Women of Juarez

The two days there have been a huge display of T-shirts hanging around Schoenberg Quad. Yesterday I was curious about what's going on and went checking out a bit. It was a project aiming to stop sexual violence.

"Women of Juarez" is just one of thir presented talks. But it is the extreme case of violence against women. Juarez is a boarder city close to Texas, U.S.A. Since 1993, hundreds of women were raped, killed, and dumped in the desert of Chihuahua. Lots of famous international coporations set up their factories around the boarders of the U.S. and Mexico for cheap labors. Even though these factories are basically sweatshops, compared to the even lower income in other places, Juarez attracts lots of labors, especially woman from all over south American. In a place where there's no phone, no friends, no family, but work at a factory, what would happen if you suddenly disappear? Nothing! The city is also full of crime and drugs, like all the other boarder cities, which nurtures the violence against women. Due to bad infrustructures of the city and indifferent government and international companies, these women work on late shifts at night, walking for blocks to a bus stop, and communting at dusk. On their way to work, they got kidnapped, brutally killed, raped and thrown in the desert. No friends to report for their missing or identities. Their family far away in the rurual areas never know what happened to them. No one figured out how many women were being found dead in the desert. Some said a hundred, some said a thousand. But not a single culprit was caught. The police was corrupted and disinterested. I think this is the tragdy for a society where there's no orders and no body really cares. Because everyone is an isolated stranger and they just want to pass by, the cruelty was developing as badly and quickly as violence.


I first learned about the issue when I was in San Diego, roomming with a mexican EAP student, Ilse. She told me about this documentary, "The Lost Women." I didn't get to watch it but I vividly remember Ilse's report from the movie and the workshop she went to. When I went with Int'l Christian Fellowship on a one day project in Tijuna, I also heard similar stories. On the side of the freeway and streets, we often saw graffitti of names and cross and flowers. I couldn't read spanish. But they said they were for people died as victims of murders and crimes.


NPR has a really good report on the issue of sexual assault in Juarez. I also found some more reports on the same issue from a revolutionary communist website. (You can still give credit to them even though they are communists, right?) It's been in a rediculous situation where young girls, students all become victims of sexual crime and the authorities didn't do any thing to stop it. The society blamed these women for their own murder. Violence is being tolerated. Women were afraid. Men could joke like "she'd better be careful not to end up in the desert" when they saw a provocative dressing woman.

I don't know why I always got so pissed off when I read stories like this--people, especially women under oppression. I mean, I already passed that stage of being an angry feminist. I'm not gonna make a conculsion like "it's all because of men." What I feel the most is the injustice, and the sadness toward the inactiveness (within myself and people).

I once (well, couple times) thought of doing something that's women related, like some organization for women under oppression or something. But I was too afraid. I can feel people's pains, and I load them up on myself. That's probably why I can't be a social worker or counselor. Afterall it's a lot easier to stay back reading news, get angry, and ponder on the issue on the bus to school than to actually do anything.