A World That Fears the Sound of Her Heels

Women are more than birthing machines and sexualized eye candy.

Violence against women does not limit to the physical turmoil women have to endure, but extend to the grotesque deprivation and limitation of women’s freedom in their education, employment and freedom of movements. This ordeal has extended into a “matter of dignity, equality and human rights”.

Today millions of women live in countries where violence, inequality, and fear define their daily lives. This is about laws, systems, and silence that make being a woman dangerous.

Among multitude of horrendous forms of violence that range from rape and forced marriage to genital mutilation and femicide, women suffer immensely. Domestic violence which has become universal and sadly and shamelessly normalized tend to subordinate women. Many abused victims tend to stay or return to the abusive relationships due to economic dependency, children, lack of resources or simply because of how normalized the situation is.

As one woman from Afghanistan said, “The Taliban have robbed us of our identity, They want us to hide behind our walls of our homes. They don’t see us as human beings”. Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan they have dismantled Afghan women’s and girls rights imposing draconian restrictions. Today in Afghanistan “women should not appear in public without a mahram also known as blood-relatives or relatives by marriage, Women should not wear high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps lest it might excite him, Women must not speak loudly in public as no stranger should hear a woman’s voice, All street-level windows should be painted over or screened to prevent women from being visible from the street, Women were forbidden to appear on the balconies of their apartments or houses, Ban on women’s presence on radio, television or at public gatherings of any kind” and many more absurd restrictions applies to women in Afghanistan.

As Meryl Streep states, “Today in Kabul, a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a Squirrel into the park. A Squirrel has more rights than a girl today, because public parks are closed to women and girls. A bird may sing but a girl may not. This is a suppression of the natural law”.

Ironic isn’t it? Women who give birth to these men, men who are only able to see this world because of a woman have deprived women from seeing the world. They have downgraded women solely to birthing machines and objects to derive sexual pleasure from. A woman can’t wear heels due to the sound they make and can’t reveal their beautiful faces just because it might excite a man. A man getting excited due to these things cannot be blamed on women, people often find it easier to point fingers at something outside themselves than to face what truly lives within, their conscience, desire and between what they know is right and what they want in the moment, women are not at fault for men’s weaknesses and choices yet men use their power over women as a justification for their sins.

Women in Iran can be arrested, fined or imprisoned for showing their hair in public under Iran’s mandatory hijab laws. Women can get beaten up, tortured or executed for protesting for their rights. “Honour killings”, are somethings common in both Iran and Pakistan. Honour killings punish women for being a disgrace to the family, refraining from forced marriages, having sexual relationships or adultery, getting divorced or even for being a victim of rape. Honour killings have occurred in sub-continents of Pakistan for hundreds of years and authorities in the country, legally obligated to treat such incidents as a crime of homicide, often ignore such killings. In Pakistan, abductions of girls are often tied with trafficking, rape, forced marriages, forced labor. Pakistani society overall is characterized not only by a patriarchal order that is entrenched in society but also by power inequalities.

Focusing on the raging war in Gaza, the occupation has provoked dreadful suffering for women and girls. Especially with overflowing camps and limited resources, there is an increase in the capacity for gender based violence. These overcrowding shelters and the lack of sanitary, hygiene products make women and girls even more vulnerable towards infections and diseases. An estimated 46,300 and more pregnant women in Gaza are facing crisis levels of hunger, without protection and unable to flee on short notices. The world expects women to bear children and produce heirs but who’s there to protect them in times of vulnerability? Throughout this subsequent war, there have been reports of outrageous acts of sexual violence against women and girls by the occupation, even being in detention.

Femicide, or killing of women and girls because of their gender can be seen vastly in countries such as Brazil and South Africa. A record of 1492 victims in 2024, the highest number since the femicide law was enacted in 2015. Femicide in South Africa is a national crisis, with one of the highest rates in the world. Women getting killed based on their gender and what does the authorities do? Little to nothing. The laws are enacted but still the men responsible for these innocent deaths get to walk free or live their lives again after a jail period.

In Central African Republic, armed groups use rape as a weapon in war and forced marriages, trafficking are reportedly rising at alarming rates particularly in displacement camps and areas controlled by armed groups. “Women and girls are also being raped, exploited and abused in camps, in transit and within their own communities”, rape is used in conflict zones in Democratic Republic of Congo. Even in war women are used as an intermediate to take revenge on.

In Somalia, female genital mutilation remains widespread, affecting nearly all women and girls. It is deeply rooted in cultural, social and religious traditions. 99% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the practice as of 2025. Female genital mutilation causes devastating and often irreversible harm, affecting survivors’ physical, social, and emotional well being. Girls in Somalia are often married before age 15 and some as young as 10, depriving these little girls of education, freedom and a childhood.

There is no justice for these women who are bound to suffer from the day they are born. They are deprived of a beautiful childhood, freedom, independence. These women are forced to depend on a man, the men they give birth to have deprived of any power they have over themselves.

Often women seek protection under men, their boyfriends, husbands, but in the case of Mrs. Gisele Pelioct, a French woman who was drugged and mass raped by her husband’s planning, her expectations of protection from her husband were shattered. “They treated me like a rag doll”, she stated. This makes me question where is safety for a woman within a relationship or a marriage? She was able to speak out and seek justice for herself. But what about the women who are unable to voice their injustices, the authorities stay silent while the women have to pay because men find it convenient to avoid responsibility for their own desires, impulses and cruelty.

Most of these women do not know a life without misogyny, which is devastating. They live a life without a sense of equality or even sympathy, derived from basic human rights. These women are treated as birthing machines, slaves and sex objects. Women have become sexualized eye candy in the eyes of these men. It’s time to treat women as human beings and not objects that men own.

Penned By:

Rtr. Rajani Divigalpitiya

General Member