A lot has been going on all around me in the past few weeks. Well, around me in the sense, in my country.. or in my state. I have a lot on my mind about all of it, so I think I should just pen it all down.
The Delhi gang-rape occurred. And so did many events as a consequence of it. Protests all over Delhi and the nation, innumerable shares on Facebook and Twitter regarding this matter. Discussions, debates. And amongst all of this chaos, more rapes.
Being an Indian and a woman myself, I feel ashamed to admit this is the kind of society I am society I am living in. One where women are given no respect, and despite all the laws and all the extra benefits and preferences for women, they are just downtrodden and never given the equality or respect they deserve.
A society where women are looked at as pieces of meat. A society where, right from the moment a girl child has been conceived, until the day she dies she has to live a threatened life, a life full of restrictions and do's and don't's.
A society where Goddesses (Devis) are worshipped, considered mother, where the second line of our National Pledge says "all Indians are my brothers and sisters".
In theory women are yes, given the equal rights and freedoms as a man. But when disaster strikes, the first instinct of every Indian, be it a man or a woman, no matter how badly a woman has been victimized, is to point their fingers at her, no matter how helpless she is. "What could she have done to be tortured or tormented the way she was?". "Was it her fault?" "What was she wearing?" "What time in the night was she travelling? Where was she headed? Was she alone or was someone with her?" And if someone was with her, "Was it a boy? Who was he? Husband? Lover?"
What I don't get is, why ask these questions? She was one human being tortured by another. Whether she was exploited sexually, mentally or physically, can the above questions ever justify what the victim had to go through? And would the situations change had she been dressed the way these people would deem to be the way to dress? No. This madness is everywhere and in every corner of our country, irrespective of time, place and who was with her.
A woman needs to be able to roam freely in our country no matter what time and what place. And it is definitely the flaw in our democratic system and law enforcements that have caused so many women to be traumatized and lost their lives.
And yet, incidents like the Shiv Sena's attacks on pubs and married couples being arrested and questioned for lack of mangalsutra and sindoor are no less. This simply shows that authorities or rather the ones in power are very enthusiastic in enforcing meaningless rules that are questionable in our "culture", apparently, but when it comes to a matter as serious or something that requires urgent action, they do nothing, or even if they do do something, it'll be after 8 to 10 years. This is the state of things in our "Bharat maata", the country that is called by the name of mother. Where mothers and daughters have no protection from anything.
It is high time women in our country started reacting to even the smallest of harassments by men, like passing comments or trying to grope women in public transportation systems.
Rather than enforcing death penalties as people are demanding all over the media, these beasts should be kept isolated and tortured with no proper means to eat drink or sleep.. remind them constantly of what they did and make them lament for their sins and never ever be able to even think this way again.
Proper counselling and mental health centres should also be made available, because in most cases what is seen is that they do not just rape for their sexual needs, it is more of brutal torture, from which one can deduce that they are definitely psychologically imbalanced.
By the time we hope for the change to come into effect, and the legal enforcements made to such an extent that Indian women are no longer at threat by maniacs and animals that look at them as pieces of meat, all we can do is pray to God to keep us safe, and practice martial arts or be armed in the ways we can to prevent such a situation from arising.
Good luck to all you Indian women.
From a fellow well-wishing Indian woman.
The Delhi gang-rape occurred. And so did many events as a consequence of it. Protests all over Delhi and the nation, innumerable shares on Facebook and Twitter regarding this matter. Discussions, debates. And amongst all of this chaos, more rapes.
Being an Indian and a woman myself, I feel ashamed to admit this is the kind of society I am society I am living in. One where women are given no respect, and despite all the laws and all the extra benefits and preferences for women, they are just downtrodden and never given the equality or respect they deserve.
A society where women are looked at as pieces of meat. A society where, right from the moment a girl child has been conceived, until the day she dies she has to live a threatened life, a life full of restrictions and do's and don't's.
A society where Goddesses (Devis) are worshipped, considered mother, where the second line of our National Pledge says "all Indians are my brothers and sisters".
In theory women are yes, given the equal rights and freedoms as a man. But when disaster strikes, the first instinct of every Indian, be it a man or a woman, no matter how badly a woman has been victimized, is to point their fingers at her, no matter how helpless she is. "What could she have done to be tortured or tormented the way she was?". "Was it her fault?" "What was she wearing?" "What time in the night was she travelling? Where was she headed? Was she alone or was someone with her?" And if someone was with her, "Was it a boy? Who was he? Husband? Lover?"
What I don't get is, why ask these questions? She was one human being tortured by another. Whether she was exploited sexually, mentally or physically, can the above questions ever justify what the victim had to go through? And would the situations change had she been dressed the way these people would deem to be the way to dress? No. This madness is everywhere and in every corner of our country, irrespective of time, place and who was with her.
A woman needs to be able to roam freely in our country no matter what time and what place. And it is definitely the flaw in our democratic system and law enforcements that have caused so many women to be traumatized and lost their lives.
And yet, incidents like the Shiv Sena's attacks on pubs and married couples being arrested and questioned for lack of mangalsutra and sindoor are no less. This simply shows that authorities or rather the ones in power are very enthusiastic in enforcing meaningless rules that are questionable in our "culture", apparently, but when it comes to a matter as serious or something that requires urgent action, they do nothing, or even if they do do something, it'll be after 8 to 10 years. This is the state of things in our "Bharat maata", the country that is called by the name of mother. Where mothers and daughters have no protection from anything.
It is high time women in our country started reacting to even the smallest of harassments by men, like passing comments or trying to grope women in public transportation systems.
Rather than enforcing death penalties as people are demanding all over the media, these beasts should be kept isolated and tortured with no proper means to eat drink or sleep.. remind them constantly of what they did and make them lament for their sins and never ever be able to even think this way again.
Proper counselling and mental health centres should also be made available, because in most cases what is seen is that they do not just rape for their sexual needs, it is more of brutal torture, from which one can deduce that they are definitely psychologically imbalanced.
By the time we hope for the change to come into effect, and the legal enforcements made to such an extent that Indian women are no longer at threat by maniacs and animals that look at them as pieces of meat, all we can do is pray to God to keep us safe, and practice martial arts or be armed in the ways we can to prevent such a situation from arising.
Good luck to all you Indian women.
From a fellow well-wishing Indian woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please do comment so I can improve my writing! Thanks!