The trending topic in Mexico this week has been Mara Fernanda Castillo, a 19-year-old Political Science student from Puebla, Mexico, who was murdered this September. On September 8, 2017, Mara went to a party with her friends, and afterward ordered a Cabify (which is a transporting service similar to Uber), but never made it home. Though the car that picked her up was caught on tape arriving at her destination, no one came out. She was declared missing and 8 days later her body was discovered. After the discovery investigators learned that she had been taken to a motel where she was killed, and later dumped her body. After an autopsy, it was declared that she had been sexually assaulted and had died of strangulation. The state is supposedly doing their best to make sure that the man responsible for this gets punished to the greatest degree.
When I heard this, my heart broke. This is a reality that sadly women face every day. But there’s more. Upon this event, the rector of a Mexican university declared that women are to blame for the feminicides that happen to them, because they (women) have acquired the liberties they fought for and have chosen to stay out late at night, drink, and ride cars in alone, therefore ‘choosing’ to put themselves at risk and to face the vulnerability that has led to these crimes. My blood boils of disgust as I write this. How can a rector, a figure of authority and wisdom, put out this misogynist message for his students to see, for the world to see? Why are we letting people with such wrong values and beliefs be our leaders? More so, how can anyone even think that it was Mara’s fault that she was killed?
At least there’s a light at the end of a tunnel. After this tragic event, women all over Mexico and the world have taken to social media to show their support for Mara, uniting and offering their homes to any women faced with a similar situation at night where they might be alone and have no place to go, to avoid something like this from happening again. Additionally, women around the area of Mara’s hometown have since organized peaceful marches, to stand up against this injustice, using the hashtag #NiUnaMás, meaning ‘not one more’ [victim]. There is also relatively new transport service in Mexico called Laudrive. Laudrive offers the same services as Uber and Cabify, however, is unique in the sense that the cars are driven by women for women. For one it guarantees better safety for women, as well as also provides women with more job opportunities. I think this app is amazing, and I totally support it; but my question is: do we really need to go to these extents to make a woman feel safe?
Can’t men learn to be decent human beings around women?
