As a mom, I can tell you that I have mastered the art of holding it. In fact, I used to hold it even before I became a mother. I remember standing in lines at amusement parks, getting that nervous/excited pre-rollercoaster feel while in line that made me feel like I’d have to pee, and I’d tell my then-boyfriend, “I have to pee!” and he’d roll his eyes, knowing that A. I wouldn’t stop to pee and B. I would say the same thing in the next rollercoaster line. Maybe I’m just weird like that.

Unfortunately, some women of the world have been holding in their urine for a far more sinister reason. In Kenya, toilets aren’t just down the hall, or even just outside the home; in many cases, they are a good walk away from home, where 50 to 100 people share a single pit latrine. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes to walk just to go to the bathroom, which is bad enough without the dark consequences that can happen if a woman walks to use the latrine at night.

According to an Amnesty International report, women who walk to the toilet at night face the very real and very frequent risk of sexual assault. They are accosted by single or groups of men in the dark who attempt to rape or rape them as they simply try to use the bathroom. (I have to ask rape apologists and victim blamers out there at this point—is going to the bathroom “asking” for rape?) This takes the whole “go to the bathroom in groups” advice that we’re told from a young age (boys, you may not be familiar with this advice) to a whole new level.

Only 24% of people in Nairobi have access to toilets close to home. And it’s not enough that this horrible situation incites fear, possible predation, and inequality into the lives of Nairobi women; it also has detrimental health effects. Experts say that women who are forced to hold the urge to urinate for so long, so often can experience urinary tract, kidney, and other health problems. To avoid using the toilet, women often resort to “flying toilets” by using a plastic bag for a toilet and then flinging it outside into the night. Is it too much to ask to live in a world where women can pee in peace?

It’s not just using the bathroom, either. Nairobi slums also lack the private bathtubs and showers that women so desperately need to bathe, forcing them to use communal ones with—again—50 to 100 other people. It’s humiliating for them to have to bathe in front of dozens of other men and children.

To read the rest of the report and to see what Amnesty International is doing about it, please click here.