Flung into a police cruiser, manhandled and beat. Off to the police station and jail tombs for interrogation and possible further abuse. What has this educated professional woman done, what crime could she be accused of you may ask? Her public rejection of despotism. That is why she will be terrorized, abused and possibly disappeared in the future.
Whether she lives in Latin and Central America, the continent of Africa, Asia, Russia, China or even North America women like her will be targets of tyrants and their henchmen. Yes usually men, secure only in their abilities to punish, terrorize and threaten the innocent of this world.
She arrives at jail to find out that she has been charged with assaulting an officer. Seems she resisted the police by simply shoving them in a struggle to stay free. Lifting your hand to such authority can get you murdered in many global situations. Is she ever told why she is really in prison? She knows of course, but habeas corpus and civil rights, let alone women’s rights or the right of self-expression don’t really exist, only on paper(national constitution).
Depending upon her physical appearance and importance to society this woman could spend months or years in prison facing continual abuse, rape, humiliation and torture. If she is a known person perhaps a little slapping around and terror may be enough to silence her, but if she stands her ground the authorities have as much time as they wish to brutalize and break her.
Depending on where this happens, her family and loved ones may not know where she may be, or they do as happens in many well-known prisons of torture where the cries of prisoners are often heard throughout the night.
Cuban or Nicaraguan Police Professionals will interrogate these women for as long as it takes. Asian and African tyrants will often simply disappear these brave women.
Why are women who participate in human/civil rights movements targeted? Well, men are much more easily understood by the predator, while women in these societies represent the very strength of a movement, public opinion and the family unit. A man will fight and often die for a cause, but a woman faces so much more. They are the sisters, mothers, wives, family members and leaders of most societies. Their opinions are heard by most, even those who fight the good fight. If the authorities take down these symbols of all that the public cherish, be it family, love, faith, sober thought and maternal advice the getter good is threatened and damaged. Women have been known to be far more fanatical, resourceful and charismatic in many historical movements.
Protect your women, and disallow the many threats they face daily, be it poverty, criminality, sexual assault or the denial of their rights. Within every society, women are still treated as secondary citizens paid less, and mistreated often. Ask why the women in North America still make 25-38% less in wages than their equal partnered men.
This chauvinism is universal. Whether we wish to admit it or not, women still have a long way to go towards equality. Over half of the nations on this planet mistreat their women in some way, be it civil or religious in nature, it is still manipulative, oppressive and sexist. Women in the West can vote for a leader, but they cannot vote freely for better treatment, better wages and better representation within the socio-political arena.
They can burn their bra’s, march together, hang in prison cells, disappear and never be seen again, tortured, humiliated, lied to, and ignored, but never can they not be socially significant, politically and economically present. Half the world’s population are women. I wish we could hear them roar!
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
[email protected]
