As a summary: Marina Menegazzo, 21, and María José Coni, 22, were traveling in Ecuador when they disappeared. Police reports state that they had run out of money, and so accepted an offer for a place to stay from two men. Those men tried to force themselves on Marina and María; the women resisted and were killed. Their bodies were found in black garbage bags near the beach.
In the following uproar, many people blamed the two backpackers, asking why they were traveling alone (although they were together...) and saying that they took this risk and brought it upon themselves. Paraguayan student Guadalupe Acosta criticized this backlash, writing a Facebook post from the perspective of the victims.
Yesterday I was killed.
I refused to be touched, and with a stick they cracked my skull open. I was stabbed and they let me bleed to death.
Like waste, they put me in a black polyethylene bag, wrapped with duct tape and I was thrown to a beach, where hours later they found me.
But worse than death, was the humiliation that followed.
From the moment they found my inert dead body nobody asked where the son of a bitch that ended my dreams, my hopes and my life was.
No, instead they started asking me useless questions. Me, can you imagine? A dead girl, who can not speak, who can not defend herself.
What clothes were you wearing?
Why were you alone?
Why would a woman travel alone?
You were in a dangerous neighborhood. What did you expect?
They questioned my parents for giving me wings, for letting me be independent, like any human being. They told them we were surely on drugs and were asking for it, that we must’ve done something, that they should have looked after us.
And only once dead did I understand that no, that to the rest of the world I was not equal to a man. That dying was my fault, and it will always be so. But if the headline would have read “two young male travelers were killed” people would be expressing their condolences and with their false and hypocritical double standard speech would demand the highest penalty for the murderers.
But when you’re a woman, it is minimized. It becomes less severe, because of course I asked for it. By doing what I wanted to do, I got what I deserved for not being submissive, not wanting to stay at home, for investing my own money in my dreams. For that and more, I was sentenced.
And I was sad, because I’m no longer here. But you are. And you’re a woman. And you have to deal with the same speech about “making others respect you,” about how it's your fault they shout at you on the street that they want to touch/lick/suck one of your genitals because you're wearing shorts when it’s 40ºC of heat outside, about how if you travel alone you’re “crazy” and surely if something happened to you, if they trampled all over your rights, you were asking for it.
I ask you, on behalf of myself and every other women who’ve been hushed, silenced; I ask you on behalf of every woman whose life and dreams were crushed, to raise your voice. Let's fight, I’ll be next to you in spirit, and I promise that one day we’ll be so many that there won’t be enough bags in the world to shut us all up.
After Acosta's post, #ViajoSolo started trending on twitter defending the idea of solo female travel. As a woman who consistently travels alone, I stand behind continuing to do so. Please don't read this story and be afraid. Women should not hide away and fold inwards. We need to be vocal and reject the idea that traveling alone means that you were 'asking for it' if anything happens.
I travel alone because it has had the greatest impact on me and my outlook on life. I will not to bend to others' beliefs that a woman should be submissive. I refuse to live in fear and I stand in solidarity with all women to stop victim-shaming. #ViajoSolo
~burnbright~
Jess