A Woman's Agony: The Grim Reality of Gender-Based Violence
The horrific narrative of a woman brutalized by a group of nine or ten men haunts the conscience. Her body, ravaged with such ferocity, bore the marks of their unspeakable cruelty—bones shattered, her body crushed to the point that her limbs were unnaturally spread across the bed. The image lingers: her pelvis broken, spinal cord fractured, shards of glass from her broken glasses embedded in her eyes, leaving her sightless and in pain. Her legs, so severely fractured, could no longer be brought together, while her face and body were drenched in blood. More than a hundred bite marks covered her skin—a silent testament to the barbarism she endured.
The mother's words echo in my mind, filled with unimaginable pain. One can only speculate about the agony the victim suffered, her breath perhaps ceasing long before her assailants had satisfied their vile desires. The extent of her suffering is beyond comprehension.
When we strip away the boundaries of nationality and religion, what remains is a universal truth: she was a woman—a human being. The brutal fact is that from the moment a girl is born until the day she is buried, she is never truly safe.
I once encountered a woman who divorced her husband because her two-month-old daughter was not safe in her father's hands. (I will write about her story some other time.) We are part of a society where even women who walk with their eyes lowered and their bodies covered are not safe. The fear even extends to the grave, where corpses dread the grave-diggers, and this is no lie.
A married woman, who joins her husband with her parents' consent, is not spared either—often landing in the hospital on her very first day with him.
I have grown to despise the phrase, "We respect the women of our household." Respecting the women in your own home is expected; true honor lies in protecting the women outside your home as well. But when does that happen? Here, children are not safe with their teachers, and women are not safe with their male relatives.
You break women like toys and cast them aside, believing yourselves invincible because you are men. But remember, that day will come when your actions will face judgment, and it will be a day when no god of this universe will stand by you.
She may not be "just" a woman—she is a human being.
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