“SOCIETY IN WHICH WE LIVE”

Once there was a girl. Her name was Raniya. She was roughly eighteen years old. At that time, she was doing her Intermediate and she was really an extra-ordinary student in her class. She always stood first and got highest marks in her school until matriculation. And in her higher education, she was also doing very well. She was such a girl who could speak for herself at every platform without any hesitation that what other people would think. She was confident but not conceited. She was contended and she believed that women are not weak creatures if compared to men. This was her quality that made her look unique from the rest of girls of her age. She always loved her life and wanted to make it more happening and adventurous. But fate cannot always be fruitful. One has to face the harsh reality of the world to become the true version of himself.

It was the month of July. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was about 45°C. Outside, the warm breeze, due to the sun, was piercing the clothes of people and making them difficult to breathe. Raniya was taking her last lecture in her college. She had four consecutive lectures before. She was too tired as the temperature soaked all of her energy. The class ended at 3 pm. She rushed towards the bus stop. To her bad luck, she missed the bus, and now stranded in the hot weather with the sun above her head. She moved to the waiting lounge of the bus station. She waited there for 10 to 20 minutes but, she could not hold herself back and decided to take the auto and go home. Luckily, she found an auto nearby. She went to her colony with no trouble at all. Suddenly, the auto driver stopped and said, “ma’am, auto cannot go any further as the road to your house is broken and I do not want my vehicle to get damaged”. She insisted a little but she knew, it was of no benefit to persuade the auto driver (that he would not go any farther). So, she started walking on her feet. On her way home, she felt herself alone as the people of the neighborhood were locked in their houses due to the scorching heat of the sun. After some time, she sensed a noise behind of people approaching her. She got the idea that she was being followed. She started walking fast. She was terrified. She wanted to call someone from her home but, to her dismay, her phone’s battery was also dead. She could not do anything but walk even faster than before. The footsteps approaching her also got the speed and she could hear them right before her. 

There came a deserted area as no one was there, no bikes, no cars. And the people, who were following Raniya, got the chance to make their move. Unfortunately, she got caught. There were four people. They grabbed her forcefully and took her into some abandoned house. She screamed. She cried. She shouted for help. But there was no one who could hear her voice. She fought bravely. She begged for mercy but those people were monsters living on the planet. She got raped badly and she could not do anything for herself. Later, they left her in the middle of the street after an hour or two. There, she felt helpless in her own town. Now, there were people outside but no one came near, judging her as per her appearance. She was standing alone roadside, no scarf with ripped clothes from the sides. She grabbed the courage to go home. She went home with lost senses. She could not even speak. She merely told her family about the incident happened to her. Her mother believed her and felt sorry for her. But the rest of the family did not. They blamed her for the mischief, she faced. Her father said, “It is completely your fault. Why didn’t you call any of us if you had missed the bus?” Her two big brothers got very angry and blamed her clothing style that she wore western clothes and stuff. She could not understand the behavior of her family members and started feeling more helpless in her home.

Lately, the society started talking about the incident and her character. They started making rumors, like, she was bold and also had affairs with other guys, to justify that the incident happened with her was due to her fault only. None of them blamed the culprits behind instead, they made it more difficult for the victim by raising allegations and spreading rumors. At this point, she was utterly vulnerable. She lost her self-respect. She lost her passion. She lost her reputation in her family and in the society. Everybody started looking her in a different way like she was not one of them. This incident made her a whole different person afterwards. She took a break from everything and locked herself in her house for five months just to heal herself at her own pace. In these five months, she realized many things and started looking at the world from a different angle. After taking a break from everything, she came out as a new person, more hopeful, more powerful, more confident, more optimistic as if she knew how to deal with the cruel world. Afterwards, she passed her college with excellent grades. She got admission in a university and did her BS program in English Literature. She graduated from university at the age of 25. At this age, she knew that she had not got anybody who she could trust but herself. She knew that she was alone in this cruel world and has to face its cruelty by herself.

After that, she started working for the women rights. She developed an organization to help girls, struggling with harassment because she knew, how this little negligence could destroy the whole life of a girl. She had a motive to stand for every girl who became the victim of this brutality. She wanted to be there for every young girl who is not strong enough to take care of herself. For this purpose, she started a helpline of the organization which would be the first priority of every girl to dial if she was being followed. She did, all she could for the safety of girls in their young age. She wanted to get peace in her life that those monsters had stolen from her at a very young age. And, she could only get that peace by assuring that no other girl will go through the situation, she had faced.