An Open Letter to The Men Who Have Assaulted Women

by Amy Kumar – Follow @browngirlmag

*TW: Sexual assault, domestic violence

To the man in the dark.

As a woman, we encounter numerous amounts of sexist encounters, the cat calls and the assumptions, the rape and the molestations.

I am not yours.

Who said I was yours to yell vulgar things and to act like I was bound to you by unseen chains?

The burden of womanhood is not one I should bear with such a heavy heart, it is one that I should carry with joy and pride but yet you make me regret it?

What is the joy in a demeaning comment that makes a young girl’s heart skip a beat in fear?

You steal her innocence, her trust, like a dirty thief.

She is not yours.

I am not a slave; I am not an object. I live and breathe just like you.

Who gave you the right to molest those women in Bangalore on New Year’s?

Who gave you the right to touch them inappropriately as they were helpless under your grasps.

Those were mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, and granddaughters.

Those were people

They are not yours.

What gives you the right to say that they were not allowed to walk the street at night when you yourself walk those same streets with repulsive pride.

I am not yours and your Y chromosome does not tell me otherwise.

Why should women be asked to cover up when even if we are dressed in bikinis or burqas your piercing eyes still undress us from head to toe?

Why are we taught to not go out at dark and dress properly when we should be teaching you to not to rape us, call at us, and shame us.

How hard is it to give a human being the respect they deserve?

This is not about culture, this is about basic self-respect

I don’t care if you say they were drunk or they were barely wearing clothes. I don’t care if the mother was feeding her child and her breast excited you. I don’t care if they were alone or with their friends. I don’t care if they were young or old.

No matter what race or what they look like, they don’t deserve their respect being stripped away from them piece by piece, touch by touch.

They are not yours. We are not yours. I am not ours. I am my own.

Amy Kumar is a pre-med student at Baylor University and also a Certified Medical Assistant who lives in the Washington D.C area. She hopes to inspire south Asian women to live up to their dreams and advocate for their rights, whether it may be, loving their skin color or fighting for equality. She stands right with them. She also loves to dance both Bollywood and classical Indian forms and enjoys baking and watching Netflix.You can follow her on Instagram at haroldand_kumar