"Do men ever wonder what it is like to grow up in an atmosphere where you are treated like meat?"
Anastasiya Melnychenko is the head of a Ukrainian human rights organization called Studena. Earlier this week, she said she came across a Facebook post from a man that described a woman he said he met in a park — she had been raped.
Melnychenko said the man's Facebook post concluded that the woman "shouldn't have been hanging around alone at night." Outraged, she started a hashtag #яНеБоюсьСказати or #IamNotAfraidtoSayIt.
"... we do not have to make excuses. We are not to blame, a rapist is always to blame. I'm not afraid to talk. And I don't feel guilty.
Do men ever wonder what it is like to grow up in an atmosphere where you are treated like meat? You didn't do anything, but everyone feels entitled to fuck you and dispose your body.
I know they are unlikely to understand it. I have nothing at all to explain, but, unfortunately, they constitute a whole half of humanity. Therefore, for us, the women, it is important to talk about our experiences. It is important to make it visible. Please speak..."
Now, Ukrainian and Russian women are using the hashtag to share their stories of street harassment, sexual harassment in the work place, and sexual abuse.
"On November 21, 2015, my apartment and I looked like this [referring to the photos of her apartment she posted on Facebook]. When our guests left, my husband and I tried to talk and figure things out. During our conversation, he grabbed me by my hands, dragged me across the apartment half-naked and tried to throw me out of the apartment. Then he shoved a knife into the door, and I feared that he'd stab me next. I ran away from the war in Luhansk, but I could still feel it in Kiev. Who do I fight for justice with, who do I march for my freedom with? On August 2, 2016, I'll get my divorce papers at 12:00 p.m. at Puracheva street, 17.
I cry for humanity, honesty, understanding and friendship."
Melnychenko's initial post has been shared hundreds of times and the hashtag has since gone viral, both in Ukraine and Russia. Conversations about sexual abuse are still relatively uncommon in these countries — especially Russia, which is deeply rooted in patriarchy — so, the response online to Melnychenko's post almost feels like a revolutionary moment, and many have taken note.
"At the age of 5 or 6, I found out that my older brother is a pedophile. I realized this when my brother joined the army. That's when my childhood ended. He regularly started showing his penis. He always tried to make me hold it, while pressing me into the corner.
When you're 6 and he's 18, it's hard to run away. It's hard to understand that the man who is supposed to protect you from everything bad is doing something like this to you. It is hard to understand why he's putting his hands in your underwear, why he is always undressing you. And most importantly, it's hard to figure out where to run from all of this. And he tells you that it's ok, it's normal, and that it prepares me for my future and I have to remain quiet about all of this.
I don't want to get into the details about his favorite ways of entertaining himself, but it lasted for 13 years, until I finally learned to fight back. He tried to rape me many times, but I always managed to fight back ...
... What I regret the most is that I didn't tell my mother soon enough. I regret that I didn't go to the police when I understood what he was doing is not normal. I regret that I was too ashamed to do it and I was too afraid to make hurt my relatives and those close to me."
via BuzzFeed - World http://ift.tt/29mAl21
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment