A cry in the dark

I am a 400-level medical student in Nigeria. On the day my pharmacology lecturer taught us about different types of medication to treat seizures he told us a story that still leaves me and most of my classmates traumatized.

He told us that a 14-year-old Mercy Vangervihi was asleep in her room when her 15-year-old classmate broke into her house through the window, went a collected a wooden pestle (this is common in a Nigerian household as it is a cooking utensil), hit it on Mercy's head and proceeded to sexually assault her unconscious body. When he said this story some of us, like me, thought this happened a long time ago, maybe in the 90s, but no, this happened on the 29th of August,2024! She suffered severe brain damage, is still unconscious and is still having seizures. Now she needs a brain surgery which costs millions of naira that her family cannot afford, and they are begging the public for assistance. My lecturer ended this story by saying quote, "Women are really in trouble".

I listened to this story with a very heavy heart, I could not imagine anyone going through something as horrible as this. But then, this is a real-life story, not fiction but reality. It makes you angry whenever someone says that women are not being oppressed, the oppression is real!

Moving to the world scene we hear of all the horrid treatment women are receiving in India. Stories of women, but young and old getting sexually assaulted by groups of men each day. I saw a post from an X account named South Asia Index that read, "India: - 15-year-old gets gang-raped, gives birth after rape, gets gang-raped again at hospital by doctors and staff" and another that read, "United States: - Indian doctor in US arrested for recording thousands of nude videos of kids he treated". All these are happening as recently as this year. And not to forget one of the most recent events, the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. These events are now showing to the whole world the deep-seated problem, what happens when the society does not keep everyone in check. In countries like India and Nigeria the level of insecurity encourages things like this. It seems like the government ignores these issues, sometimes, they even try to blame the victim by asking questions like, "why were you there?", "what were you wearing?", "you should have known better". But in the instances above, the women were not doing anything wrong, they were where they were supposed to be, this shows that it is not the faults of the women, it is the problem of those who take advantage of the women because they might be physically stronger, older or have the advantage of number. Stories like this come up all the time, cause a little public outrage and are eventually forgotten, the victims forgotten and the whole process repeats itself. So sad!

Then this article would not be complete without adding the oppression and suppression women in Afghanistan are currently facing. They have had everything taken away from them. everything: education, health care etc. And, most recently, they are no longer allowed to speak, sing or recite in public. Trying to make the women unseen and unheard, undoing what years of feminism has fought for. Undoing all the progress and regressing to the dark ages.

As a young woman growing in this current time, it makes the future look so bleak and unwelcoming. What hope is there for women if we grow up in society that exploits the weaker members of this society, what hope is there if a woman has to live in fear of everyone: family, colleagues, health staff, neighbours even a stranger walking past them on the street.

The women will not be silenced. We should continue to band together and continue to call out these atrocities until the world hears us. We should continue to speak up until governments all over the world put policies in place to stop the insecurities which breed these kinds of actions. Women should live in a world where they have the rights to accomplish whatever life dream or ambition they want. They should not be handicapped just because they are women. They should not have to always move around with weapons just because they are women. These are the values feminists and feminist organizations are fighting for and I believe everyone should be a part of this fight