Ni Una Menos

It was Tuesday night. I was home after an early day at work. It was just Penne, Cannoli, and me strolling around the house, another day in Buenos Aires for us.  That morning I had led devotion with the school staff. The reading came from Joshua 2:1-24, the story about Rahab and the spies.  The topic was God’s grace given to us through faith. Rahab, a woman, sex worker, and non- Jew opened her home to these two strange men seeking shelter in their journey. When she was threatened by the King, rather than giving up the two men Rahab continued to protect them because she believed that the God of their understanding had truly blessed the Hebrews with the land. Because of her faith, she was protected when the army of Joshua came back to take over Jericho. In hindsight while grace had been a god theme, maybe it was not Rahab whose story should have been told.

Even though I live here I am still completely unaware of what is happening in the news. There is not a television in the house and I have not really thought of asking about popular news stations to source on the internet. Most of the time, I am just happy to have Netflix work. Basically I have been living in a bubble here only mindful of what friends choose to share with me and what I see through my travels. Besides, 2016 in the United States has drained me entirely. I do not think I even have the capacity to keep aching for the murders of people of color, weeping over the election season, and also invest emotionally in the social welfare of Argentina. Just learning about the social inequities in Grand Bourg versus other parts of the Provincia has been difficult enough. Ignorance is bliss. Today would not be the day to enjoy such bliss.

In the late evening I received a message from my supervisor in two different youth group chats:

“Difundan: 19/10 paro de mujeres. De 12.20 a 13 concentración en Larralde y cabildo. Corte de calle. Todxs vestidxs de negro con carteles de protesta. Difundir la movida en los grupos de wasap x favor
Y para las que no pueden para El DIA MIERCOLES 19 DE OCTUBRE LAS MUJERES NOS VESTIREMOS TOTALMENTE DE NEGRO DURANTE TODO EL DIA COMO SENÑAL DE PROTESTA POR LOS FEMICIDIOS PASAR POR FAVOR A SUS AMIGAS Y AMIGOS. En esta tenemos que estar todos juntos y juntas.”

"Spread: October 19th women strike. From 12:20- 1:00pm concentration on Larralde and Cabildo. Court Street. Comrades dress in all black with protest signs. Spread the move in Whatsapp groups x Please

And for those who cannot for the day WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER WOMEN WE ARE WEARING ALL BLACK THROUGHOUT THE DAY AS PROTEST BY SIGNALING FEMICIDE PLEASE SPREAD THIS MY FRIENDS. In this all we have to be together. "

I was caught completely off guard.

“There is a protest happening? Why? Are we going?”

I had no idea why I was being sent this message or what she wanted any of my youth to do. What triggered this? Instead of trying to do research with absolutely no idea of what I was researching since the event did not happen yet, I checked back in with my supervisor. No actual answer, just confirmation that we were not going to the march. I let this fall into the back of my head and worried about other unimportant things such as writing my sermon for Sunday.

                The next day I dressed in all black and sat in meetings with my supervisor. She led morning devotion from Amos to address Gender based violence in Argentina. While I am aware gender based violence happens internationally, it never genuinely occurred to me that it was so much of a problem here. So far I have only met young people in healthy relationships and adults that have been married for years. Out of sight out of mind I guess. My supervisor continued with her reflection and said, “Every thirty hours a woman is murdered because of their gender in Argentina.” One of the directors next to me said, “There are a lot of similarities with our issue here as there is with race in the United States.” He was right. Every 28 hours a black person is shot by the police, security, or vigilantes in the United States.  

While everyone else chimed in to discuss this topic I sat back and reflected. I immediately thought of the 1 of 4 women in the United States that will experience sexual violence in their lifetime, the 1 of 3 Indigenous women that will not only experience sexual violence but will most likely not receive justice either.  Earlier that morning I had read an article about 82 minors rescued from sex trafficking in the Philadelphia area and 16 people arrested. I thought about my powerful YouthBuild students that were vulnerable enough to share about their abusive relationships, ask staff members for help, and advocate for others to get out of their abusive relationships as well. How sick are we as humanity to violate people because of their gender? Who raised us to think less of someone based on socially constructed attributes?

This goes beyond the binary and heteronormativity as well. Men are abused as well. Feminine presenting men are targets for violence as well as masculine presenting women. Transpeople are too often murdered because of their desire to present themselves in the gender they feel most comfortable in.  Gender based violence is such an umbrella term for the everyday hate we witness.

Later that day I finally learned of who stirred the attention of the international media. Her name was Lucia Perez, a sixteen year old girl from Mar del Plata, Argentina. While other sixteen year olds were on social networks or hanging out with their friends, Perez was tortured and raped by a group of men. This young girl was drugged and anally raped with an object. The pain was so great; Perez suffered from a heart attack. Her rapists later washed her off and left at a local hospital to make it look like an overdose. Perez is one of the 226 Argentine women that have been murdered this year.

In regards to the Tuesday morning devotion, Rahab’s role was not an easy one. A single woman opening her home to strange men could have gone in the wrong direction. She could have been sexually violated or murdered like many women other women in the bible and in society today. Rahab could have been overpowered and kicked out of her own home and leaving her helpless as she had consented to helping the spies, a form of treason to the King. Yet she still acted by faith. She was moved by God to trust and to her favor it saved her life.

My fear is how many women are Rahab in spirit with Dinah results. The story of Dinah mirrors that of Lucia Perez. Dinah like Perez was more of a homebody. Like many women every day, they took the chance of being outside thinking they were safe in their own community. Both Dinah and Perez experienced the ugly reality of being a woman, in two entirely different centuries. Their bodies were violated without even the remote concern of consent by their rapists. Neither of their narratives gets to be told by the victims. They are silenced, one by death.  Their trauma then becomes the pain to be bared by their families. Nations weeping, cries for justice to be served. At what point does this story become old? When will no longer need to seek justice for the physical violation of a person’s body?  We work so hard to follow God and to believe that only God can protect us while we still live in a world of humans that harm us. In this culture the noun woman is not a person but rather a place or a thing. We come from wombs that are later penetrated with hate. The breasts where we would once reside for nourishment become keepsakes from invasion. What was once a temple is now a ruin. Flowers blossomed here then the soil was sewed with toxins. Who will protect us the way the spies protected Rahab? Who will empower our fortress and not tear down our walls?

Things I do not want:

·         To wear Black on Wednesdays

·         To  be the 25% of American women that have/ will experience sexual violence in their lifetime

·         Families to bury loved ones because someone else demanded access to a person’s body and was denied.

·         To read any more articles about women being murdered for denying a man’s pass at her.

·         To see comments of men justifying the rape and murder of women

·         View rape threats to presidential candidates regardless of our personal opinions about them.

 None of us should want these things. What are we going to do about it?

#ReclaimMissionary