Hell On Earth

Note: This Blog Post deviates from the typical happy, light posts of The MamaDoo. Anson is not in this post, so if that is all you're reading for, you might as well stop here. This topic is serious, painful, and ugly. It is not one that makes for good conversation. But I feel the need to give evidence to the plight of these women.



There is a preacher in Tulsa who believes that when people die and go to hell, they are reincarnated back into certain horrible places on Earth, Africa being one of them.

The Tulsa preacher has just a theory, but you can't argue that for millions of people in Africa, life is hellish. Especially for women. What is a part of daily existance for so many women all over the world only exists in our nightmares.

We are not justified in complaining that life is not fair.

We are the product of hard-fought struggles to provide us equal rights, rights that we now take for granted. Rights that the majority of women in the world do not have. Rights that the majority of women in the world don't even dream exist.

Painful reminders of how life is for far too many women in Africa:
~Tribal healers in Zimbabwe are spreading the myth that the only way to cure HIV is to rape a virgin. The younger the girl is, the more guarantee she is indeed a virgin. Not only are these girls victims of rape at a horrendously young age, but they become infected with HIV themselves.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/04/cnnheroes.betty.makoni/index.html
~An estimated 1/3 of women in the Darfurian refugee camps in Chad are rape victims. The number is estimated, as the women hide their rapes for fear of the reprocussions. Those unfortunate enough to become pregnant, unable to hide the evidence of the rape, are ostracized from their families. They are divorced, beaten severely by their family members, and stripped of all possessions, including their clothing. They are completely alone.
http://www.newser.com/article/d98h6ob00/doctors-group-finds-rape-common-against-darfur-women-urges-international-warrants.html
~Bi-sexual and homosexal women in South Africa live in fear that their "secret" will be revealed. Those whose sexuality is revealed are at great risk, as it is becoming more common for these women to be "fixed" through gang rape. If they survive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa

I don't have an answer; no one does. No one will ever know if the Tulsa preacher is right, and these women are indeed reincarnated bad souls. It is easier to accept their fate if we believe that they are indeed deserving of it. But that is a dangerous, dangerous line of thought.


The first thing we can do is to become aware. We can't ameloriate what we do not see. What would the second thing be?