If there was anyone who doubted Marion 'Lady Saw' Hall's strength, if today's story on her rape experience does not dispel those doubts nothing will.

As is reported in THE STAR, at last weekend's Magnum Follow Di Arrow concert at James Bond Beach, St Mary, Lady Saw ended her performance on a very emotional note with a song about being initiated into sex through force. And that at a very young age, too.

Saw speaks more about the trauma, which obviously is still close to her mind although so far away in years, and we are sure that quite a few women will be able to identify with her pain.

A few years ago, there was a furore when in her autobiography Rita Marley spoke about being nearly raped by Bob Marley. Feelings ran so deep that Mrs. Marley did not read from No Woman No Cry at that year's staging of the Calabash International Literary Festival, as was scheduled to have happened.

It seems self-evident that a person, male or female, should be able to speak about being raped, but in practise this is not so. The silence makes them a victim all over again, especially as the perpetrator is free to speak about what they did to the person, often without letting on that it was rape.

Breaking the silence is key to removing the shame, the guilt that make a victim of the person who is raped twice over. Respect must go out to Lady Saw for using her devastating personal experience and her position as a public figure to speak out not only for herself, but the many who nurse their wounds in silence.