This woman wrote a powerful open letter to the man who tried to rape her

Three weeks after Sara Roebuck moved to Paris for a six month internship, she was attacked by a man in a nightclub.

Almost a year after the attack happened, and one day after Sara stood in front of the man who had tried to rape her and fought back against what he claimed had happened, she decided to write a powerful open letter to the man on Medium.

In the letter – which you can read in full at the bottom of this article – Sara directly addresses the man who tried to rape her, explaining how what he did affected her, refuting his version of the story, and calling on the world to change.

‘I write to you on this cold December evening, almost one year after you tried to rape me, because it’s the first time I’ve felt strong enough to put pen to paper,’ she begins.
Sara goes on to recount what happened in the nightclub as well as how she stood in front of judges and spoke out, before focusing on why her experience is proof of how much the world needs to change.

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‘I want things to change,’ writes Sara. ‘I insist that things change.

‘I stood for every woman who has been groped, harassed, attacked, raped, filmed, photographed, followed, touched against her consent, suffered verbal vulgarities, obscene [remarks], disgusting gestures, and worse of all, within a society that allows it, in some cases with other women who refuel the blame, and men around her who are supposed to be progressive and modern, but stay silent.

‘I address all of these women because I am each and every one of them. Because it happens every single day to every single woman you, dear reader, know and love. I want people to open their eyes.’

Sara ends her letter by addressing any woman who has been touched, groped, or sexualised without their consent.

‘I stood yesterday and I spoke for you,’ she writes. ‘I wrote this to you, so you know that you are not alone, you are never alone.

‘This is not the end of you. No. This does not define you.
‘My life has not been destroyed, and yours has not either.’