"It's too revealing".

A sentence every woman has heard in her life.
A sentence a mother has been required to tell her child.

This has forced us to push our crop tops to the forgotten corners of our closet.
This has made our hands nervously and involuntarily tug at the hems of our dresses every time we're in public.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

"Be back before dark".

This is what we hear before we leave the safe enclosures of our home. Not 'Have a good day' or 'Remember to have lunch'

All we have to make sure of, is that we follow the same steps back home that day.

Safe. And Sound. And preferably, Alive.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

"Don't provoke them".

Standing up for yourself is crucial.

But for us, it is something that jeopardizes our lives.

All we can do is ignore.

Ignore the molesting stares and 'unintentional' touches.

Keep our heads down and walk through the streets every day. Feeling like public property as they brush against us and slide their lustful gaze all over us whenever they wish to.

We can't say anything.

Or they'll come after us.

Like they have after many of us.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

"He's following me, can you stay on call?".

Have you ever wondered what we whisper into those calls?
Well here it is.

This is what we tell the friend or family member on our speed dial.
When we hear your footsteps crunching on the snow, close behind us, gaining speed and never stopping. On those empty streets we have to take on our way home.

You make us pray silently that we get through this night. Crave for our mother's warm smiles, and our father's sheltered embrace.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

But sometimes, the walls of our home aren't enough to protect us. When you hide among the ones we trust and love.

Like the devil in disguise.

"Don't dare tell anyone".

That is what you whisper silently into ours ears.

When you take away our innocence and taint our minds.

You kill the girl who dreamt of a knight in a shining armor. Who dreamt of a life with happiness and laughter. Who loved her life. Who found comfort in the embrace of her brother and father.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

"She must've provoked him".

That is what we hear when the word spreads like wildfire.

Friends stop visiting. Children are instructed to stay away from us.

No one stands up beside us.

We feel alone.

We forget how to trust. We spend all of our days and night reminiscing those helpless hours. We avoid sleep like a plague, because we don't want to have those nightmares again.

We feel defeated.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

But the story doesn't end there.

What did you think? She'll wallow in sadness forever? She's forgotten how to fly again?

That's where you're wrong.

That girl you killed, remember her?

She rises.

Like a phoenix from the ashes.

She finds herself. Her life.

She takes her life back.

She won't come after you.

She isn't proving anything to you. Remember that.

But she'll haunt your nightmares. All of them.

She'll stand strong. She'll find her smile again.

She'll leave you behind.

And you will wither away like old memory.
You won't have any more power over her.
It'll eat you up every day to see her laugh.
Because you couldn't break her.

My question to you is..

Are you proud of yourself now?

I think not.

Globally, an estimated 736 million women—almost one in three—have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life (30 per cent of women aged 15 and older).

In the country I live in, rape cases have gone up drastically.

A few months ago, a 17 year old girl named Aurna Amin was raped by her boyfriend and his 3 friends (one of them is still unknown). She lost 2 litres of blood and died at a public hospital.

I have not mentioned the names for safety reasons, so you can google it if you wish to find out.

At around 11:45, Anushka Aurna Amin left for her tution classes. Her mother said that she was in a good mood when she left. Little did she know that was the last time she would see her daughter. Alive.

She later went ahead to a group study session with her friends. 

Her boyfriend and three of his friends took her to an empty residence and raped her taking turns.

When they realised she was bleeding profusely, they took her to a hospital where he called her mother, telling her that Aurna had reportedly fallen sick and fainted at the group study.

When her mother arrived at the hospital, she found out her daughter had been raped and killed. She had been brought in already dead.

An autopsy was conducted the following day and it was reported that the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock by excessive bleeding from vaginal and anal areas.

It turned into an uprising in our city but as every movement, it was shut down because the boy's family had a lot of influence.

I want this story to go to more people because she was only 17 years old. Just two years older than I am. She had a bright future ahead of her but some monsters took that away from her.

Please spread this story to more people. And let her memory spread and last throughout the years.

Please use the tag justiceforaurnaamin in her memory