These women prisoners face a harsher reality than the men: NPR

The first time she entered the jail, she felt as if she have been going to faint.

The yr was 2021. Maïmouna Diouf had been discovered responsible of infanticide — a cost she denies, claiming she gave delivery to a stillborn youngster that she buried with out notifying the authorities.

Diouf regarded round her shared room in the Thies detention heart in Thies, Senegal. She was one among 10 prisoners assigned to sleep in the small house. There have been soiled, outdated mattresses on the ground, she says. There was a scent coming from them that she could not precisely place. “This is my life now? How am I supposed to sleep here?” she thought to herself.

Released in 2025, Diouf now volunteers to assist feminine inmates in Senegal. The circumstances that women in jail face have been highlighted in occasions held in Senegal on International Women’s Day this previous week — together with the distribution of free, reusable menstrual merchandise, which are not available to prisoners. Diouf agreed to share her story to deliver consideration to the points that have an effect on the nation’s roughly 280 women prisoners — about 2% of the complete jail inhabitants of 14,000.

Women and males charged with a crime in Senegal are at the mercy of a system the place justice will not be rapidly disbursed. According to a report released in 2024 by the US State Department, “judicial backlogs and absenteeism of judges resulted in an average wait of two years between the filing of charges and the beginning of a trial.” During this era of limbo, an estimated 60% of these charged are saved in jail. Women are held in the Liberte VI jail for women in Dakar.

“It’s very difficult for these women, especially the women who are innocent, but they are in prison waiting for trial. They sometimes do not have the means to have a lawyer, and in Senegal there is a lack of judges so that can delay the trial, too,” says Seynabou Dieme, the head of social-education companies at the Liberte VI women’s jail.

Dieme confirmed some women have waited as much as six years for his or her trial to start.

According to Senegalese press, the government adopted a law in February aimed at prison reforms that would include improving prison conditions. NPR referred to as related authorities places of work to substantiate this report and examine on the standing of reforms however acquired no response.

An added burden for women

And then there’s the matter of stigma.

“The culture often says that a woman has no right to commit an error. Because the woman must manage the house and community and raise the children. If she falls, she brings the whole family down,” says Dieme.

According to a 2021 report by the group Prison Insiderwhich displays circumstances in Senegal’s prisons, almost half of feminine prisoners in detention have been discovered responsible of infanticide, and 23% have been incarcerated for abortion, which is unlawful in Senegal besides in circumstances the place the process would save the lifetime of the pregnant girl.

The nature of the crimes that women are charged with provides to the stigma, says Fatou Faye. She’s a supervisor for the Prison Project at Tostan, a Senegalese group that distributed the hygiene pads on International Women’s Day and that teaches inmates about human rights in addition to sensible expertise to generate earnings in jail and after launch – dying cloth and stitching, for instance. Faye additionally runs household mediations to assist former detainees rebuild relationships after launch.

Fatou Faye is a supervisor for the jail mission run by Tostan, a Senegal-based human rights group. She says she want to see a extra forgiving public perspective towards women who’ve been accused or convicted of crimes: “They are all human, and she can do something she regrets. So she should have a chance to have a clean slate.”

Ricci Shryock for NPR

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Ricci Shryock for NPR

Diouf says she was fortunate — she nonetheless had the assist of her household after being sentenced — which made a big distinction whereas serving her time. Her brother had dropped her off at jail that first day, noticed the outdated mattresses in her cell and supplied to deliver her a new one. Family members additionally introduced her additional meals and important feminine hygiene merchandise, which the state doesn’t at all times present.

Family assist — and rejection

From her expertise, Maïmouna Diouf reiterates what prisoner educator Dieme says: Many women are rejected by their households even earlier than they’re sentenced.

“They were always crying, because it’s difficult to be rejected by your own family,” she added of fellow prisoners whom she grew to become near whereas she was incarcerated.

Even when relations do need to assist a beloved one in jail, they could face societal strain to face again. That was the expertise of AF, who served 4 years for having an abortion. She requested to be recognized solely by her initials due to the persevering with stigma of getting been in jail.

It was 2001. AF was a younger mom who grew to become pregnant and felt she couldn’t assist a second youngster, so she determined to have a clandestine abortion. The process brought about issues and bleeding; When she was taken to the hospital the well being care employees reported to the police that she had an abortion.

AF says her mom and sister wished to supply assist, however group and different relations – together with uncles – urged them to desert her. “They kept saying I was a bad woman, and didn’t deserve their support,” she says. But her mom and sister insisted on persevering with to assist AF — offering not solely materials items like meals and cleaning soap however providing emotional assist as nicely, promising they’d welcome her again as soon as she was launched.

“It was painful to watch them [her mom and sister] suffer,” she says. “While I could do nothing from inside the prison.” She says she’s grateful her sister and mom didn’t cave into the strain and helped her discover work and assist as soon as she was launched. After she was launched in 2005, AF started working with Tostan’s prison-based group training program to assist incarcerated women put together for all times after jail.

Fatou Faye, a supervisor for the charity Tostan’s jail mission, enters a women’s jail in Dakar, Senegal for an International Women’s Day occasion.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

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Ricci Shryock for NPR

Life after freedom

For women in jail, says AF, the stigma carries on even after launch.

“There are women who were in prison, and after they get out, their families do not welcome them. Often they turn to crime, so they end up coming back to prison,” she says. “Families and communities should have a mentality of pardoning and helping.”

Faye, the supervisor for the Prison Project at Tostan, agreed that she want to see the public perspective towards women accused or convicted of crimes to be one among acceptance to assist them reenter society. And one among forgiveness.

“They are all human, and she can do something she regrets,” Faye says of the common prisoner. “So she should have a chance to have a clean slate.”

Ricci Shryock is a author and photographer in Dakar, Sénégal. This September, Cassava Republic will publish her nonfiction novel about one girl’s expertise as one among the feminine fighters throughout a struggle for independence in Guinea-Bissau in the Nineteen Sixties.