This is a black day for Brazil and a black day for all the human-kind. A girl of 17 (according to some media 16) years was raped by 30 men.
1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11…12…13…14…15…16…17….18…19…20…21…22…23…24…25… 26 …27…28…29…30! Did any of them question what was happening? Try to stop the others? Had any mercy? Hesitated at least for a second? Imagined their mother in the girl’s place? Imagined their daughter in the girl’s place? Felt disgusted for their cruelty?…
The tragedy happened in Rio de Janeiro last Friday (20/05). Only six days later the girl was found and taken to her family. How was she found? One of the rapists put a video of the unconscious naked girl showing her intimate parts. The video went together with horribly disgusting comments which made it clear that she had been a victim of at least 30 criminals. The video appeared online on Tuesday and generated a very negative response towards the author. According to some media, a man who had seen the video, recognized the girl in the street and took her to her family. Six days after the rape, she was finally home thanks to somebody who saw her humiliation online.
The media informed that two of the criminals have been identified. They do not say who they are, what they do, what they like or dislike. The media also brought information about the girl’s lifestyle. What the hell? I do not want to know who she is, what she does, what she likes or dislikes. She is a victim who needs no more exposure to the public. I want to know who the bastards that hurt her so badly are and what is going to happen to them. I want to know that they will spend the rest of their life ostracised by the society and how much money they are able to contribute to pay for the best psychologist of the country to get the girl back together (how absurd of me to want that, right?).
My Facebook wall is covered with posts of angry Brazilian women (mainly) and men shocked by the cruelty. The posts have in common feelings of disgust, anger and outrage. They also criticise the machistic Brazilian society which gives a base for acts like this to happen. Indeed, in my experience, being a woman in Brazil is horrible. It starts with small things. For example, I walked into a wallpaper shop with a male friend. Despite the fact that it was me, the girl, who wanted to buy the wallpaper, the shop assistant greeted only my friend. He asked him his name and shook his hand. He ignored me, the girl. Many times I walk in the street and I can hear men commenting on my physical appearance. Other times, my male friends try to tell me that I cannot do this or that because I am a girl. Am I ridiculous to compare my small discomfort brought by these situations with a rape? Yes, these events are incomparable. Yet, they are closely linked. These small things form the base for the women’s oppression and until we say clear NO to them, more horrible things will keep happening. An oppression of a woman is not acceptable. Whether small or big. Let’s all remember that and let’s stand up against even the small, seemingly unimportant remarks.
Every eleventh minute somebody is raped in Brazil.
1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11…12…13…14…15…16…17….18…19…20…21…22…23…24…25… 26 …27…28…29…30…
What else could open our eyes so that we finally STOP IT?
Teach in Brazil 