Delhi Gang Rape ...
As the full horror of the story unfolds, we watched the TV reports with growing anger and unease. Satisfaction that the protests are not dying out, as we feared might happen ... anger that the police resort to lathi charge and tear gas and water cannons ... where were these weapons when a girl was being raped by a group of men worse than animals? The protestors, men and women alike, are fighting because the horror and brutality of the case has finally woken people out of their slumber.
The regularity of rapes and crimes against women has desensitised people to the horror that the victims go through, to the point that the cases have just become statistics.
It took a case unparalleled in sheer brutality and viciousness to wake up people ... the same way that it took unparalleled contempt of court and law shown by a few high-ranking individuals to shake a population out of its slumber in the Jessica Lal case. And now that they have woken up, the people show no signs of going back to sleep.
More power to them.
Why Indian men rape
There was a petition to demand chemical castration as punishment for rapists. Sounds like a good solution. Rape is not a capital offense. Life imprisonment means housing these criminals at state expense for fourteen years, with no guarantee that they will have reformed when they are released. Prison life is not really conducive to reform, it might produce more hardened criminals instead.
Rape destroys a woman's life ... let the punishment be similar. Let the rapist's life be destroyed ... or at least, his ability to rape again be destroyed. Castration will kill both his ability and his libido - make him a namard, in other words. A big insult for any man in India.
Let the punishment affect his future generations ... Indians want sons to carry on the family name ... a castrated male cannot carry on any name ... and so the family pressure will build ... don't you dare molest a woman, or else our khandaan ka naam is destroyed. Sounds good. Simple, effective, and a good deterrent.
And in the meantime, educate men ... teach them to respect their women. let them see the respect at home ... Fathers respect mothers, husbands respect wives, brothers respect sisters ...
As the full horror of the story unfolds, we watched the TV reports with growing anger and unease. Satisfaction that the protests are not dying out, as we feared might happen ... anger that the police resort to lathi charge and tear gas and water cannons ... where were these weapons when a girl was being raped by a group of men worse than animals? The protestors, men and women alike, are fighting because the horror and brutality of the case has finally woken people out of their slumber.
The regularity of rapes and crimes against women has desensitised people to the horror that the victims go through, to the point that the cases have just become statistics.
It took a case unparalleled in sheer brutality and viciousness to wake up people ... the same way that it took unparalleled contempt of court and law shown by a few high-ranking individuals to shake a population out of its slumber in the Jessica Lal case. And now that they have woken up, the people show no signs of going back to sleep.
More power to them.
Why Indian men rape
There was a petition to demand chemical castration as punishment for rapists. Sounds like a good solution. Rape is not a capital offense. Life imprisonment means housing these criminals at state expense for fourteen years, with no guarantee that they will have reformed when they are released. Prison life is not really conducive to reform, it might produce more hardened criminals instead.
Rape destroys a woman's life ... let the punishment be similar. Let the rapist's life be destroyed ... or at least, his ability to rape again be destroyed. Castration will kill both his ability and his libido - make him a namard, in other words. A big insult for any man in India.
Let the punishment affect his future generations ... Indians want sons to carry on the family name ... a castrated male cannot carry on any name ... and so the family pressure will build ... don't you dare molest a woman, or else our khandaan ka naam is destroyed. Sounds good. Simple, effective, and a good deterrent.
And in the meantime, educate men ... teach them to respect their women. let them see the respect at home ... Fathers respect mothers, husbands respect wives, brothers respect sisters ...
Dia, i wanted to point you to a blog that, in my opinion, shows a modern POV (at least not 1980's POV) on rape and its effects. I wanted to point to a specific post, (http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/making-marital-rape-a-legal-offence-is-the-fastest-way-to-make-it-clear-that-rape-means-forced-sex-not-lost-virginity-or-honor/)but then i discovered that she had more posts that covered the spectrum. so take a look when you get time ..
ReplyDeleteJaya,
DeleteVery interesting blog! Some of the comments quoted there made my blood boil ... how far have we come in so many ways, yet in these very basic issues time seems to be standing still. Some men feel that women out late at night with their boyfriends, or dressed provocatively 'invite' rape ... pray explain then, how does a two year old dress 'provocatively'? And how likely is she to be with a 'boyfriend'? The same old issues of blame the woman, because the man is of course beyond reproach, it has to be the woman's fault in some way.
My question is simple - men rape, women do not. So why restrict the women? Why not restrict movement of the men? Why do you say girls should not move around with boyfriends, why not say boys should not be seen with women who are not their mothers, sisters or wives ... and if they are, then THEY should be the ones hauled up for inappropriate behaviour. Gender bias and discrimination is so inherent and ingrained in our society that these people don't even realise their own blatant hypocrisy any more.