It’s Not a Woman’s Mistake!

So you believe I am a feminist, demanding irrelevant rights for the so called “weaker sex” aka women? And you mean to teach me that whatever bad happens to women, is solely because of their behavior? A young girl was gang raped in a city bus at night while she was returning home with a male friend after watching a movie. Ah! I can hear you murmuring it was her fault, she should not have been roaming with a male friend at night. So, would it have been different if instead of a friend it was her husband boarding the same bus with her? Would he have been able to fight all the men, dealing with the physical blows? Or would the monsters have spared her, believing her to be a good woman who only travels with her legitimate partner? Or do you want me to ask all the husbands to stop taking their wives out at night, if they need to use any public transport?

Another young girl has been gang raped by 13 men as a punishment for falling in love with a man of another religion. Ah! I can hear you again saying it was her fault; she shouldn’t have dared to fall in love with someone from another religion. So, would it have been fine to fall for a man of another caste yet same religion? What about the girls who are killed for honor even when they wish to marry in the same creed? Tell me how a man should be punished of the same tribe for committing the same crime? If a woman should be gang raped in public, shouldn’t the man face castration in front of the whole community? Or do you wish to tell me, that women should not fall in love at all, as if such a right is only possessed by men? If you wish to put forth such an argument, do tell me the law that declares it!! Another girl was raped while she was returning alone at seven in the evening after attending a party at her friend’s place. Ah, again, I hear you say, she was wearing provocative modern clothes. So, tell me what should have the 15 month toddler wore for avoiding rape? Do you think she invited it, or asked for it, when she could barely speak? Or was she moving in a seductive manner, asking someone to rape her when she did not even know what it means? The total figure of minors being raped in 2012 was 8,541 while 5,045 cases were reported in 2007. Do tell me their fault! Tell me the fault of the 90 year old woman who was raped by a 50 year old man in Mukerian district. She was neither drunk, nor dressed provocatively. She was rather returning after paying obeisance at a temple. Tell me the fault of the woman molested at night in the washroom of an express train. Should she have not urged to urinate at night in the lavatory, though it is fine for men to do the same anywhere, at road side, at parking places, even in the broad daylight? Do you mean to tell me, that women should stop travelling alone? So would it have been different if she would have been travelling with a family member, who could have been fast asleep when she felt the urge to pee? So, you think women should be confined to the boundary of their homes to stay safe; else they are inviting rape, only because marital rape is legitimate? What about that 50 year old father who continued raping her daughter for 11 years and even got her pregnant? What about that 17 year old girl who was raped and killed by her own father? What about the 50 year old mother raped by her own 30 year old widower son who is a father of two children? What place should they call home? You say, she did not fight back. So, you expected her to fight a gang of men tempting them to murder her, when all she could think of was to survive the attack? Or was it her fault that she did not call them “Bhaiya” to melt their monstrous hearts?

Unfortunately, the victims do not receive acceptance from the public, but face eyes questioning their morals. Their trauma never ends after the horrendous crime they are subjected to. They are asked all sort of humiliating questions, ranging from did they enjoy it, to their past sexual behavior. As if the attacker was searching his prey with a record of her sexual history? Or did she enjoy being beaten up? Or did she ask them to penetrate her vagina with any sort of stuffs they could find like iron rods and cigarettes? Or did she enjoy being burned or murdered? Instead of wasting the energy and time in playing the blame game, just admit it; it’s not a woman but a man’s problem. Unless and until she lets in a stranger at her home, she is not the one to be blamed. There are men, who keep hunting women like wild animals. Tame them rather than chaining women! Teach them “If I’m a woman and I’m walking down the street naked, you still don’t have a right to rape me”.

———— About the Author: This article has been contributed by Srishti Raj, our intern. Srishti is a student of Computer Science & Engineering at KIIT University at Bhubaneswar. She is an avid reader and a keen observer who yearns to see a change in the society.