Another article not to miss is Lauryn Oates’s To tell the world his daughter’s name.
When the father of Jyoti Singh Pandey decided to tell the world his daughter’s name this week, he said he did so to give other women who have been raped courage.
His is a message directed at an untold number of women and girls. Rape is the most under-reported form of violent crime in the world. It consistently has the worst statistical reporting, with many countries keeping no rape statistics at all.
Somalian activist Hawa Aden Mohammed estimates that in her country, experiencing a torrent of sexual violence, 90% of rapes go unreported. She says the reason is that women know that nothing will be done, while they risk being shamed and ostracized for speaking out. Women in camps for the internally displaced are particularly at risk, and camp leaders are reportedly indifferent to the fact that women under their watch are hunted down like animals to satisfy the savagery of merciless, violent men.
People can get used to anything. People can harden their hearts. We all can. If there’s anything we need to resist it’s that.
People can get used to anything. People can harden their hearts. We all can. If there’s anything we need to resist it’s that.
Yes, true, but: we harden our hearts when it is in our interest to do so. Women would not be ignored in this way if it were not too much trouble to advocate for change. Isn’t it just easier to accept that men do what they do and women ask for it and it’s just interpersonal entanglements and there are no legal measures that can sort it all out? Isn’t it easier to assume that when women complain they’re just women doing what women do (nag, nag, dither, nag, change their minds, nag, have moods, dither, nag)? Anything for a quiet life. Whose quiet life? Look, I don’t want any trouble, just stop asking, right?