Those are the words ringing in my mind after reading IHM's post and subsequently Sohaila's account. Self righteousness of rapist! It's outrageous, shocking, shameful and yet so true. Those are the words I have been searching for so long but couldn't put my finger on it.
According to these self righteous rapists, rape is justified if
- woman is wearing, which according to rapists, police and judges, inappropriate (who decides what is appropriate or inappropriate),
- woman is in company of a male friend,
- woman is out after sun down,
- woman is smoking or drinking.
- or some other excuse that is in some way inappropriate behaviour for a woman, again, according to the rapists, police or judges.
Oh, I forgot the politicians.
And of course whenever this happens, Sita is given as an example. The great culture is put somewhere in the spotlight. And on this stage they make rapist look like a hero, a self righteous man who was doing the right thing by teaching women like these a lesson. In all their haste of protecting our great culture and hence the rapist, they forget few crucial points. Let me elaborate on them.
Why do we always focus so much on poor Sita. Let's give her a break and focus on, oh I don't know, Radha. We do have her statutes in our temples, don't we? She is also part of our great culture, isn't she? So why can't we, women of India, aspire to be like her? She had a boyfriend, didn't she? She had sex before marriage. She actually never married her boyfriend. She was never punished for either of those offences and yet you choose to punish us for just being with a man? Why is that it is allowed for men in our society to behave like Krishan but expect women to behave like Sita? I think you are mixing your mythologies here, aren't you? (Just to be clear, Krishan never raped anyone but he did harassed quite a few women. Am not a big fan of him. In my opinion, he was a jerk)
Now let's talk about Indian culture. When you talk about protecting the great culture of ours, I am not sure which culture you are referring to. You see culture by definition is an ever-changing entity. I gather, from your great speeches about our great culture that you refer to a culture of some unspecified past but it is never made clear which era are you referring to when you say that we need to preserve our culture. Is it the Vedic period you are talking about? In that case, you should visit Khujraho some time and you would be shocked by the culture of that era. Or are you referring to the Mughal/British period? But aren't you the one who talk about ill effects of westernisation? You will be again surprised to know that both Mughals and British were westerners. If it is okay for us to adopt that western-influenced culture then why is it so evil to do so now?
My last point is directed towards the police, judges and the politicians of our country who take an oath to uphold the Constitution of India. Can you please tell me where in the Constitution of India is it written that woman is supposed to dress in a certain way? If its not in the Constitution, how can you judge woman based on that? Why is acceptable to bring it up during a legal proceeding? How can you make legal decisions based on something that is not even in the Constitution? Uphold the law and not your personal beliefs. If you can't follow the law, you should excuse yourself from the position.
