Scary World

Lately, I feel like I've heard of different crimes, comments, and behaviors that trigger me to think how hard and scary it is to be a woman.  Didn't we already fight the civil rights movement in the 70's and proved that women deserved the same rights (which includes safety) as men?

Yesterday, I was at work and heard a story about a girl I personally know that freaked me out.  This girl drives her car to the train, and then takes the train to work.  The other day she was walking from the train to the car, which was across the street.  As she neared her car, she saw another car of 4 men following her.  Her instincts kicked in and she turned around, and walked back to the train station.  As soon as she turned around, one of the men jumped out of the car, grabbed her and told her she wasn't going anywhere.  He was reaching into his pocket, and she took the opportunity to run.**

She ran back to the train station with the man chasing her, and she finally found another man who offered to help by stalling the chaser, while she went to the police.  She found a policeman, escaped the original chaser and learned that in the past two weeks the same situation had happened to another woman, who was kidnapped, raped and beaten.

This story terrifies me.  This woman did all the "right" things, this incident happened in daylight, in a crowded environment and wasn't calling attention to herself.  The other part that terrifies me is that other strangers saw this incident happening and chose not to do anything about it.  When did we become a culture of ignoring our fellow man?  This poor girl is now terrified to be alone and doesn't want to leave her home.  What exactly did she do to deserve this?

Hearing this story in the US after the rape in India makes me truly believe this is a worldwide epidemic.  A good friend of our's uncle, wrote an amazing article about how India has let women down.  But I don't think we can only focus on India - the world has let women down.

We have politicians who feel like they can make decisions about our bodies and well being.  People who say that if you're impregnated thru rape, it's a blessing.  Women shouldn't wear jeans, as a way to stop tempting men.  A guru in India said that if the woman had asked God properly, the rape would have stopped. SERIOUSLY?!  PROPERLY?!

This is just sick.

And what kind of men have the thoughts of "today is a sunny day, maybe I'll rape a woman today."  

This is just a sad world we live in.

**I can't imagine running away from a bad guy with my work attired - laptop bags, purses, heels!  And the fact that no one helped is insane to me.  Even if you don't want to get involved, call 911!