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RM 13.05

Love in the Amish community has fairly rigid boundaries. Speaking out by females in church or in ordinance meeting is forbidden. In this story, from the outset, Sarianna is at odds with the Bishop of a small and strict Swartzentruber Amish district. In reality, in the Amish community, the Bishop would not have allowed the slightest retort from a female, never in church or the twice-yearly ordnung meeting. In the story, Ruben, Sarianna's father's verbal response to the rape of fourteen-year-old Fanny (A fairly common Amish name.) was an exact repeat of what I had heard from an Amish man when I posed the question of rape in the Amish community. The Amish gentleman shrugged indifferently, "What is that?" ...was his response. As if the rape was nothing, it didn't matter, as if the female's involvement was inconsequential.
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