No Longer the Perfect Victim? Nafissatou Diallo Defends Herself

As the Manhattan District Attorney's office weighs whether or not to prosecute the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his accuser has stepped forward to tell her side of the story. Nafissatou Diallo — a 32-year-old refugee from Guinea who worked as a maid at the Sofitel where

Strauss-Kahn stayed and allegedly attacked her — told Newsweek reporters that she wants to correct her portrayal in the media, which has included allegations that she is a prostitute and under the influence of a criminal boyfriend. Much of Diallo's counter-media blitz may be a legal strategy aimed at ensuring Strauss-Kahn is prosecuted. But in attempting to reclaim her image and identity, Diallo has forced all of us to confront a uniquely American legal concept: that of the ‘perfect' victim.
In a system where the accused are innocent until proven guilty, their victims tend to take on nearly impossible traits of righteous perfection. And if there are any cracks in that flawless profile, as there allegedly are in Diallo's case, we start to question the victim's integrity. “What really struck me about her speaking out was that she wasn't silenced by the fact that someone said, ‘this is not the perfect woman,'” said Carol Gilligan, a professor of Gender and Law at NYU School of Law. “At first she was put forth as the perfect victim: she was from Africa, she was poor. I think where gender comes in [to a case like this] is this idea that a woman is either on a pedestal, spotless, or if she's not on the pedestal, then she's a fallen woman.”
Indeed, initial accounts of Diallo were a prosecutor's dream: she was described as pious, dutiful, modest. But after her life was revealed as messy, complicated  — full of cultural incongruities and fuzzy details that didn't seem to fit our preconceived notions of how a victim of sexual assault should be — investigators seemed to want to distance themselves as much as possible and the DA's office decided to release Strauss-Kahn from house arrest.

Details emerge of woman's jailhouse call as media pursue Strauss-Kahn

One day after a stunning court revelation about an accuser's lack of honesty in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, media across New York descended on the freed financier with a renewed sense of vigor.
On Saturday, the former head of the International Monetary Fund was pursued by photographers and news teams across Manhattan. After emerging from his posh Tribecca townhouse, Strauss-Kahn and his security detail blazed through downtown city streets in a black Mercedes sedan, darting in and out of roadways in an

attempt to outrun camera crews in pursuit.
Ten vehicles from an array of different news teams gave chase, including at least three photographers perched atop motorcycles, according to CNN producer Raelyn Johnson.
Interest surrounding the scandal reached a fever-pitch Friday when a New York judge released Strauss-Kahn from house arrest after prosecutors presented evidence questioning the credibility of his accuser.
Also, less than two days after the alleged victim said the attack occurred, she spoke over the phone with a boyfriend in an Arizona jail in a recorded conversation.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that she said that "she's fine and this person is rich and there's money to be made," as originally reported by The New York Times.
The source also said the alleged victim had bank accounts in multiple states.
"She was getting deposits of several thousands of dollars at a time from people she knew, potentially involved in drug dealing," the source told CNN.
The 32-year-old immigrant admitted to prosecutors that she lied about the specifics of her whereabouts following the alleged attack, the details of an asylum application and information she put on tax forms, according to documents filed in court Friday by prosecutors.
Meanwhile, in her native Guinea, residents in the nation's capital expressed their support for the alleged victim, despite her tainted testimony.
"Really, you should have sympathy on her," said Mabity Boungoura in the Guinean capital of Conakry. "When you do something bad to a woman, you need to recognize and accept it."
While the case has taken a dramatic turn, it has not been dismissed, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Friday.
The indictment and charges -- including criminal sexual acts and sexual abuse -- against Strauss-Kahn, 62, still stand, he said.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said the alleged victim told "substantial lies about her own background and the facts of this case."
The development is particularly stunning given prior statements by New York authorities, who spoke forcefully about the accuser's credibility. It appears to leaves the felony case against Strauss-Kahn seriously undermined, despite DNA evidence of sexual contact recovered from the hotel suite.
The judge said authorities will continue to withhold the French financier's passport, but that he is free to travel in the United States.
Prosecutors said Friday that the woman admitted to lying in her application for asylum in the United States, claiming she had been a victim of a gang rape. She cried when she first told prosecutors about the rape, but in a subsequent interview admitted it never occurred.
In angry remarks delivered outside the courthouse, the woman's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, admitted problems with his client's credibility, but the bottom line, he said, is that she was attacked.
"That was true the day it happened and it is true today," he said, describing in chilling detail the account the woman gave of her attack and the bruising on her body.
"She has described that sexual assault many times to the prosecutors and to me. And she has never once changed a single thing about that account."