I do not think anyone really thinks about how lucky the women are in this country.
We live our lives blindly. Going to school, work, home, visiting friends and family every day without a blink of an eye.

But when something bad occurs somewhere else, I stop and think for a moment about how lucky I am to live in this country. The recent uprisings in Egypt have made me concentrate on why I am lucky to be here. Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt on Jan. 25, at least 19 Egyptian women were assulted.

Nineteen women who were violated, raped, threatened, hurt, had their clothes torn off their bodies and not one of the gang members was arrested.

The White House’s deputy spokesperson Joshua Earnest said President Obama’s administration is “deeply concerned.”

We may not live in this country that is halfway around the world, but we do care about the well-being of others.

These poor women, children, sisters, daughters, wives and mothers are being harrassed and raped in a country and we cannot do anything about it.

One 19-year-old woman was rescued from Tahrir Square by a volunteer with Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment. This young man said the 19-year-old woman kept saying, “It would have been better that I’d died than live with such a shameful memory.”

These women are living with the external and internal scars of these gang rapes and no one in their country cares.

Egyptian leaders have said that women are asking to be raped because they are going out in public around men. Leaders in this world honestly believe that raping innocent women is acceptable because they are out in publc. This is what makes our country so amazing.

We do not realize enough how blessed we are for our lives in this country.

Not only do these women have to deal with the pain and suffering of what they have been through, but no one is punished for the act.

If a woman in the United States would get raped tomorrow, she can go to the police and if caught and proven guilty, that man will serve time in prison.

Maybe the man will not spend enough time in prison, but that is just my opinion concerning the matter.

No matter what the cause, no woman deserves to be raped.

I cannot even imagine living in a country where I feared for my life while entering the outdoors because of men.

I carry Mace because if I ever need to get away, it is there.

Although this would not stop everyone, it is some protection I have.

These women are attending public events, going for walks, getting groceries and being raped, sometimes with a knife or other weapons, on their walk back at any time of the day.

This is very sad and sickening to me. Not only does this make me sympathize for these Egyptian women, but it also makes me realize how lucky I am to live in the U.S.

I have all the rights any man does, whether people agree or not.

I can have any job any man acquires and though I may make a little less per dollar — which is another topic — I can be just as qualified.

Every woman in America should be taking advantage of every opportunity she has because not everyone can be so lucky.

To the Egyptian women, fighting for their lives and dignity every single day with no punishments to those who harm them, I am so very sorry. No one deserves it.

This is such a cruel and cold world and it is not every day that you remember that.

No matter how beautiful, fun or culturally different a country is, women in America are the luckiest of all.

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