Saturday, November 22, 2014

A Doom of One's Own

A five-part series
in the medical journal
The Lancet

has come to the conclusion
that violence against women

is a "global public health
and clinical problem

of epidemic proportions."

The study found
that the key driver of violence

(kind of ironically
as women can't drive)

in low-
or-middle-income countries

is gender inequality

and that
although spreading awareness

was one important first step

nations must also
make it a priority
to allocate resources for victims

change discriminatory structures
and policies

promote support for survivors

strengthen health and education sectors
that both respond to
and prevent violence

and invest in more research

for finding solutions
to gender inequality.

But next to each of these proposals
was an asterisk
pointing to a footnote

which read
"As an alternative solution
for nations that cannot
implement these steps

this publication recommends

asking women

'Why did you let yourselves
get so oppressed
in the first place?'"

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.