I am getting repetitive on this blog. Every 10 days or so I come across a flurry of articles – bloglines that way is very good – on violence against women. I come across articles almost on a daily basis – but on some days, it is almost as though the floodgates have opened up and you are reading about violence against women everywhere. I am not sure whether the amount of violence has increased, or is it the fact that more of it is getting reported. Either case is scary.

Today’s lot included rape, stripping, molesting, violence.
a) Man held for raping sister-in-law

Jewel (31) had criminally assaulted the 21-year-old woman, his wife’s sister, on Thursday night in a park near Dhaula Kuan.The victim had recently come to Delhi in search of a job as a maid and Jewel had taken her to the park on the pretext of meeting a prospective employer.

b) Woman gangraped in East Delhi:

In yet another incident of gangrape in the capital, a woman was allegedly criminally assaulted by two of her husband’s friends in an East Delhi area, police sources said today.

c) Man shoots mother and daughter-in-law for resisting rape

A man allegedly attempted to rape his daughter-in-law and shot at her and his own mother when they resisted at Mojal village (UP) in the district, police said here today.

d) Woman gang raped in Chandigarh

A woman was allegedly gang raped by three men who first forced her into a car and then took her to a house here where the crime was committed last night, police said today.

e) Dalit women paraded naked in Orissa

A group of Dalit women belonging to the barber community have allegedly been paraded naked by upper-caste people in a coastal village on Monday last.The women’s fault: their husbands refused to wash the feet of bridegroom and members of barati during an upper-caste marriage a couple of months ago.

I had a blogged a couple of days ago about a Muslim Panchayat fining a rapist Rs.15,000/- and asking the victim to lick her ex-husband’s (he gave her triple talaq) spit as punishment.

The more I read about cases like this, the more the future depicted in a Handmaid’s Tale become’s a reality.
As I had written in June:

If it was a minority community facing the abuse that women do, then it would become a human rights issue. Now it is simply a ‘cultural’ issue or a ‘they will sort it out amongst themselves’ issue. Maybe, women ought to apply for minority status in India. Afterall, with the number of female foetus terminations we will soon become even more a minority than we already are

Update: This is Secular Right’s take on the issue of women being paraded naked in Orissa. Terrorism it is. About time we all made a hue and cry about it.