Before we talk about solutions, we have to be honest about the danger. Women and girls are not imagining this. We are not b
Before we talk about solutions, we have to be honest about the danger.
Women and girls are not imagining this. We are not being “too fearful.” We are not being “divisive.” We are not being “anti-family,” “anti-love,” or “anti-men” when we name patterns of male violence and demand safety.
We are telling the truth.
For generations, women have been trained to soften the language around our own endangerment. We are told to say “bad relationship” when we mean terror. We are told to say “family conflict” when we mean violence. We are told to say “misunderstanding” when we mean violation. We are told to say “isolated incident” when the pattern has been screaming for years.
And still, the numbers keep testifying.
Women are most often harmed by men they know. Men they trusted. Men their families trusted. Men with titles, charm, status, credentials, spiritual language, community approval, or a seat at the dinner table. This is one of the hardest truths for society to face because it forces us to stop pretending danger only comes from strangers in dark alleys.
At We Survive Abuse, we believe that safety is not a luxury. It is not a private burden women should have to purchase, negotiate, pray for, or earn through perfect behavior. Safety is a human requirement. Safety is a public responsibility. Safety must be built into homes, schools, churches, courts, workplaces, hospitals, neighborhoods, laws, and budgets.
This article by Qasim Rashid names what far too many people still avoid saying plainly: the crisis of male violence against women is not a women’s issue for women to solve alone. It is a human crisis. It is a public health crisis. It is a moral crisis. And it will not be solved by asking women to shrink, hide, forgive faster, carry more, or keep explaining our fear to people who benefit from dismissing it.
We need accountability.
We need prevention.
We need women-only spaces where they are needed.
We need institutions that believe women before tragedy proves them right.
We need boys taught early that consent, boundaries, dignity, and self-control are not optional.
And we need more people willing to stop treating women’s safety as a debate topic.
Read this with care. Read it with courage. And if it stirs discomfort, let that discomfort do its proper work. Not all discomfort is harm. Sometimes discomfort is the first honest doorway into change.
90% of women killed by men, are killed by a man they knew & often trusted. The facts tell a deeply sinister truth: Women are not safe around men. Not because “all men” are dangerous, but because women have no way of know who is who. We need systemic change. -Qasim Rashid, Esq.