Throughout the book, there are references to women and girls being raped by soldiers or oil workers. In the chapter entitled "Yaya," a character learns that her husband was sexually assaulted by an uncle when he was a child. When he told trusted adults about the incident, they minimized his pain and expressed worry about ruining the uncle's life since he was an influential figure in their village. Towards the end of the book, shamans complete a ritual where they insert semen into the vagina of one of the main female characters while she is unconscious, without her knowledge or consent.