If you are a professional in an emerging industry, like gaming, data science, cloud computing, digital marketing etc., that has promising career opportunities, this is your chance to be featured in #CareerKiPaathshaala. Fill up this form today!
In a first-person article in The Washington Post on Thursday, Pallavi Gogoi, a journalist who now lives in the United States alleged that former Union Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar raped her in 1994 when she worked with him at the Asian Age.
Another allegation of vile sexual misconduct, in fact, this time, rape, against MJ Akbar makes us wonder how far men in power will go to intimidate and abuse women.
In her article, Pallavi Gogoi, who is currently the Chief Business Editor of NPR, wrote that she was 22 when she joined the Asian Age, where Akbar was then the editor-in-chief.
She said that she was “learning from the best” but what followed was a horrific incident of sexual abuse, display of power and the culture of silence in workplaces. You can read the heartbreaking piece here.
This is not the first account of sexual misconduct against Akbar. Over the past month, Akbar has been accused of sexual harassment by at least 17 women journalists. He has rejected all the allegations and has initiated a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, one of the complainants. On October 17, Akbar resigned from his post as minister.
With these horrendous revelations, the question to ask is not why women don’t speak up earlier – instead, what we should be asking is how organizations allow a culture where women feel like they cannot possibly speak up, where men threaten women in explicit and implicit ways about destroying their career in order to use them as sexual preys.
Gogoi recalls in her article how she was allegedly threatened by Akbar’s violent behaviour and pressurised into staying silent. Since ages men have been using their power to subdue women. Women don’t speak up because there is a fear that no one will believe them and in the majority of cases, this fear turns out to be right. This fear is what powerful men use to sexually assault women. Even if she does speak up, they’ll make up their own version of the ‘truth’ and amend things their own way because believe it or not, they do tend to rule the system that suppresses women.
Pallavi Gogoi narrates how the whole incident made her feel ashamed about herself. She said how she couldn’t gather up the courage to speak up because of multiple, complex reasons.
“Why didn’t I fight him then? I was always a fighter in all other aspects of my life. I cannot explain today how and why he had such power over me, why I succumbed. Was it because he was so much more powerful than I was? Was it because I didn’t know how to handle a situation that I never imagined possible with someone who was not supposed to do that? or Was it because I was afraid of losing my job? And how to explain that to my honest parents, who lived far away? I just know that I hated myself then. And I died a little every day.”
Like her, several women stay silent about sexual assault in workplaces either because they are intimidated by the perpetrator’s power, they fear getting their reputation tarnished in a world where the victim is considered the criminal or they fear losing their job. Moreover, in close-knit industries, women who speak up have always gained the reputation of being ‘troublemakers’ and have trouble finding another job.
This culture of silence is something that needs to go. It is my ardent hope that more and more women speaking up against powerful men will bring about this change. The world needs to know that women won’t be rattled, intimidated or suppressed anymore. The world needs to know that we won’t be victimized anymore and we won’t stay quiet anymore.
I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life. Being a student of mass communication with literature and political science I love writing about things that bother me. Follow read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
People have relationships without marriages. People cheat. People break up all the time. Just because two people followed some rituals does not make them more adept at tolerating each other for life.
Why is that our society defines a woman’s success by her marital status? Is it an achievement to get married or remain married? Is it anybody’s business? Are people’s lives so hollow that they need someone’s broken marriage to feel good about themselves?
A couple of months ago, I came across an article titled, “Shweta Tiwari married for the third time.” When I read through it, the article went on to clarify that the picture making news was one her one of her shows, in which she is all set to marry her co-star. She is not getting married in real life.
Fair enough. But why did the publication use such a clickbait title that was so misleading? I guess the thought of a woman marrying thrice made an exciting news for them and their potential readers who might click through.
Did the creators of Masaba Masaba just wake up one morning, go to the sets and decide to create something absolutely random without putting any thought into it?
Anyone who knows about Neena Gupta’s backstory would say that she is a boss lady, a badass woman, and the very definition of a feminist. I would agree with them all.
However, after all these decades of her working in the Indian film industry, is her boldness and bravery the only things worth appreciating?
The second season of Masaba Masaba (2020-2022) made me feel as if both Neena Gupta and her daughter Masaba have gotten typecast when it comes to the roles they play on screen. What’s more is that the directors who cast them have stopped putting in any effort to challenge the actors, or to make them deliver their dialogues differently.