Stand up for human rights!

According to all reliable historical accounts, the concept of a well defined society, with a well defined social structure came about three or four thousand years ago. And in these three to four thousand years, again according to historical accounts, our race has made incalculable progress. So much so that today we stand on the threshold of our scientific zenith. In all these years, as we changed, this world has also changed with us. We have become better human beings, we have well defined judicial and law structure, we have the concept of nations and nation states and we have organised ourselves according to our beliefs and social strata into different religions and social groups. Evidently, we have progressed a lot. And yet today, one half of our society lives in constant fear; fear unknown and even worser fear from fellow men. The logical question that arises is who are they and why do they live in fear. The answer, which undoubtedly will make a few of us feel a little bitter, is the female half of our society. What do they have to fear, laws have been made for them, their implementation is swift and they are given preference wherever they go, are a few arguments that can be easily put forward. I do not deny these facts, there is no point that I do not agree to, but yet, none of us can even deny the fact that the womenfolk of our generation, live in constant fear. And looking around us, we can get ample evidence to support this assumption. After all, if not fear what is that which stops a girl from slapping a boy who whistles at her; why does a woman travelling in the bus choose to simply look away when a boy outside makes gestures that would put most men, leave alone women, to shame; why is it that it is the girl’s fault when she complains about eve teasing; why? If not fear, what is it that holds these women back? It is fear, fear at its worst, not for what will happen to them, but fear for their families or fear of being ostracized if they dare to speak out. After all, how many of the men would choose to marry a girl who was raped; how many of us would go to police and enlist ourselves as a witnesses when a girl complains of being molested; how many of us would dare to love a girl who is an acid attack victim? A precious few of us. So few that they can be counted on fingers. So few, among so many! Why? Why do we choose to look away when a girl is eve teased, why do we choose not to get involved when a girl complaints of harassment, why do we blame the girl when she is raped? Why? We do this, because that is all we know, because that is all we have seen, because that is all we have learnt, because we do not have the guts to stand up and fight for what is right, because we choose to believe that God will punish the wrongdoers for what they do. We all live in a suffocating orthodox society where no one can dare to think on their own. All of us have been fed our beliefs and consequently our judgement are also arise from these fed beliefs and we even forget that we have a mind of our own which is very capable of analyzing a situation passing any judgement. It is high time that we step in – men and women alike – and pledge that we will do no wrong and neither will let anyone else do it, as long as we stand. For if every one of us chooses to stand up, no one can ever have a chance to wrong a woman. No longer will girls be teased and molested; no longer will anyone have the guts to even stare at a girl, let alone rape her. It is hard, I know, I understand, to stand up for someone, to stand up to a group of hooligans. It needs a lot of guts. But whenever such a situation comes across, we should just close our eyes and imagine if there was our sister or mother or daughter in her place. We will find both the courage and the guts to stand up for her.