Last night, I was staying over at a friend's garden, enjoying my cup of coffee. I heard someone yelling. It was a boy whose voice sounded young. He was shouting at his sister. I did not realize the reason because I didn't bother to focus. Five minutes later, I heard a powerful noise. Two women were screaming begging not to be locked in a room, then I heard something bash the walls of the house and things breaking furiously as I stood in the garden trying my best to cover my ears not to hear the women beg for mercy. The noise was ugly. I took my things and ran away to avoid what I just heard. Five minutes later, a girl runs away hysterically as she cries. I thought to call the police but then it hit me when my friends said: "they won't do anything. They will probably tell you it is a family business, one we do not interfere with." I felt helpless and angry. I couldn't stand the fact that I had the option to help and I could not offer it, because I clearly remember that last year, I was in that girl's shoes. Around the world, at least one woman in every three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Every year, violence threatens the lives of millions of women. Violence against women is rooted in the global culture of discrimination among those who deny the women equal rights with men. Violence is a disease to those who commit it and a curse to those who receive it, but in a world where illness could be curable, violence remains incurable, you either kill it or let it eat your humanity up and kill you. Violence against women feeds off discrimination and serves to reinforce it. When women are abused in custody, raped by armed forces as "spoils of war", terrorized by violence at home, unequal power relations between men and women are manifested and enforced. Violence against women is compounded by discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual identity, social status, class, and age. Such multiple forms of discrimination further restrict women's choices, increase their vulnerability to violence and make it even harder for women to obtain justice. There is an unbroken spectrum of violence that women face at the hands of people who exert control over them. The governments have the obligation to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women whether perpetrated by private or public actors. The states have a responsibility to uphold standards of due diligence and take steps to fulfill their responsibility to protect individuals from human rights abuses, but do all States stand up for those who are in need? It's almost extremely hilarious and horribly uncanny how almost 90% of our societies happen to approve such discrimination, holding very poor reasons for such actions. Violence against women in custody, Acid Burning and Dowry Deaths, "Honor" Killings, Domestic violence, Female Genital Mutilation are all shapes and kinds of violence experienced by so many women out there around the clock with nobody to protect them. A lot of countries are still unsafe, and a lot of those in charge do not interfere to save them. In a world like this, it takes someone a lot of guts to actually stand up for themselves and ask for justice. Many of those heroic people have died fighting for their rights to be. On November 25, 1960, three Dominican sisters, political activists known as the Hermanas Mirabal, were brutally assassinated for opposing the Trujillo dictatorship. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women remembers this day. Since 1981, as a tribute to the Mirabal sisters, as well as global recognition of gender violence, the date 25 November has been marked by women's activists as a day against violence against women. This year, the 25th of November will stand for the prevention of violence against women along with spreading awareness, for every woman out there to know where to stand solid.
