By nature, females are sensitive and physically weaker than males. From the ancient period, men are considered as the symbol of power and strength whereas women are considered as the symbol of beauty and emotion. This may be the reason behind the prevalent violence against women in the society where the power is dominant over the emotions.
Women violence such as rape, acid attack, burning women alive in the name of several customs is not merely the outcome of some so-called strong men. In fact, these activities occur due to the mentality of overall society. I am not saying that gender discrimination is the problem prevalent in the patriarchal society like Nepal, India. Gender discrimination thrives in almost every part of the world but to what extent this discrimination is strong – is an important consideration here. For instance, women do have to face gender discrimination in the modern countries like United States and the modern cities of Nepal and India as well. They have also become victims of the violence like rape, assaults, sexual harassment etc. But these modern societies also tend to accept these females for what they are.
Change of Guard and OBOR
I believe, what one should understand here is- women are not only traumatized by that bitter accident but they are also equally traumatized by the hatred and shame they receive from the society. But the bitter fact is our conventional society doesn’t address these incidents as the crime done by males with ill-mentality. Contrarily, it is the victim who is to be blamed for her loss. Even if the society accepts that it is not the girl’s fault, no reputed person of the society wishes to maintain connection with the victim. In the patriarchal societies, we teach our girls to wear the clothes that could cover their whole body, we teach our girls to return home before evening, we teach our girls not to drink and smoke, we teach our girls not to speak too frankly with boys, because we believe that the girl who does all these activities is welcoming guys to rape her. But we don’t teach our boys not to be judgmental on basis of what one wears, talks, eats, drinks and does. We don’t teach our boys to accept the rejection of a love proposal and move on. We don’t teach our boys that they should respect the women in their life. Instead of teaching our girls to confine themselves within the boundaries of so-called rules and regulations, had we taught our boys some rules, we would not have to talk about the women violence loudly.
The flaws in our upbringing don’t end here. We have set so many rules for the girls, which we strongly believe will prevent the incidents like rape, acid attack, assault etc., due to which we are unable to feel the pain of the girl. We don’t even bother to think that no one in the earth would like to be raped and assaulted. We fear to raise the voice, if our girls become victim, in front of the society because we know that we would have blamed the other’s girls if the same thing had happened to them. Ultimately, we become so busy to hide these incidents from society that we don’t even realize that how much damage this has caused to our loved ones- both physically and mentally. We don’t even bother to question our rules and believes knowing that the girl of 6 years old is also being raped and killed.
I believe that guilty is not only the person who rapes our girls, the guilty is not only the person who sexually abuses our girls; the guilty is not only the family who burns our daughters in the name of dowry. In fact we all are guilty, because we restrict our girls for the sake of honor and dignity. Our restrictions have made them so blind that they can’t even realize that all these violence can only impair their physical well-being but not their mental pride.
I am not saying that changes have not been seen in the society. People are using social media platform to raise the voice against women violence irrespective of their gender. There are different governmental and non-governmental organizations working in the field of women empowerment. Females have also got many opportunities for the education and career path development. We can see increasing female participation in the several fields like health, education, politics, engineering etc. But, whenever females encounter the situation when they are assaulted, their first preference is to remain silent. Very few choose to confront and speak up because they think that it’s their sole responsibility to protect their family’s pride in society.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the issues related to the gender discrimination and women violence can’t be eradicated by female-reservation in the public vehicle, educational institution and workplaces. If we really want a change, we should change our mentality.
