Stifling India’s Daughters
A Nation Stood muted, a nation stood grieving and then the outrage 16th December 2012, a nation was stripped of her modesty as one of her daughter’s was outraged, abused and left to die by hyenas calling themselves men. The nation burst out in outrage. The beasts were collared and wait to meet their destiny, but do the outrage stops. The maws of the hyena are still open and a Nirbhaya is outrages in every corner of our nation every day. All this is because we stifle our daughters. In the name of respectability, in the name of honour, fearing ostracisation, India’s daughters are stifled every day, Made to Drink their Tears.
A documentary is banned
Girls are raped every day, some in the name of honour on the orders of a kangaroo court, some to prove a man’s power over her or her family, and some just to satisfy a man’s perversion. So what is the hue and cry on a documentary about one such rape in a multitude? The outrage is because it exposes the darkness that lurks amidst us. It shows how men are unrepentant to their actions. It shows how men treat women as their inferior vassals justifying their perversion. The condemned rapist is found not to repent for being the monster he is but justifies his perversion by blaming the girl. He blames her dress, her using a mobile phone or her trying to protect her modesty as reasons for his actions. Indian women in burqas are raped as perversely. Women from the depths of our village who do not have mobiles are still raped. Women who try to defend their bodies as their own property are raped every day to prove that it is not theirs’. The outrage on the documentary is because it unmasks the beast within us and we are not prepared to face it yet.
Why the ban
Since time immemorial what we cannot control have made us afraid, and what we fear we try to shut out. Whether that the Vatican trying to burn books that they found offensive or the ultra socialists of Russia and china running education programs to conform to their stories. Indeed it is the winner’s story that is known irrespective of the merit of the loser. In a parliament comprising of about 85% men it is only natural that men will try and protect themselves from being painted with a black brush. Our lawmakers do not have the strength to stand up and bow their heads and resolve to set the wrong right and hence it is easier to stifle a voice. Just as they stifle their daughter’s in their homes every day, they have gone about stifling India’s daughter as it exposes the darkness within the Indian patriarch. Rape is not about lust, it is about power. A woman wanting to exercise her right to consent over who wants to share her body with is a challenge to a male driven power equation. A father feels his right over a daughter questioned, as does the man who is being spurned feels the power of his masculinity demeaned. The rape does happen, and a Mukesh claims that it is the woman’s fault. It is because of this that India was stifled again not to honour Jyoti, but to hide the hyena within us.
