The womb of a woman is sacred in God’s eyes. Her mind, body and soul represents God’s mercy to the Earth and its inhabitants.  It is no secret why we use terms like “Mother Earth” and “Mother Nature.”   
The Earth produces great wealth such as platinum, gold, silver, etc.  It also produces food which is necessary to sustain life.  But the female produces the greatest of God’s creation; the human being.  She is the first teacher, so whatever is in her mind, shapes the men who ultimately shape the world.  Without her there is no us.
Just as men go to extreme lengths to protect their valuables and property, we must go to greater lengths to protect our women and girls.  It is a shame that a creature as valuable and sacred as the female has to walk the community unprotected.  We will shoot at people for stepping on our property and install alarms to protect our cars and homes, but we’ve become absent-minded in our natural duty to protect the female. 
Our priorities must change towards the female in the Black community. Our dereliction of duty to protect the Black female has created a virtual field day for rapists.  According to the Houston Police Department, homicide decreased in the city, but rapes and sexual assaults increased. 
Until we live in a society with strong laws to protect our women and girls, we must raise the “threat level” and go to war with those who are seeking to destroy our precious daughters. Let’s be clear. 
There are sick predators in our community that lurk the streets seeking to make some unsuspecting young girl a victim.  Our young sisters must always be aware that if they are not careful they could be next.  There is a movement afoot to teach young girls how to decrease the likelihood of becoming a victim of sexual assault. 
This workshop, called “Project Protect-Her” is designed to empower the female and frustrate the plans of rapists.
Below are some of the critical information that will be discussed in the “Project Protect-her” workshop. We thought we’d share a portion of  it with you this week. A group of serial rapists and date rapists in prison were interviewed on what they look for in a potential victim and here are some interesting facts :
1.) The first thing men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle. They are most likely to go after a woman with a ponytail, bun, braid or other hairstyle that can easily be grabbed. They are also likely to go after a woman with long hair. Women with short hair are not common targets.
 2.) The second thing men look for is clothing. They will look for women whose clothing is easy to remove quickly. Many of them carry scissors around specifically to cut clothing.
 3.) They also look for women on their cell phones, searching through their purses or doing other activities while walking because they are off guard and can be easily overpowered.
 4.) Men are most likely to attack & rape in the early morning, between 5a.m. and 8a.m.
 5.) The number one place women are abducted from/attacked is grocery store parking lots. Number two is office parking lots/garages Number three is public rest rooms.
 6.) The thing about these men is that they are looking to grab a woman and quickly move her to another location where they don’t have to worry about getting caught.
 7.) Only 2% said they carried weapons because rape carries a 3-5 year sentence, but rape with a weapon is 15-20 years.
 8.) If you put up any kind of a fight at all, they get discouraged because it only takes a minute or two for them to realize that going after you isn’t worth it because it will be time-consuming .
9.) These men said they would not pick on women who have umbrellas, or other similar objects that can be used from a distance, in their hands.
10.) If you carry pepper spray, yelling, “I have pepper spray!” and holding it out will be a deterrent
These are only a few pieces of valuable information that can be used by women to possibly prevent rape and sexual assault in our community.  If you know what a rapists is looking for, then maybe you can outmaneuver him.  There is so much to be shared on this subject that there is not adequate space in this column to do so.  However, we will communicate more on this issue in the near future.  Look for “Project Protect-Her” in your neighborhood real soon.