Sunday, November 9, 2008

Acid attacks, honour killings or mob fury? Take your pick!

As a Fightback member, I have found recent news reports to be quite disheartening.

Acid attacks are back! Most acid attacks on women are by spurned lovers but this is different. In Delhi, a mad man is on a rampage throwing acid on any woman on the street.

Makes me wonder, how can these attacks be so peculiar to India? What is it about our society that makes a man want to disfigure a woman permanently because she rejects his overtures? Reminds me of the much-used dialogue in bollywood films – "Tum meri nahin hosakti, toh mein tumhein kisi aur ki nahin hone dungaa". If art imitates life, I think we should ask ourselves, what is up with us?

It's time for change...

Change reminds me of the Obama win. As a bunch of us at Fightback watched thousands of men and women huddled to watch Obama speak at the Chicago victory rally, somebody said, "Would this be possible in India?"

While some of us discussed politics, the rest of us talked about gender violence. Imagine being a woman in India and joining a mob, a procession or a victory rally like the one at Chicago. Sends a shiver down my spine! I can only imagine the kind of groping that a woman would have to endure.

While I sit in an urban Indian city, sip on my latte and shudder at the thought of being groped, my Indian sisters are being killed for "dishonouring" their families. Two sisters were killed by their cousin for eloping with their boyfriends in Noida. The cousin, a young 20 year-old boy, is said to be "unrepentant".

Most definitely, its time for change!

2 comments:

Mohnish said...

Most Indian men don’t have the luxury of going to co-eds. Their only contact with a woman are dirty magazines, print media, porn movies. When they see those porn stars, exaggerating moans and screams (of pleasure of course) they think all women love it and they wouldn’t really mind when men touch them in public places. They think they’re doing a big favor on the woman coz that excites her. Most of these romeos are inspired by Hindi films as well where the women first plays hard to get then when the hero forcefully kisses her she falls in love with him (watch david dhawan movies and you’ll know)
“uski naa mein hi haan hai”
she means a yes when she says no …geez I thought no always meant no!
Well now what does the Indian male whose just reached puberty do in that case. He’ll fantasize, go to public parks where other couples make out, stand outside girls colleges and if hes really lucky theres a whole bunch of them who think just like him ie prey on what you see i.e. touch, feel , molest…its all fair who knows when will he get a chance next right?
Or maybe they feel the only time they can have their ‘fun’ is after marriage. Now considering the legal age in our country is 21…do u expect these beasts to wait for a decade (considering we achieve puberty at 12) …na ahhh!

A lot of Indians men are ill behaved even abroad. I wonder if this fact surprises anyone

Unknown said...

severe punishment should be given to acid attackers..its as good as killing d victim.they person responsible for d attacks should be hanged.That is the only way to justify d punishment and to make sure that no one else does it in future.