Do you understand the gravity of what it is to be a woman living in South Africa? https://twitter.com/news24/status/1274034971032895489

Do you understand how every single time I open my front door to go anywhere, I take a moment to acknowledge that I may not be coming back?

Do you understand that before I go for a run, I have to text my mum and tell her when I ought to get home so she knows if she needs to call the police and come fetch my dog should I disappear?

Do you understand that every time I have ever left a meet up with a friend, I’ve told her to text me when she gets home safely and felt an anxious knot in the pit of my stomach until the minute she finally does?

Do you understand that every time I say goodbye on the phone or in person, that goodbye is loaded with the meaning that comes with the potential loss of life because the truth is, I could very well be next? Any of us could.

Do you understand that I have to try harder to think of a friend who has NOT been assaulted or harassed or raped, than to think of one who has - and I can count the friends who haven’t on one hand?

Do you understand that there is no “bad guy” type we can learn about and avoid because it is our brothers and our fathers and our husbands and our boyfriends and our friends as much as it is a random man - and it could literally be any man anywhere on any given day?

You may think you understand, but you don’t. You have no fucking idea what it is like to wake up every single and wonder if you’ll be next. You have no fucking idea what it’s like to find getting home and climbing into bed to be a miracle that you hope comes again the next day.

You have no fucking idea because if you did, if you cared enough to do something about it instead of blaming us or muting us or telling us to stop dying so loudly or being so angry or fighting with us over your hurt feelings, then THINGS WOULDN’T BE THIS WAY.

You have no fucking idea.

And I can assure you, if you did, things wouldn’t be this way.