gullible as they were, they consented. They told all their men to be circumcised. On the third day, when they were still in pain, we pounced on them and slew all the males and took our sister out of Shechem’s house.

Why?

Dinah is our sister. We would not allow any man violate her and carry on like she had no family. And it’s ridiculous you would be upset at what we did and you were not furious at what they did to your daughter. If you had acted we probably wouldn’t have gone that far. We found your inaction even more grievous that what Shechem and Hamor did.

Why, dad?

They violated her! They violated your daughter! Then they came to you with their proposal, you just accepted it, you didn’t even confront them about their dastardly act. Doesn’t she have a father anymore who could fight and defend her? They defiled your daughter, you smiled. We punished them for it, you complained. Did you really hate her that much?

Do you by any chance know the implications of your indecision to Dinah’s self-esteem? It killed her spirit. When we saw her, she had been crying for days and unable to sleep. She didn’t even want to follow us. She didn’t want to go out in the public. She didn’t want her friends to see her. She believed everyone made fun of her. We spent hours trying to persuade her to come home with us. She was almost going to take her own life.

Then she asked after you.

She wondered, did you hate Leah, her mum, that much? Would you have treated one of Rachel’s own with such disdain? Was she by any means paying for her mother’s sins?

Dad, you see, when a father is passive he gives room for the children to look for answers wherever they can. When a father is not involved the children would say all sorts and do all sorts. They would kill and damn the consequences.

Passive fathers breed angry sons and bitter daughters.

Dinah was violated. And you did nothing about it, dad.

Speak against sexual violence. ‘Silence protects the perpetrator and imprisons the victim.’ Speak up!

Genesis 34

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