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I mean seriously, how can you blame a girl's dress for someone's unwanted gaze and comments? As much as I was amazed with the first one, I am more ashamed reading the second one.
I recently read two decisions made by the Kerala High Court. Honestly till yesterday, I was really appreciating the respected court for the first decision but when I read the second one today, I was really disappointed and heartbroken.
At the outset, let me share my opinion on the first one which was, “Husband’s Repeated Taunts, Comparisons with Other Women Qualify as Mental Cruelty”.
I mean just read the verdict again – I was really so happy about it that I wanted to write about it and share it with the whole world.
You might have heard or read, “dusro ki biwi zyada acchi lagti hai’, (wives of others are better)! This is usually said in a fun way, but some men take it literally. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your wife is, how qualified she is and how impressive she is, some men are never satisfied. I really don’t have to go far to experience that, I have witnessed this at my own home. “Kuch seekho usse” (Learn from her!) is the basic dialogue of such men! It’s a big torture is to listen such taunts on a daily basis.
In the movie Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan tells a story about a tree in a village. The villagers wanted to get rid of the tree but they couldn’t, so every day they would come to the tree and abuse it immensely, and one day the tree dies. This story states that the words are often enough to kill someone, and taunts are big torture for anyone. The word mental cruelty is apt for such taunts and the comparisons made.
Once again, I really appreciate the court’s decision.
Coming to the second decision which I read today, which just blew off my mind. It said, “Sexual Harrassment complaint is invalid if woman was wearing a provocative dress”.
I mean seriously, how can you blame a girl’s dress for someone’s unwanted gaze and comments? As much as I was amazed with the first one, I am more ashamed reading the second one.
I am sure this would have shook the girls of Kerala and other states too. I wrote a blog that now it’s time for India’s people to upgrade their mindset; I think they are just busy upgrading their phone’s software.
I even hate to think that just because I am wearing a midi skirt or midi dress, boys have the right to say anything to me. India might be a free country but the women of India are still chained. As though India’s people were not enough to make women feel insulted, now a respected court is doing the same too?! Why should I think 100 times about what I should wear?!
The right to freedom gives citizens basic freedoms with respect to speech and expression, to form associations, freedom of personal liberty, freedom to live a life of dignity, etc but where is our personal liberty from among these? In fact such decisions give liberty to the wrong people to do whatever they want.
I think every decision has an enormous impact on society. Where one decision gave utmost respect to women, the second one took it back.
Published here first.
Smriti Malhotra is a Delhi girl and an avid dreamer. She works at the Embassy of the Republic of Congo by profession but is a writer by passion. She began writing while at school and read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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