So beings a Facebook post, now spreading virally, that's written from the perspective of two Argentinian female backpackers killed in Ecuador.


"I refused to be touched, and they smashed my skull with a stick," the post, written by Paraguayan student Guadalupe Acosta, goes on.

"They stabbed me and I was left to bleed to death. Like trash, they put me in a black polythene bag, wrapped with duct tape and threw me on to a beach, where hours later they found me."

Media reports say Maria Coni, 22, and Marina Menegazzo, 21, were sexually assaulted and killed in February while traveling in Ecuador. The pair were reportedly killed by two men who had offered them a place to stay.

The post written in their name has now had more than 730,000 shares over the past two weeks.

It's also sparked a social media debate over victim-blaming and women's right to safely travel alone...

read more here:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/17/travel/viajosola-women-defend-solo-travel-ecuador-murders/index.html

I hope things get better soon...

/dump

The stigma against women backpackers is one of the reasons I pushed my trip around the US back. Everyone in my offline life that I talked to about it was really upset, insisting it's only natural that I would get raped and killed if I went as a woman without a man or guided group, and that it'd only be my own fault if anyone attacked me. People are pretty pathetic.

I hope this trends on the English side of twitter/etc as well :0

That's horrid. But the women did agree to stay with the men. That wasn't smart. Still though, I think it's not that women backpackers are discouraged, its the fact people take advantage of that. Sick pigs.

>>5 "But the women did agree to stay with the men." Your point being? Staying with local families is a pretty common part of international backpacking. People do it all the time and have no issues, and like most things, you're more likely to get killed by driving in a car than it.

>>6 I agree with >>5 The point being that you take a risk when you decide to stay with complete strangers who you know nothing about, be they men or women. Maybe it's a "pretty common part of international backpacking," but it doesn't mean it's a safe part of traveling. The risk is there, if you take it it's your responsibility.

I wouldn't have stayed with men if I was a woman. Regardless of what era we live in, it's safer (safer, not safe) to choose to stay with a family (note the two men were not the "local families" you were referring to) or with women or old people. It's a bit of common sense in my opinion. And no, in an ideal world it shouldn't be like that, but the world is anything but ideal, it's always been like that.

Now the dumb thing is saying that the women were traveling "alone." No, they were together, not alone. And just because a woman is alone doesn't warrant her being raped/killed obviously. But welcome to the world of humans, where the blame is cast on a woman instead of punishing sexual offenders with punishments so harsh they'll never wanna lay a hand on a woman again.

>>7 Except, based on this article, we don't know if they /were/ presenting themselves as a local family, etc. I'm just saying that calling a murder victim stupid for making a common judgement call in a situation that you're unfamiliar with the circumstances of is pointless.

>>8 Agreed on that point.