"Don’t you dare walk around with boys." "Don’t walk around wearing short clothes". These phrases often resonate across every house that has a young girl living in it. Such articulation has further been inflated by the recent acid attack incident in Kathmandu under broad daylight.
Fallacious Judgments: The Blame Game
Concomitantly this purports that straitjacketing my independence and liberty shall emancipate mankind from the perils of acid attacks? Does it? Let us probe into a few real life instances and circumstances under which girls/women became casualties of such heart wrenching monstrosity
On October 16, 2014, a woman driving a car had acid thrown all over her face by a group of motorcyclists in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Investigations revealed that the attack was a sort of penance for revealing too much of her hair and face despite weaning a hejab. Consequentially, girls in this town have been forced to embark on a painful voyage of tightly fastened scarfs, face sans make up and rightly buttoned clothes.
A Columbian woman was attacked by Agricol 50, a chemical liquid, by her male co-worker leaving her with no vision in her left eye. The debilitating assault came in response to the woman giving instructions to the man regarding proper use of safety measures at their worksite.
In 2004, Meena Soni, a married Indian woman, became a sitting target for her husband who poured acid on her face while she was asleep. Meena being the breadwinner conferred indignation and exasperation on the husband who embarked on the resolution to wreck her physically and mentally.
All these incidents and many more, reflect nothing but the misogynist ideologies deeply rooted in the society. Savage acts of rape, dowry deaths, acid attacks, verbal assaults, domestic violence each is reinforced by society’s insular and parochial outlook towards women’s clothing, behaviour and lifestyle selection. Has wearing full sleeved clothes, subsuming one’s face in baroques and scarves or claiming to be a misandrist, annihilated sexual objectification, marginalization and denigration of women? In our context, No!
Fault lies not in women but in those who reckon women to be objects that warrant impugnation and abomination. Any form of violence or discrimination against women is attributed to men. And this is where we are going wrong. This is why men abhor proponents of feminism. The concept of feminism in our nation connotes anti-men sentiments. Women/Girls tend to view men as beings to be terrified with and dismayed by.
The recent documentary ‘India’s daughter’ on the Delhi gang rape case showcases how one of the rapists blames the victim for the rape. The fact that the girl was out at night with a boy instead of committing to household chores made her liable for the assault. Yes, there are men like such. But, there are men, who consider women as dignified and divine souls, too. Stereotyping all men as individuals validating violence against women is utter absurdity.
Change your mindset towards men. There have been instances where women have been predisposed to violence in the hands of other women as well. Mother in laws inflicting mental trauma for inadequate dowry and lack of household skills; Women co-workers planning attacks on women out of sheer jealousy. In our society, women are pulling women down. Envy and materialism has outweighed gender unity. From this ensues the notion that men are not the only ones to blame. Not all men are our enemies, but, are one of us. Only by overcoming this dogmatic mentality shall we be able to decipher the panacea to these ill-wills.
Digging a bit deeper, culprits of acid attacks if arrested are fined upto Rs. 2,000 and a maximum sentence of four months. Is this justice enough? Should not they be booked under attempted murder? Furthermore, case of impunity whereby perpetrators of such heinous crimes go unscathed is constantly soaring. On the other hand, easy and cheap availability of acid has intensified the occurrences of such crime. This implies that apart from social lacunas, absence of a brawny and robust legal framework is the culprit for transgression of women’s rights and equitable treatment.
Let us shift to women now. Silent protests supporting women who have been subjected to violence are on a rise. Women are fighting for equality. Putting things into perspective, is the provision of 33% reservation for women in the constituent assembly equality? If we aspire for equality, is not 50% the correct alternative? Believing in one’s strengths and competencies is the preliminary step to ending women violence. A woman believing in other women’s capabilities is a prerequisite for a non-partisan society too.
Before we look to entirely fight crime against women, many more questions remain to be answered. And for this, without coalescing on individual and national forefront, women shall never receive the treatment they deserve.
