Do you know who she is?

In August of last year, actress Danija Steinfeld (pictured above) premiered a documentary Hold me right (translated into Serbian as Heal me.). At the very end of working on a short film about rape survivors (both women and men), Steinfeld decides to become an actress herself and share her experience. She was raped by a prominent man (which the Serbian media would later mistranslate as "powerful") from Serbian drama circles.

Four months later, the "Miroslav Aleksić" affair takes place, Danijela Steinfeld again announces to the public and says that she handed over the recording of the conversation with the rapist to the prosecutor's office. On Monday, March 22, the unexpected happens: the public learns that she has announced the name of the attacker. It is about the actor Branislav Lečić. Although she came from New York just to do that and give an exclusive interview to "Insider", we didn't hear the name from her or from "Insider" at first, but from different portals, thanks to the leak of information from the prosecutor's office. With that, Daniela Steinfeld somewhat lost control over her own case, but already in the afternoon of that day she managed to regain it.

VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE

In an interview for "Insajder", she described the details of the event itself. It is known from before that even ninety percent of rape victims know their attacker from before. However, when a woman sits in front of the camera and says: "I was raped by my colleague and dear friend Branislav Lečić", this mere percentage suddenly becomes a deeply disturbing female reality. Describing when and how it all unfolded, Steinfeld says, "It wasn't my first time getting into his car."

A seemingly banal sentence, just another detail from the victim's statement, is actually a testimony of the aforementioned female reality: some men are simply rapists; they are colleagues, friends, relatives; they will treat the woman with respect 100 times, take her home, and 100 times nothing will happen, and then the 101st time - rape her. Does this mean that all men should be viewed as potential rapists? No. But every woman is a potential rape victim. According to statistics from the US National Resource Center for Victims of Sexual Violence, every fifth woman experiences the worst form of sexual crime - rape - at least once in her life. For other forms, the statistics are even worse - some form of sexual violence was experienced by 54 percent of women only in the year preceding the survey. More than 63 percent of sexual assaults go unreported. In the student population, that percentage is even worse - 90 percent.

If nothing else, this statistic speaks volumes. But there is more: in the last minutes of the interview for "Insider", Daniela Steinfeld talks about overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a way that only a person who has this disorder and who has successfully processed their trauma through therapy can talk. "Vreme" wrote extensively about the content of trauma and treatment of PTSD regarding the Aleksić affair ("Vreme" no. 1568 and no. 1569).

photo: tara radovanović / tanjug

YOU KNOW WHO I AM

Daniela Steinfeld testifies that she was raped. Let's pretend for a moment that Branislav Lečić's name has not yet been mentioned anywhere. Let's also respect the presumption of innocence.

Before the interview with Daniela Steinfeld, "Insider" published a video of her conversation with the rapist. What we hear is a typical pattern of thinking of a rapist, because there is no profile, there is no specific type of man who rapes. He remembers that she cried, but to her: "Then I felt threatened", he asks: "Why?", and begins to serve her and convince her that it was not rape, that she misunderstood it: "It is mine showing affection, not disrespect. That's an achievement, that you have reached that level of interest to evoke those emotions in me. It's for honor, not for feeling threatened."

He convinces her that he did her honor, not that he persecuted her. Psychologist Tanja Ignjatović tells "Vreme" that this is a typical violent abuse of power that includes various types of manipulation, deception, and replacement of theses. The abuser communicates from a position of superiority. He does not need to use rudeness, threats, physical violence, but he imposes his will on a person who had trust, who has authority, who has much less power. He decides, implements what he intended, gives the completely opposite meaning to what he did, convinced that he has the right to do it: "I am doing it for you, you should be happy that I chose you." Ignjatović says that it is at the same time confusing and invalidates our perception of reality: "It sends double messages, that we should be happy because of what hurt us, which is unacceptable to us, because we don't know who we are and what we want."

The women don't know who they are, but the person identified by the prosecution with the initials BL at one point asks: "Do you have any idea who I am?" The presumption of innocence is fine, but we know who he is - a rapist, a man who played god and thought that it determines whether a woman's "no" is actually a "yes." And now he's going to see who she is.