Imprisoned for abortion: Many Rwandan women are now free but stigma remains
On the day she was attacked, Akimanizanye Florentine had been trying to earn money to help get through a difficult time at home.
Akimanizanye, who goes by Florentine, was in her late teens then, living in northern Rwanda. She says her family had been struggling after her father had died.
She remembers walking home in the evening, carrying the potatoes she'd harvested in a basket on her head, when she passed a man she'd never seen before.
"He asked me my name. I never said anything," she tells me through an interpreter. "I was just running away."
The man pushed her down, covered her mouth and raped her.
"And then after he left me, I stayed there almost two hours thinking of what I'm supposed to do next," she says.
Florentine, now in her late 20s, says she was afraid to tell her mother what had happened. About a month later, she missed her period.
"I totally failed to know what to do," she says. "I never talked to anyone about it. It wasn't easy for me."
She subsequently ended the pregnancy — and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating Rwanda's anti-abortion laws.
Rwanda's changing abortion laws
At a time when the United States is abortion rights, Rwanda has been gradually moving in the opposite direction. The nation began in , allowing the such as rape, incest, and medically dangerous pregnancies.
