A Country That Cannot Protect Women

What do you do when a state witnesses over 15 rape cases in a month and you are incompetent and cannot do anything about it? You support innovative problem solving techniques that suggests one marries girls off at an “agreeable age” to avoid such incidents. If you cannot protect the women of your country from monsters outside you just subject them to “licensed-rape” at the tender age of 16 in the name of marriage. Welcome to India.

I think we should make amendments in the constitution so that freedom of speech does not include freedom of absurdity. Three days ago a 3 year old girl was raped in the district of Sambalpur. I suggest pregnant women start filling out matrimony forms for their children right now to avoid such incidents.In all honesty, rationality fails me and anger clouds me when I write about this issue.

Why does rape occur? Is it because I am wearing sleeveless? Is it because there are young, sexually matured boys in my town and it’s not cool if I am young, attractive and single without a man by my side? Is it because I have guy friends and I think it is “ok” to hang out with them? Is it because I am a social drinker, a party goer or in your words an open embarrassment to our so called “sanskriti“?

Get over yourself. Rape occurs because I am a woman and I possess the female anatomy. How much longer are we as a country going to take to accept that rape occurs because the criminal is a carnal, dignity lacking animal? And for that animal the only motive is to find something with female parts to harm.

There was also an absurd comparison made about how women in the Mughal era were married off early so that they were not “picked and raped”. I would like to remind them that in the Mughal era a woman was not the head of your Human resources department who had the authority to kick your ass if you didn’t perform well. She didn’t fly planes or fight for the country. They didn’t perform complicated surgeries or lead huge companies!

If so much progress has happened for women from the Mughal era till now, it is for a reason. The most important one being that we are not going to let ourselves be locked in our houses again.

When asked about women a lot of people associate qualities like divine, compassionate, kind , loving and other corny adjectives. They are even associated with celestial qualities. Shakti is the embodiment of power, Saraswati the giver of education and it takes Bharath Maatha, a woman, to give our country a form.

And just like these gods and ideal illusions, women are always kept a little way. A little away from the society, a little away from development, a little away from the opposite gender so much so that whether you think a women is inferior or superior you start believing that she is very different.

Of course women and men are different, but a woman is something beyond all these idealistic standards and differences you associate her with. She is human. Men maybe from mars and women from Venus, but end of the day, we are all equally human!

The only thing that we can hope for in the future is that our country starts treating rape like any other crime where responsibility is on the offender and not the victim!

Pic of Slutwalk March, Sydney, courtesy CreatrixTiara (Used under a Creative Commons License)

Nandhitha Hariharan

Nandhitha Hariharan is a writer with a love for anything that is pretty or covered

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