Hannah Power: A Fearless Rape Survivor Who Is Proud Of Being A Woman!

Hannah Power is a 26-year-old young woman from Britain who is inspiring millions of rape survivors around the world to come out of the closet and talk openly about their trauma. Hannah was kidnapped and raped while she was on a holiday in France about three years ago.

Hannah is also actively engaged in raising funds for the charity Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre – RASASC – by donating parts of the proceeds of the sale of a necklace she has specially designed.

The Assault

Hannah was on a fun holiday with her friends who were working in the resort of Morzine but got assaulted when she left a club early one evening. She got lost on the way – it was only 500 meters. Everything looks the same in the snow. She walked for about 40 minutes. Then a car pulled over with three men, they asked her, where she was going. She told them that she going to her friend’s chalet. They said, they knew her and offered to give her a ride. Since it was a really close-knit community, she believed them.

Hannah realized something was wrong when the car left town. She said: “I started to scream and beg, ‘Let me out’. They pretended not to understand.”

“That feeling of being alone is so scary. “

– Hannah Power

The men were ‘pretty soulless’. They drove her to a secluded place; stopped the car and the driver got down and raped Hannah mercilessly while his two friends watched. She fought with him by punching and kicking him continuously. She thought they wanted to kill her. She was begging for her life. After the rape, she was dumped back in town in the snow. They had taken her phone, tights, and shoes. She had bare feet and bare legs. She walked up to the hill towards the light, screaming for help. Hannah told, the French police showed little interest in her case despite the fact she went to the hospital for medical examination after the rape.

What Hannah Felt After The Assault?

Hannah thought it could happen to others so she must not keep mum about it. Hannah says, she gathered the courage to fight for justice for herself from her will power. “There was this voice in my head that said everything was going to be okay, keep fighting.”

Hannah tells she was able to get through the experience of her attack, by opening up and talking about it. “You join a club that you never wanted to be a member of. ” “You don’t know anyone who is in it because it’s not something that’s talked about.”

She got stuck the label of being a rape survivor. Noone helped her. People generally said, “I don’t know what to say” and showed her pity instead of true support. Hannah Power slowly got used to the image of a rape survivor and embraced the pain. She moved through it and came out the other side, deciding to make this unfortunate event it as something that makes one stronger. In her words, “And that’s how I see it now – the adversity giving me more strength.”

Sadly, Hannah’s assaulter was not found and in 2018 she was informed by the French police that her case had been dropped. On this, Hannah said, “I didn’t know the number plate of the car, I was in a foreign country, it was dark…I was quite realistic that the odds of them finding someone was quite slim.” Hannah was diagnosed with PTSD twice in a year after the assault.

How Hannah Dealt with the Assault Trauma?

Hannah Power said she dealt with it by being as open as possible with people around her. She was ‘very keen to not let this bury itself into her, she wanted to get it out and dealt with as quickly as possible.’ It was a big journey for her and there were some really low points. But she feels like she is through it now. She has worked extremely hard to get through it.

Hannah Power has healed herself by supporting other rape survivors. I would love to end this post with these powerful words of this powerful woman,

“I’ve helped people who reached out to me, one was attacked abroad shortly after me. I knew how she’d be feeling. “One thing that makes you feel most alone is when even those who love you don’t know what to say. Remove the stigma and we remove the loneliness.”