I've had enough.
It’s about 7pm, and I’m walking home from the library. I’ve had a knot in the pit of my stomach since I looked out the window when I finished my work and realised it was dark. I am alone. I hear a man’s voice behind me and my breath catches in my throat. He passes by me. I see a man standing outside a door start walking as I’m passing him. I start walking faster. I can feel my heart beating. This is the reality of being a woman. It has been ingrained in me since I was 12 years old and my dad told me to take the dog with me when I was walking to my village shop for the first time by myself. I am constantly aware of my own frailty. I am constantly aware that in the dark, alone, I am unsafe. I have been conditioned to believe that I must be hyper vigilant, that I am responsible for what happens to me at the hands of men. You might say that nothing’s going to happen to me, that my fears are in my head. Tell that to my friend who was picked up in a taxi and taken back home for