And she died this morning. In a land far away. With her family near her. A girl whose only fault it was to think that she was safe in India.<\/p>\n
In the capital city of India, the superpower in making, \u00a0a\u00a0woman out for a 6 pm show , dies after being gang raped and brutalized with a rusted car jack. Dumped on the street like a piece of garbage. And then, we have the gall to talk about India where they worship the woman. Don’t worship us, just let us get on with our lives – the way you do.<\/p>\n
The trouble is women’s issues get brushed under the carpet. The State kow-tows to fundamentalists – Khap Panchayats guarantee votes, Parties & Governments – Centre & State -tradewomen’s rights with Muslim\u00a0Fundamentalists\u00a0for votes; Where caste honour mattes more than the right of the girl; Where ‘upper’ caste men rape lower caste women with impunity and nothing is done, because of power equations. In all this \u00a0caste or religion or honour – the woman is lost.<\/p>\n
But it is not just about political parties. How many times have you cringed where a male\u00a0colleague\u00a0has whistled and said ‘nice tits, nice arse’ about some other woman; or tried to hold your breasts in because some random male has checked it out; how many of you wear loose clothes so that your body looks like an asexual sack; How many times have you walked faster when you have seen 4 or 5 men together (even if they were standing there in total innocence, not even noticing you); How many times have you felt unsafe ? And if women like you and I can feel unsafe – with all our\u00a0privileges, our private transport, men who have stood by us and treated us as\u00a0comrades, imagine those who don”t.<\/p>\n
The sheer helplessness is galling. When terrorists attack India we know whom to blame… when women get abused the way they do here – and remember this is a dangerous country for women – whom do we blame? It is in the home, in the workplace, in the neighbourhood, in schools, in colleges, in buses & trains… ask any woman in your life – has she been felt up by a random stranger or someone she knows. Ask her how she feels .. ask her.. and understand. Most women don’t talk about this -do you really want to deal with – did you look at him ‘that way’; what were you wearing; maybe you are misunderstanding…<\/p>\n
I\u00a0\u00a0can’t remember the last time i cried. 26\/11 was tears of rage. this is deep grief. This is personal. The tears just don’t stop.\u00a0The Girl somehow became family.She was 23 – wanted to make\u00a0something\u00a0of her life. My students are that age. You should see them – full of hope, joy and sheer chutzpah. It is personal for them too..<\/p>\n
The solution is not more restrictions on women to avoid rape and sexual harassment, the solution is to make India safer for women.\u00a0the trouble is that women aren’t a vote bank. Our issues don’t matter. Our safety doesn’t matter. Our Dignity does not matter. Maybe it is time to Change that.<\/p>\n
For the girl who died, I won’t say RIP – i will say – may your next life be better than this one. May you not be reborn here –\u00a0May you be born in a world where you are not hunted. May you have happiness and laughter and freedom. May you just be allowed to be. Go in peace child.. may their be joy and laughter, security and equality in your next birth. . That is all i can wish for you. Go in peace..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And she died this morning. In a land far away. With her family near her. A girl whose only fault it was to think that she was safe in India. In the capital city of India, the superpower in making, \u00a0a\u00a0woman out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,23,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender","category-india","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\n