Creatures of the Night: When Men Keep Women in a State of Fear

**TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE CASE DETAILS and VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN***

                                                                        photo from here

It is the holidays here in Canada - people are supposed to be cheerful and festive. We are expected be kind and helpful to one another. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in my city. In just one week, three young women have fallen victim to horrible acts. The first occurred a few days ago. A young woman was raped after she fell asleep while intoxicated from a night with friends in a city train station by a 15 year old boy while another 15 year old boy kept guard. The boys were caught due to high definition security cameras. 

Last night, another woman was walking through a city train station parking lot when she was struck over the head several times by an unknown male. He covered her mouth and warned her that he would rape her. However, before he had a chance to do this he fled the scene and escaped before the police arrived. Sadly, it continues. Yesterday a 15 year old girl was held captive in the home of a 15 year old boy she was previously in a relationship with. The boy had tied her to a chair in his house. Eventually, she tried to escape only to have the boy chase after her. Luckily, the police had arrived on scene at the same time and sent a police dog after the boy. 


This all occured in one week. Three young women were violated emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally and socially. They had their basic rights robbed by being raped, assaulted, harrassed, threatened, scared, held captive, bound and beaten. 


Three of the males in this case were boys. 

What happened to helping our neighbors out? Why, instead of helping a young woman who was unconcious in a train station, would someone rape her instead?


If I was 15 years old and living in a large city, my parents would not allow me to just hang out at 3:30am. Why were these boys roaming in empty train stations at 3:30am? Why were these boys walking around with this idea that it is okay to violate and rape another human being?


It disgusts and scares me to know that this is happening so frequently in my city. I am forced to stay in my home at night. I don't have a large group of people I could go out with and without a group, I am putting myself in a dangerous spot. This is an infringement on my basic right to leave my home and be able to safely get to where I need to go. Is wanting to have a night out, free of rape, harassment and assault too much to ask? 

We have to stay inside, we're told. Women who walk around at night are just asking for trouble, right? It's always our fault - we should have just stayed in with our doors and windows locked. This force, this hidden law of society is barbaric and a real threat to the lives of women. This idea that men can roam freely during the night but women have to remain at home lest they get raped, beaten or murdered by a man is unfair and archaic. 

I have a better solution to this problem. How about we try and understand why society has created this rule for women and try to figure out how we can actually fix the problem instead of continuing to simply ignore it. We are letting the rapists, murderers and batterers win when we keep telling women that they are not safe to walk the streets. This does not address why these crimes are so common. It does not address the system that allows such crimes to flourish. 


This is why radicalism is so important. We must not alter or accommodate such violations of human rights. We must find out why it exists in the first place. Liberalism and other semi-leftist groups do not seek to abolish or challenge the systems of oppression that maintain the violations against human rights. This leaves the radical viewpoint which, in my most humble opinion, is the only realistic solution. It is the only ideology that will kill the oppression at the root.