Leah Forchheimer
11-25-09
4:58
This article gives many statistics about the well being of women. The article states that one in three women in the world with be raped, beaten, sexually coerced, trafficked, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The article goes on to state the amount of women that have been raped in different parts of the world. The reader learns about a mother of six children named Chantal from South Kivu and is only twenty eight years old. Chantal was gang raped by nine soldiers loyal to a General overseeing the area she was residing in. The mother of six feels as though there is no point in turning in these men who raped her because they seem to be protected by the government system. The next situation the reader learns about is of Mariam from Sudan. Mariam was raped by the Janjaweed militia when she was only eighteen years old. Mariam wants to turn in the Janjaweed militia men who raped her, but in order to do that, she has to have at least four male witnesses to testify for her. Finally the reader learns about a woman named Eva who is a history teacher in Europe. She is thirty eight years old and has a husband and children of her own. Eva will go around her house and pour out any type of alcohol in order to prevent her husband from getting drunk and beating their children.
I feel like there are too many situations like the ones I read about in the article. Chantal from South Kivu cannot turn in the men who raped her because they are being protected by the government. Mariam from Sudan cannot prosecute the Janjaweed militia of rape because she does not have four male witnesses. How are these women supposed to protect themselves if they are not given the opportunity to receive help? In order for Eva, the history teacher from Europe, to not be beaten up by her husband, she has to go around her house and dump out alcohol. Women need to be able to feel safe in their own homes, and that is not the case in these situations.
4 comments:
Women need to learn to take control of their lives and not be so naive to it. I'm happy that the technological advances of our age will make protecting women more easy to get to.
I agree with Limon, women do need to start taking control. But yes, those situations were all terrible and it's a shame that women don't get the protection we need. Women also rarely get the same justices as men, which is why I think in other countries rap is an abundance and no one is being turned in.
This is such an upseting story- in part because it is something that happens all over the world. I agree that women need to be able to have more control of their lives but they are unable to in so many places, and women who suffer rapes fear the effects that thier speaking out might bring.
I feel like women are so volunerable to many things. I feel as women we need to be aware and educated on the things that could happen throughout our lives that why we can prevent them from happening.
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