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A Sad Incident that Needs Our Immediate Attention

An Eritrean youth, Abraham Seyoum is currently in the San Diego jail. He is accused for touching the hair of 10-year-old girls. His action is interpreted as sexual harassment, and he is waiting for a

An Eritrean youth, Abraham Seyoum is currently in the San Diego jail. He is accused for touching the hair of 10-year-old girls. His action is interpreted as sexual harassment, and he is waiting for a trial. He has been in jail for about a year. This is a total misunderstanding due to cultural differences.

Abraham is a 25-year-old youth who is hearing impaired due to a bomb explosion he experienced in his childhood.  He fled Eritrea for a better life and after a long and tiring journey, he managed to enter the USA via Mexico in 2011. While he was navigating his way in getting settled in the US and applying for his refugee status, he encountered this unexpected problem just after a month of being relieved of his exhaustive journey.

Abraham was living in a shelter administered by a church. He was playing with 8 and 10 years old girls in the same way adults play in our Eritrean culture. He touched their hair, in the same way we touch to our own or our neighbours’ children. He asked them if they wanted any treats so he could buy for them candy. But he advised them to ask permission from their parents. He had no clue what would happen.  A few minutes later the police came and arrested him.

In Eritrea, children are raised not only by their parents, but also by neighbours and the village. It is common to see adults buy candy for children of their neighbours, give them a hug, touch their head and let them sit on their lap, simply to express their genuine affection. It is also common to see adults discipline the neighbours’ children if they see them doing wrong.  At the same time, it is the adult’s duty to protect any child from harm in their care.  Eritrean society appreciates that every citizen must take responsibility in entertaining and protecting any child.

A person who is raised in such way can find it difficult to adopt the North American ways of doing things. Some immigrants are lucky to get cultural orientation about their host country before they arrive, but others are not. Abrahm Seyoum is such an unfortunate individual. He is suspected of being a child molester for touching the hair of children which is very common in the culture in which he grew up. This happened in the first month of his stay in his new home to be.

As you must understand, this is a very serious issue. If he is convicted, his life will be destroyed completely. To see an innocent person behind bars due to a cultural misunderstanding is truly tragic.

Therefore, we ask that everyone sign his/her name below so as to convince the American Justice System that what Abraham Seyoum did is very common in Eritrean culture and that he did not hold any sexual intentions behind his actions.. He was just trying to be a good man in his neighbourhood, just as he was in the neighbourhood where he was raised

To Sign The Petition Click: Eritrean Human Rights Group

aseye.asena@gmail.com

Review overview
20 COMMENTS
  • lol March 22, 2012

    guys it is not good to bark everywhere…He touches her hair.. good start to filtering her.. that leads to….

  • Menameno March 22, 2012

    Very sad incidence! I appeal to the Eritrean Lawyers in the US to try to render assistence to clarify the case that it is simply a cultural misunderstanding. At times innocence can lose its value.

  • Daweph@yahoo.com March 23, 2012

    It is sad to hear that but ignorance is not an excuse in the court of law;he should have known better. I have seen new comers smacking the bum of young girls at night clubs and then claim that they didn’t know that it is a sexual assault.

  • sara March 25, 2012

    yes help this poor soul, and the sooner the better, i also heard he has other problem which is not visible to our community and the authorities who are holding him. the best thing will be to
    also to consider health check up be made on him before they take him to court.
    this could be done by informing the lawyer taking care of his case….very important!!!!!!!!!

  • sara March 25, 2012

    all of you in the Diego area, i am familiar with such cases, and do not rush to conclusion that this person has done what he did knowingly/intentionally. do not ask me too much, i am dead sure this young man is not normal, you may not know, or he also doesn’t know it but has a medical problem and the best thing to do to him is to take him or to him wherever he is a professional psychiatrist or psychologist to talk to him. he could easily identify his problem better than the police , his relatives, or even the community at large.
    i am not from the area… i live far away, otherwise this will be what i will do if i was nearby…

  • sara March 26, 2012

    all of you in this forum… specially those in Deigo area … please keep this call running until there is action on the ground. spread the word, ask people to get involved, get organized
    and act accordingly, but keep drumming this call on assena… and if there are local pages in the area. this is a humanitarian call ,… no politics… all eritreans… and all other’s who would support such causes.
    assena… at least this time do some thing useful to the diaspora community …

  • selam habtemaryam April 8, 2012

    eway hawey nizifeterena amlak nilimin

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