Catwalk

Some nights a week I have to walk for 5-7 minutes from the internet café to my house. What makes it so worth mentioning is the fact the walk happens after 11 pm. This is the time all the nearby shops and parlors are already closed and the streets become desert. Yet, this does not make them completely free from men. Only men – you would hardly see any woman outside that late. I am not taking about pathetic hanging out places, I rather mean normal residential areas. So, still men are plenty – closing their shops, wandering around, riding their bikes and driving their cars. And when the night comes down the men here become braver. Can “more” exist at all? Well, by day the attention mostly comes as stares and attempts to rib against you when in a crowd. By night it’s all is there too, yet the stares turn from stares-on-the-way to standing-still-and-unscrupulous-staring. The verbal attention comes up too. “Hei sexy”, “Hei sweety, where shall I drop you?”; for less eloquent, but still talented individuals singing works. I obviously realize I violate the rules of women’s decency and modesty but showing up outside that late. And you, women, will be shown your place once you dare to break the rules. Put aside physical harassment, but even mental one would cool down your brave aspirations: getting all these stares and comments you would feel as a fallen women some hundreds years ago…….the one who got caught by her husband for an adultery and now walked to the pyre she’ll be burned at. With her arms and legs tied up with ropes she is walked though the endless streets of the town; and the people in the crowd shout swears, throw stuff, touch and punch her. So that to teach the lesson.