Please read the story, published today, about this pathetic excuse for a man who, in an act of anger, goes to his mistress? house with four men, including his driver, undresses her, chops off her clitoris, insults her, cuts her hair, threatens to cut off her nipples. In the presence of her kids, one of whom he has helped conceive.

If you?re outraged and shocked, read on. If not, move on and have a great day.

Jacqueline Antoine was savagely assaulted nine years ago. It was only last Friday that ?justice? was granted to her. If you can call being compensated Rs 500 000 for the lost of your dignity and a vital piece of your sex, justice being done that is. I guess the judge did what he had to do. I mean, how do you quantify the loss of your clitoris? You don?t, I suppose, same as there is no value one can put on life.

But let what happened to Jacqueline Antoine be a lesson to all the women out there. No one is looking out for you, not even the law. How many women fall in love with the wrong person and agree to be ?kept? because they would rather share half his heart and his life than be alone? How many women allow a man to be the sole interest of their lives and give up their jobs and their dignity simply to be with the one they love? How many women become dependent on a man to the extent that the latter feels he owns them and can treat them any way they please?

And when the illusions have gone and reality has taken its toll, where does that leave them? Mr I-will-make-you-pay-because-you-cheated-on-me in this particular case found his mistress good enough to sleep with but could not be bothered to live with her. He had separated from his legal wife but did not even contemplate making an honest woman out of his long-suffering mistress. Oh and he was also seeing somebody else at the same time. But when he hears that his mistress was expres-sing an interest in the neighbour boy, hell had no fury like a cheater scorned.

But those things will keep happening; such is the complexity of human feelings and human relations. After all, the heart has its own agenda, huh? But for heaven?s sake, why can?t some women hang on to their dignity, to their survivor?s instinct and why don?t they run away from those mentally deranged macho men?

Women will continue to be treated like mere objects not worthy of much respect as long as they allow men to treat them like that. Their empowerment, their self worth must come from within. The wake up call, the refusal to take any more of this crap, the decision to take hold of their life and make it their own special dream is theirs and theirs only.

If they can?t do that and refuse to give the boot to those pathetic excuses for a man, then they?ve only got themselves to blame.