Last June a victim of sexual assault read a powerful, heartbreaking letter to her attacker.
The letter, as well as the case in general was shared and talked about all over the world.
The woman allowed the letter to be released to the media. Her words captured the world.
Now, Emily Doe has shared what happened after that brave letter went viral.
In an essay published by Glamour, Emily, who’s real name has been kept private, said that she initially regretted allowing the letter to be published but then she began receiving strangers’ support.
”I started getting e-mails forwarded to me from Botswana to Ireland to India.”
”I received watercolor paintings of lighthouses and bicycle earrings. A woman who plucked a picture of her young daughter from the inside of her cubicle wrote, This is who you’re saving.”
She also received a letter from the U.S vice-president commending her on her bravery.
”When I received an e-mail that Joe Biden had written me a letter I was sitting in my pajamas eating some cantaloupe. You are a warrior. I looked around my room, who is he talking to. You have a steel spine, I touched my spine. I printed his letter out and ran around the house flapping it in the air.”
Emily said that one woman commented that she hoped her own daughter would never ‘end up like her’. This hurt her.
”Instead of being a role model to be looked up to, I was a sad example to learn from, a story that caused you to shield your daughter’s eyes and shake your heads with pity. But when my letter was published, no one turned away.”
”If you think the answer is that women need to be more sober, more civil, more upright, that girls must be better at exercising fear, must wear more layers with eyes open wider, we will go nowhere. When Judge Aaron Persky mutes the word justice, when Brock Turner serves one month for every felony, we go nowhere.”
She ended the essay by saying:
”So now to the one who said, I hope my daughter never ends up like her, I am learning to say, I hope you end up like me, meaning, I hope you end up like me strong. I hope you end up like me proud of who I’m becoming. I hope you don’t “end up,” I hope you keep going. And I hope you grow up knowing that the world will no longer stand for this.
”Victims are not victims, not some fragile, sorrowful aftermath. Victims are survivors, and survivors are going to be doing a hell of a lot more than surviving.”
Emily Doe was named on of Glamour’s Women of the Year.
