THE rape of a 15-year-old girl who went to relieve herself outside her house over the weekend shows that girls in Fiji are not safe anywhere, the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre says.

Centre director Shamima Ali said the incident in a village in Ra showed that men were preying on females at all times.

Arya Pratindhi Sabha of Fiji president Kamlesh Arya said all girls must have the freedom to attend to the call of nature, without any interference.

Assistant police spokeswoman Corporal Prashila Narayan said they were investigating the rape, where the girl went outside her house at 1am on Saturday to relieve herself when she was raped. Corporal Narayan said the suspect pulled the victim to a nearby cane field and raped her.

She said they were still looking for the suspect.

West police chief Emori Laqai said the attack was unfortunate.

Senior Superintendent Laqai said the suspect and the girl were from the same village.

Ms Ali said the actions of the suspect showed girls, especially younger ones, were not safe anywhere.

She said a lot needed to be done to change the mentality of men and reduce the number of rapes in Fiji.

She believes everyone in society needs to work together to ensure that men are educated on this issue.

"We have to work together and raise awareness in society on the safety of the girls and for men to be educated."

Ms Ali said there was no excuse for men to rape girls.

She said unless such male attitudes were changed, the number of rapes against girls would continue to increase.

She said it was not only happening in Fiji but around the world. Ms Ali said the community must learn not to hide the actions of those who were caught raping girls.

She said communities in Fiji were now aware that all rape cases should be reported.

"We can see that there's a change now, where the community, especially the mothers, report the cases," she said.

"Mostly, women will hide the actions of their husbands."

Mr Arya agreed with Ms Ali that girls were not safe even in the close proximity of their homes. He said they were not even safe even under the extreme condition where they had to answer to the call of nature. "It's saddening to see that they are subject to those kinds of actions," he said. Mr Arya said all rapists should be dealt with harshly.

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