Raped

Last night a woman was raped two doors down from my room. She was raped several times, beaten and thrown out of the room at 3:47am on a cold Thursday morning. But that is my story, not hers.

At 3.45am, screams rent the air at the hostel. Sounds like mini thunder echoed down the stark corridor; fear filled my heart. Cautiously opening my door and peeking out, I was met with a scene reminescent of times gone by but still all too familiar. The sounds I had heard could now be attributed to slaps from the stout white man to the face of a lithe black young girl. This scene hit me like a ton of bricks and it felt like my blood had crept up suddenly, landing, hot like molten lava in my head. Fury lit the lava in a split second and all traces of sleep and reasoning disappeared.

The young girl said, amid shouts and screams, that she was a prostitute. Her client, the white man, had refused to pay her and was beating her in order for her to leave. Sooner than one could say cat, a stout watchman was by her side, manhandling her towards the way out. "Where were you when he picked me up, negotiated and slept with me? Where were you when my mother prostituted to feed my siblings and I? Will you pay me, now that you want me to leave? Will you give me a place to spend the rest of the night, she asked, amid sobs, screams and a rapidly blackening eye. In the meantime, the white man had silently closed the door behind him, undoubtedly to coil like a satisfied cat under the warm blankets.

"Don't manhandle me. Treat me with respect. Stop! Stop pushing me; at least let me leave with my pride". Mercifully the burly guard let her walk away on her own.

Why wasn't the man asked to leave the very Christian hostel in which we were staying, despite her loud requests that the management allows them to sort out their dilemma outside the premises?

Last night a woman was raped; raped several times by poverty, discrimination, disempowerment, inequality... Last night a woman was raped two doors down from my room. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

(c) PoP