In our society, every time a woman is raped, her clothes and actions are judged & questioned?
You will find the aunties and uncles of our society blaming the victim rather than the culprit. They will leave no stone unturned in shaming the victim and her family. They would pass their unsolicited judgments on why the victim was raped.
Rather than asking the question – “How we should help the victim in seeking justice?”, they ask:
Why was she wearing such clothes?
Why was she out of home at such late hours?
Or, Why was she drinking?
Or, Why her parents didn’t teach any traditional cultural values?
And, what makes it heartbreaking is when women themselves point fingers at the victim.
Recently a video of one such aunty from Delhi went viral. She is seen asking men in the restaurant to rape women wearing short dresses. It shows how as a society how rudimentary and insensitive we are.
After Delhi Auntiji, another woman in Kolkata recently allegedly told a 25-year-old student wearing a t-shirt and shorts,
“Tomader moto meyeder ekkhuni rape kora uchit” (Girls Like You Should Be Raped).”
As per The Times of India report, the incident happened on 1st August when the victim, who is pursuing her M.Phil at Jadavpur University, had gone out of her PG accommodation to buy some essentials.
It was then that a lady clad in a silk saree threatened and harassed her.
The victim recalls,
“Initially, I was shocked. But then I protested saying she had no right and moral authority to make any comment on me. I pointed out that what she did was a criminal offence.”
The victim then tried to approach a traffic cop for intervention, she was verbally abused and a slapped by the lady.
“Stunned, I tried to point out that she was taking this too far. She then slapped me again. By this time, others tried to step in. Realizing that she was being surrounded, the woman fled.”
She further added,
“I was in shock and trauma. It was for my friends that I could finally manage to reorganize myself. My house owner too played a positive role. It was on the advice of cops that I filed the FIR.”
Though the police officials have registered an FIR against the woman under IPC sections related to hurt, wrongful restraint and outraging the modesty of a woman, we feel disheartened that it is a woman who hurt the modesty of another woman.
An official revealed,
“It’s a rare case when a woman has been named for outraging the modesty of another woman. The accused probably lives somewhere near Dhakuria. We might ask the victim to record her statement in front of a magistrate.”
As the police have also secured CCTV footage from Lords Crossing where the incident occurred, the investigation is still on.
Time To Change:
As a society, we have always justified rape in the name of the victim’s clothes or actions since time immemorial.
Do these uncles and aunties who blame the clothes of the victim, ever wonder what a 10-month-old baby in Rajasthan did to get raped?
While giving the death penalty to a 22-year-old man for raping a 3-year-old-girl, Judge Neerja Dadhich recited a very hard-hitting poem, that we feel every person who blames the victim for rape needs to read:
Kapdon ke kaaran hote rape jo kahein, unhein batlaun main,
aakhir teen saal ki bachchi ko, saree kaise pehnaun main?Gar ab bhi na sudhre toh ek din aisa aayega,
Iss desh ko beti dene se bhaghwaan bhi ghabhrayega.
You can read the full poem here.