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.

Under construction

The Matrix world is no longer fiction. The new technology era and its impact on society has changed the ways we perceive reality and its domains. Like Neo, the main character, we suddenly see ourselves living between two dimensions whose border is as thin as our imagination and its limits.

Nowadays one can switch from one dimension to another by clicking and navigating through a never-ending world of data and stimuli. This situation raises the question: ¿Can we really choose when we want to join this digital interface? It occurs to me that we don´t have any other alternative. This virtual bubble is completely wrapping us into its reality while the walls between what is virtual and what is real are collapsing. Our society has embraced both worlds making us “digital constructions”.

Historically, our identity was built in schools, the family, religion, the economic system and media (from commercial to mainstream). We were taught how to communicate with each other, the roles we were to play in our societies and the relationships we were to develop along with their barriers. However, the Internet has modified all this.

We are no longer only readers, viewers or users with a passive role. We can publish contents, edit them and target our messages and their impact. As attractive as it sounds, its success depends on the reliability of the information and on a critical-thinking perspective.

In this scenario the content we publish is as important as the image we choose to represent ourselves there. We must be able to present a set of skills, background and expertise. Only then, we will be ready to operate in this miscellaneous supermarket and leave something as a legacy.

In addition, in this new era communication is no longer the key. Connectedness is what really matters. The on-line world offers plenty of information but also the opportunity to exchange and be linked with like-minded people.

Social media has the power to bring people together and create communities across gender, age, status and so on. The differences that usually label us in the off-line world can be set aside since people have the opportunity to make up their identities. One can choose how which features enhance and which do not. The Internet embraces a non-hierarchical structure which allows us to pass on information and take advantage of it more easily. Would the recent events in the Arabian world have been possible without these new technologies? This connectedness allowed people to move past all kinds of discriminations.

The role that Internet plays in our society has given us a different identity as human beings and as citizens. New technologies have changed the way we interact and, above all, the expectations that others have about us. A world without networks and on-line exchange of information is unimaginable today. We wouldn´t be able to step back in time and live without these tools. Recalling Plato´s myth, we have already found out all the possibilities that they have to offer us. Therefore, we cannot turn a blind eye to those possibilities. We are meant to be part of this community.

Unlike Neo, I would not disconnect from this reality since allow us to be part of a new order which broadens our horizons and breaks barriers. But, as with everything, it is up to us to better contribute to it and to tap into its knowledge for the sake of the world community. And we mustn´t forget that the digital world is still under construction, being fed by our values and our capability to enhance dialogue and connectedness.