"In your life you touched so many, in your death many lives were changed."
Ruth Elizabeth George (04/18/2000 - 11/23/2019)
The Story of a Strong Woman
November 23, 2019. For many of you, this might just be another day of the past, but for us, our community, and our friends, this day will always be filled with pain. You see, this is the day that an innocent and wonderful person was taken from this world all too early. She was loved by everyone around her.
Her name was RUTH ELIZABETH GEORGE. Ruthie, as she was called by her loved ones, was a brilliant, beautiful, and loving girl studying to become a physical therapist at UIC. At the age of 19, she was catcalled, raped, and murdered by a horrible man whose name doesn’t deserve to be in the same sentence as hers.
As awful as it is to hear this, imagine how she felt. She did absolutely nothing wrong except for ignoring a stranger, something we’ve all been taught to do as children, wanting to get home safely, and standing up for herself by ignoring degrading comments. The society we live in tells our women to never stay out too late, walk alone at night, or always carry pepper spray because it’s not safe. Do we ever stop to think why this must be even said in the first place? When did the world become such a cruel place such that women like Ruthie are violated and killed simply because a man was angry for being turned down and damaging his ego? She wasn’t out too late, drunk, wearing too short of a dress, or asking for it. She was simply trying to get home safe, and her campus, community, and the world let her down. Ruthie’s story must continue to live on because she mattered, and what happened to her should never happen to someone else again.
Nishita’s Perspective
One day, I was sitting at the library and studying for my organic chemistry exam like it was any other day, not knowing what was going to happen in the next 5 minutes. Suddenly, everything changed. One of my friend’s panicked because Ruthie was not answering her phone calls, and Ruthie was supposed to contact her once she had reached home the night before. We were all worried because when they checked her location it was last found to be in the UIC parking garage. My friends immediately called the cops and scrambled to figure out where Ruthie was. As some of my friends went to the parking garage and the police station, the others including myself were scared and simply hoping Ruthie was safe.
In a few moments, our phone then started to buzz and the headlines unfortunately read, “19-Year Old UIC Student Found Dead in a Parking Garage.”
Even though I did not know Ruthie on a personal level, in the moment, all of our hearts dropped once we heard that a sweet, innocent, friend of ours was gone and murdered so brutally.
It didn’t seem real. In the next few days, UIC students and even strangers around the world were infuriated with what had happened to Ruthie yet at the same time saddened by her loss. Attending the vigil made me realize the love and support she has not only from her family, friends but also the UIC community around her. Her story has the ability to leave a mark on future generations.
Nandini’s Perspective
While I never had the pleasure of directly knowing her, I was deeply impacted by her loss and am in tears as I write this article. I still feel a deep wave of sadness whenever I think of her, read articles about her, or even see social media posts that strive to keep her memory alive. I remember the day we found out that something tragic had occurred. It was a normal weekend, and I too was at the library with Nishita studying for my exams. Eventually as the events listed above transpired, it seemed like our worst nightmare came true. Reading what happened in our safe space, was heartbreaking. I’ve never even spoken to Ruthie, but at her vigil, I felt all the feelings of grief and broke down because she was just like me.
She was a South-Asian woman who believed in the kindness of people and worked hard to achieve her dreams. It hurts me knowing that Ruthie couldn’t achieve these dreams and didn’t receive the kindness that she gave to the world as she left this world, but my hope is that she truly is in a better place and is at peace.
The Story’s the Same Across the World - Stigmas in India
The issue of rape culture, mistreatment of women, and overall stigmas on sexual assault and harassment are part of a global problem. However, these issues are prominent in India and must be discussed due to a high rate of gender-based crimes.
“She was asking for it. If she was not dressed that way then nothing would have happened. Girls should be dressed more traditionally and covered from head to toe to avoid this problem.”
All of these victim-blaming phrases are blatantly spoken by society towards a woman that was raped. Do we ever stop to think how WRONG this is? It’s no one’s fault other than the rapist. No one should feel entitled enough to view women in a negative way or catcall them when they are walking in the streets simply to get me pleasure. Catcalling is not a compliment; rather, it is a blatant form of sexual harassment. We hear stories similar to Ruth, sadly, all the time about innocent women who have done nothing but walked the busy streets of India and were harassed and raped. This is happening all too often and is so easily overlooked in order to prevent a “scandal.”
We must take a stand and give a voice to the innocent lives of the innocent women that were raped and can no longer stand up for themselves. To speak up for women like Manisha Valmiki, Jyoti Singh, Aruna Shanbaug, and so many more. Manisha Valkmiki was gang raped, strangled and had her tongue cut off. Jyoti Singh was gang raped in a moving bus and had an iron used on her. Aruna Shanbaug was a nurse raped in a hospital after work and choked by a dog chain. What happened to these women and countless more is simply awful. There is no way to justify what these men did to them.
However, their stories need to be associated with their bravery rather than the terrible thing that happened to them. These women fought these vile men and did whatever they could to survive the trauma they went through. They might not have lived through it, but they were strong, they fought back, and they were certainly not helpless victims.
In India, a rape case is reported almost EVERY 15 MINUTES (Asia Times). Now let us all take a minute and process this. Every 15 minutes, a woman is left feeling helpless and tortured for only wanting to live her life. Taking a look at the states in India and their numbers in rape cases, Rajasthan tops in rape cases for the year 2019 with 5,997 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It’s also important to see that these are only the amount of cases that were reported. This does not include the women who have not come forward due to family or societal pressures, and for thinking they are going to be blamed. These numbers should not be this high, and it’s about time we did something about it.
Society Ko Padhao, Society Ko Sikhao (Educate and Teach Our Society)
We claim to live in such a modern and progressive world, yet how did this world fail to protect women like Ruthie, who should be valued as equals? As a generation, we have the power to actually change the way the world views rape culture.
We must start to normalize the discussion of rape, making women feel safer in work and school environments, and, most importantly, allocate proper resources for women to fight to survive these awful incidences.
Educate people to understand what constitutes rape and how it is never right to blame the woman. Change the narrative so that the focus is less on the rapist who committed this heinous crime and more on the woman who survived the trauma or who fell victim to it.
If someone has been raped, this doesn’t mean that their life is over, their reputation has been ruined, or they can’t overcome this. In fact, it's quite the opposite because increased awareness on this subject and removing stigmas will encourage more women to come forward and preach their stories of bravery. We as a society need to learn from these stories so that we can do better for our future generation of women.
Ruthie touched many in her life, and her death changed our lives in ways we will never forget. Even a year later, it saddens us that Ruthie is no longer with us, but we must and will continue her legacy.
Let’s change the global perspective on rape so that Ruthie, the other woman named in the article, and the countless other women who have been raped can instead live long beautiful lives, as they should have.