Have you all heard of the woman in Delhi who was gang raped by six men on a moving bus and suffered such horrific injuries that she died in Singapore yesterday?
Well, now you have. To say that it was a big news story would be an understatement:it sparked off hundreds of Facebook posts and lots of protests, and, predictably, lots of chauvinistic remarks by Indian politicians.
You must understand, it wasn't a big news story because it was extremely rare. Oh, no. India is one of the most dangerous countries for women in the world, and the only reason rape statistics are so low is because in India there is no point reporting rapes because the police will just laugh at you and call you an "unpaid prostitute". And there is also the fear of "losing your honor" and being ostracized from the community. Not the rapist, mind you. The victim. After all, who asked you to be walking out late at night/talking to boys/wearing jeans/looking at people's faces/having fun? Didn't you know that all those things are against the wonderful "Indian culture"? Indeed, miss, you deserve to be raped.
Anyway, many protests were sparked off, in Delhi and in other places. And this led to another remark by a politician, noone less than the son of the president of India:"these women are dented and painted women(the one who are protesting)". Probably he was using the analogy of old cars, because they have already been "used". Indeed, sir, because women who are not virgins do not deserve to protest against rape. Because it does not matter if they are raped because their "honor" has been lost anyway.
You know what? Raising Indian girls is too hard. You have to make sure that they are "decent and modestly dressed", you have to prevent them from having fun because that is an invitation for rape, you know what-why don't you just kill all girl children and then the problem will be solved.
Oh wait, they're already doing that. India has one of the most skewed sex ratios in the world.
What I have the greatest problem with is those people who loudly condemn the rape and denounce the rapists as criminals who should be tortured and hanged and then demand a huge dowry for their sons and abort girl fetuses because they only want boys. Can't they see that all these things contribute to the terrible status of Indian women today? And those politicians who say "we want justice, we too have mothers, sisters, daughters..." so any women who aren't your mothers, sisters and daughters are fair game?
What they have to realise is that the gangrape is merely a symptom of the terrible toxicity affecting India today. The mindset in which boys can study wherever they want but girls have to study in the hometown so the parents can "keep an eye on them". The mindset where freedom is limited and based on good behavior:a twenty four year old isn't allowed to rent an apartment with her friends. A mindset where a woman can't go to the club and drink with male friends or wear shorts without lechers trying to grope her and people saying, unitedly:she was asking for it. A mindset where sexual assault is referred to as eve teasing.
Indian society needs to change. Hopefully, that poor girls death will not have been in vain.
