She walked home – God forbid.
Did everything she was told from a kid
Be ready to run, fake a phone call, only walk down streets that are well lit.
She wanted to walk that night,
Feel the wind in her hair, feel the ground beneath her feet.
She didn’t want to call a cab, and that’s allowed, that’s alright.
Before you say that was stupid, miscalculated, or silly,
Just think for a moment – why not? Why can’t she?
Three words: lack of equality.
Scared to move, scared to breathe, scared to run -
Begs the question, if this was happening to men, would something be done?
Would something change?
No you say.
And why's that?
Because this would never happen in the first place.
To be free, to not fear, to be safe no women has ever felt.
This is no exception to the rule, this is not simply a bad hand dealt.
This is systemic, embedded in our lives.
This - is a public health epidemic.
This is violence against women,
In its most pure and cruel form.
This was the past, and this is still the present –
Another women whose life we mourn.
Every corner could be a trap, every road a dead end.
A battle zone, a minefield
And all we want to do is go safely home.
This story is loud, it is painful, and it ties into the bigger picture,
Where we live in fear, on alert for any danger.
Danger I say, but what form do you take?
The answer is easy – the form of a man,
Danger is he.
The abuse of power as husbands and sons inflict pain on mothers and daughters.
The abuse of power as now even the police force is home to the perpetrators.
We will fight for the day that women can walk safely on our streets,
At any hour of any day – so we get to be alive even as the whole world sleeps.
The day will one day come when we can walk safely home – untouched and unmoved,
Dare we say we might even walk alone?
[Writer wishes to remain anonymous]