Picture above: Elizabeth Smart speaking at the TED x University of Nevada in 2017. Photo courtesy of Flickr.
By Mimi Huckins
Features Editor
Content Warning: the following article contains mentions of sexual assault
33-year-old New York Times bestselling author and activist Elizabeth Smart visited the Mount Holyoke community on April 29 as part of the College’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming. Smart is known for her role in establishing safety legislation to prevent abductions, such as the national Amber Alert system. Smart promotes the possibility of “life after tragedy.”
College President Sonya Stephens spoke before Smart, emphasizing the importance her work has had for survivors. “The movement to end sexual violence in the United States and around the world relies on people who have made a choice to expose harmful behaviors, to do something, to advocate for survivors,” Stephens told the Mount Holyoke community. “[Smart] exemplifies the advocacy work that is so necessary in the fight to end sexual and gender-based violence.”
Associate Director of Equity and Compliance and Title IX and 504 Coordinator Shannon Da Silva introduced Smart’s story of abduction, survival and success. On June 5, 2002, Smart was taken from her bed. At 14 years old, she underwent mental manipulation and sexual abuse at the hands of a man who claimed he was a prophet of God. Those nine months in captivity changed her perspective on life.
“I would like to think that I would have cared about these issues had I not been kidnapped,” Smart said, “but the truth is, … I don’t know if I would have.”
Smart complied with her abuser’s orders to protect her family. When she was awoken in her bed that summer night, her 9-year-old sister lay next to her as her abductor held a knife against Smart’s throat. Frozen with fear, Smart thought of her family. “I didn’t know if he had been through my home beforehand,” she said. “I didn’t know if he had killed my parents or my brothers. The one thing I did know was that my younger sister, who was still in bed asleep next to me … was breathing.”
In this moment, Smart’s top priority was protecting her sister, which meant complying with the orders she was given. “I didn’t know if I screamed or if I tried to fight him off — would he try to take her? Would he take her instead? And I felt like I couldn’t risk it. I had to protect her,” Smart said.
Smart’s family was her driving force for survival throughout the traumatic experience. Whenever she thought death would be a better alternative to her confinement, she remembered the unconditional love she had always received from her family.
“[The abductors] could take away my life if they chose to, but the one thing that they couldn’t take away was the fact that my parents would always love me. They had unconditional love for me,” Smart recalled. “And when I realized that, I realized I had something worth surviving for. So I was able to make the most important decision I could have during my entire captivity: I decided to do whatever it took to survive.”
But surviving wasn’t merely physical; it was also mental. Smart was raised Mormon and came from a family of strong faith. She recalled being taught that having premarital sex was like being a chewed-up piece of gum: No one would want the chewed-up piece. To 14-year-old Smart, celibacy meant retaining your worth.
“I had been taught that people only want to marry you if you’re a virgin. And I had just been raped. So I wasn’t a virgin anymore,” Smart said. “I no longer had any worth spiritually either.”
After her rescue, Smart said she felt like she was alone in her experience of sexual assault. “I was embarrassed,” she explained. “I was ashamed of what had happened.” But as Smart started learning about the experiences of others and discovering how similar they were to her own, she realized she could help others by sharing her story.
“There is such a lack of feeling safe to come forward, of speaking out, of seeing other survivors speak out,” Smart said.
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry led the remainder of the discussion, detailing Smart’s journey to speak publicly about her experience and asking Smart how to be an ally to sexual assault victims. Smart’s advice was to treat anyone the way you would want to be treated if you were to share your “deepest, darkest, most painful secret.” She said that it is important to avoid asking questions starting with “Why didn’t you…” and to always believe the victim.
“The amount of false reports of sexual violence and rape are minuscule,” Smart said. “You will always be safer defaulting to believing and compassion and kindness than anything else.”
After Smart’s kidnapping, her case gained national attention. For Black History Month, Smart posted on social media advocating for coverage of missing Black women and girls. Smart wrote on Instagram, “For years after my abduction and rescue, I didn’t realize how little most abductions were reported compared to mine, and even less so Black women and girls.”
A study from the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology shows that missing Black children are significantly underrepresented in the media compared to missing white children. “To this day, I’ve never seen another person’s story of any color of skin or race or religion … come even remotely close to the amount of attention that my story has,” Smart told the Mount Holyoke community. “I feel personally that I need to help because they’re every bit as deserving as I [am].”