Dima is a Grade 12 student who is being pressured by her boyfriend to have sex. She has expressed her reluctance but he continues to insist.
Dima participated in a workshop about sexual abuse prevention offered separately to the girls and boys in her class by a local anti-violence community organization. The facilitators talked about sexual assault against women and helped the students to form and agree upon a definition that included both subtle and explicit ways of forcing someone into having sexual contact against their will. They talked about sexual assault by a known aggressor, stressing that this kind of assault is most common.
Until then, she had thought that sexual assault had to do with physical violence and a stranger; she had not realized that most sexual assault is perpetrated by a known assailant.
Dima is beginning to realize that she is being pressured into non-consensual sexual relations with her boyfriend. She feels more confident about saying no to him, and voicing her own needs more clearly. His pressure lets up as a result.