Heaven Awot was seven years old. She lived in Bahir Dar with her mother, Abekyelesh Adeba, a nurse. In August 2023, while her mother was at work, Heaven was raped and killed by Getnet Baye, the family’s landlord.
For almost a year the case moved quietly through the courts. Then, in August 2024, he was sentenced to twenty five years in prison, and the quiet ended. The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association said the murder alone should have carried a life sentence or more. More than two hundred thousand people signed a petition standing with her mother. Her name crossed the country on placards and timelines: Justice for Heaven.
Heaven appears here as the mark, the silhouette that stands for all of them, because she cannot choose how to appear. No child should ever have to. Her story is on this page so that the demand it started does not go quiet again.