Do we wait till it gets as bad?

She has to feel like the sun could burn her if she stands directly under it without the protection of her multi-layered attire.

So when a girl walks out wearing clothes from neck to toes, she wonders if she is safe, because her mother insisted she would be.

She knows she's not.

People tell her "You're safe! It's all okay!" but it's not and it's not the sun that scares her!

From childhood to adulthood girls are never allowed to show skin, ever.

If at all at any point they do, they're smitten for it verbally, physically, mentally, emotionally, by parents, friends, relatives, and strangers on the road.
Until man decides to whack them for no reason at all when they're on the street and he masturbates as they walk by, just because.

She knows someone somewhere is watching her, just because she's a woman.

She knows someone somewhere is plotting to hurt her, just because she's a woman.

- When a man whistles at her as she walks across the road, she thinks it's her fault. She immediately thinks of the mole between her breasts and curses, wondering if her kurti has too low a neck.

- When a man ogles at her, she thinks she made him do it. She may have looked at him for a second too long, or maybe she had it coming because she wore a t-shirt that covered her completely, but that's never enough and she knows it.

- When a man masturbates, he enjoys her terror at the realisation of what he's doing. She thinks she should've acted slower, gotten him caught in the act and made sure that she took slow steps towards the matter.

- When a man rapes her, she is made to feel that it was her fault and she invited it. The worst part is that if it isn't rape, it isn't even a crime. So long as her senses have suffered, but her "body is still pure", she is fine.

To the world, I, am a woman only if!

Only if, I have become the living avatar of Goddess Kali and taken my revenge.

After all, I cannot feel mutilated before I feel anger, and once I feel the anger, I'm acting irrationally.

So when men do things to us, look at us in a way we know is wrong, touch us in a way we don't want, force us to feel things that make us cower in fear as we cross the street in broad daylight, we feel men don't care if a woman feels, screams, or breathes.

It feels like they're hollering, "She's a woman. She knows what's coming to her."

We are never allowed to feel completely safe, because we are baby making machines.

Every time something bad happens to one of us, we try to subdue the pain thinking at least it wasn't a bad as..., till it gets as bad and then worse and there's no way out.

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