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A news report recently surfaced about a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by an MMDA traffic aide.
Here’s the report from “TV Patrol”:
According to the report above, the incident was filed only a month after, since it was only discovered through the girl’s diary. Laws that would look after women in these cases have already been at work, yet Filipinas are continuously exposed to the danger of rape and unfortunately, most of the time left with the choice of not pursuing the perpetrators. Thus, most rape cases are discovered late and some remain unresolved.
The most common reason of unresolved rape cases is that justice in the Philippines is slow and expensive. Women who can’t afford it would rather choose to save their reputation than finding justice while dragging their name in the embarrassment that the case brings. But are you aware that you might have contributed to this problem in one way or another, regardless of your gender? I got two points on this:
1. We see rape victims differently.
When I say differently, this pertains to how we view women who are raped. Yes, we don’t blame them for what happened. Yes, we pity those who are raped. We even encourage them to report what happened and seek justice. Despite that, many people, whether we admit it or not, “talk” about their situation and consider them “unfortunate,” defining who they are and limiting who they can be since the “unfortunate” label had been tagged on them. Eventually, it is only pity that these women get from others.
What happens after that? Nothing. We have raised our women in our culture (ideally) to be pure and the concept of shame goes hand in hand with virginity. Amid the modern community that we have, at the back of our minds, still, we couldn’t deny that raped women become less of who they were in the judgmental eyes of the many. This passing of judgment makes women prefer to keep themselves from the humiliation, thinking to save their reputation since they were not able to save their virginity. This can be one reason for the victim to keep the rape case in a diary.
A 14-year-old who most likely wishes to meet her ideal man someday, someone who has big dreams, someone who wants a better future for her and her family, when tagged “unfortunate” will definitely lead a different course of life.
2. We always tell women to be careful rather than teaching men to be humane.
Inculcating values such as respect for women is what we lack. Always, women find themselves in danger when walking down a dark and empty hallway. We track time when we are going home, because we can’t stay late. We find men who can accompany us in going to far places. We, women do everything to keep ourselves safe. But no matter how much effort we exert in protecting ourselves, there is always the danger of getting raped as long as some men do not understand the fear they inflict on women, and that they are suppose to respect the opposite sex.
Some people would think after hearing the news that the girl was not supposed to go with strangers, eventually leading to the idea that it was partly her fault. Narrow-minded people think that way. Who wants to be raped? Isn’t trust considered a value? If the girl’s claim is true, this girl trusted a public servant in the person of a traffic enforcer, and she was allegedly taken advantage of. Why find fault in the girl, if ideally men are supposed to protect women rather than harassing them? Regardless what women do, they do not deserve to be molested.
With the hope that our justice system would help protect women, I do hope that we also learn what rape culture is and how we can help in eliminating it.
