Women´s vulnerability

Suddenly, somebody was pulling a gun to our heads. We couldn´t see who it was. We were so afraid that we just closed the eyes and prayed for our lives. When we eventually dared to look around we saw a man, dressed in military clothes, holding a Kalavnikov and playing with it were a toy.

He was joking with us, asking for our husbands, why we were driving with no male companion. When two white women travel by themselves around some African areas this is the kind of risk they must take. Although before making the decision on visiting Equatorial Guinea we were aware of it, we really didn´t know that we would get involved in such an awful situation.

“I need to get to Leleyand and I want you to drop me off” said the soldier staring at us. We barely could react. I was not picturing myself letting that men enter our car. He was armed to the teeth, drunk and eager to flirt with two “exotic” women. Suddenly, an inspiration came to mind and I could finally answer: “We cannot let you go with us because our husbands are jealous. They don´t let us to stay with other men”. Unfortunately, female travellers in such countries only can deal with this kind of situations lying about her marital status. And even if this is the only option for them it might not work.

After our answer, the solider bit his tongue. He hesitated for a while and decided to let us go. However, deep inside us we knew that from that moment on, our trip will be different. We knew that at any point he was going to get revenge.

We finally left, trying to release the pressure we had been under over those last minutes. We looked at each other and without speaking any word, we breathe relieved. We drove for 30 minutes more, being more and more aware of how lucky we had been for having escaped that situation. But shortly after this thought came to mine mind, I saw the soldier´s figure again. He was standing up on the road, waiting for us. He stopped our car and made us go out. He had caught up with us because once we left, he asked somebody else to give him a ride.

“Say sorry. Don´t you see what consequences has had the fact you didn´t want to let me go with you? I serve this country. I´m a solider and nobody else can better protect you. You should have trust me.” We didn´t know how to say. He was really angry and his ego had been buried.

“Say sorry, you must say sorry to me”. He kept insisting. I didn´t want to kneel down and be humiliated in such a way. He was about to pull his gun on us again when an unforeseen event happened.

The guy fell down, completely drunk, unconsciously. It was our salvation. If this unexpected incident hadn´t happened, we would have died. We would have disappeared in the middle of nowhere, without the opportunity to fighting for our lives.

This happening reminded us how fragile our lives are, and above all, how vulnerable are African women. At least, we could replay to the soldier´s statement, but many of our African peer couldn´t have done it. How many of them die every day for not being able to stand up for themselves? How many others are invisible because they cannot speak their mind? It is not always a gun involved in such a situations. There might be another harmful weapon: An intimidation, a discrimination, an insult, a sexual harassment… Words and its consequences might be as damaging as a gun.