A 23-year-old medical student was on a bus with her boyfriend in New Delhi, and was subsequently gang-raped and sadistically beaten by six men. Two weeks later, she succumbed to her injuries and died. Despite the fact that a woman is raped every 22 minutes in India, this one has sparked outrage and protest across the country while the world looks on.
Many are surprised that something like this could happen in India's capital. A place that boasts a thriving middle class, world class shopping and an urban elite is concurrently one of the world's epicenters for rape, with mores perpetuating rape culture.
However, rape culture is not something that is confined to the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent. This past year has been a stark exemplification of the pervasiveness of rape culture in North America. From Krista Ford asserting that women would avoid rape altogether if they merely stopped dressing like whores, to the onslaught of the terms "forcible rape" and "legitimate rape" into the North American vernacular, victim blaming and the trivialization of rape is lamentably commonplace on this side of the ocean as well.
Nevertheless, India has a culture of entrenched misogyny, which has led to an endemic of violence against women, thereby exacerbating the omnipresent rape culture that already permeates most societies. Violence against women is not only something that is tolerated, but seems to be justified by the majority of Indian society, including teens.
A UNICEF report found that 57 per cent of males and 53 per cent of females aged 15-19 believed wife beating was justified. In fact, India, which is the world's largest democracy, is also the worst place for a woman to live out of all G20 countries. Between 1971 and 2011 the incidence of rape rose 873 per cent, which is 3.5 times faster than the murder rate for the same period.
Gender segregation starts very early and gender roles and stereotypes are enforced at birth, causing them to become internalized by both men and women. Giving birth to sons is seen as winning the reproductive lottery where daughters are merely a financial and moral burden. Young girls often have no place to turn as their mothers and other female relatives are either complicit or actively involved in the cycle perpetuating the notion that women and girls are second-class citizens. This preference for sons has caused a highly skewed gender ratio, daughters sold off to the sex trade, female infanticide, sex selective abortions and forced marriages.
Sons are taught that they are a blessing to be cherished and that women are there to serve them however they please. This is only echoed in Bollywood films, which are regrettably romanticized by the west, in which male protagonists depict their sexual prowess by sexually harassing the principal female character into submission. In the world of Indian melodramas, a "no" will inevitably turn to a "yes" after a few song and dance routines in the rain, of course.
Women have no ally in the legislature either, as every major political party has candidates that have been charged with crimes against women, ranging from domestic abuse to rape. Additionally, Indian jurisprudence sanctions a "virginity test" to determine the credibility of the victim's statement. In the test, a doctor inserts two fingers into the woman's vagina to determine the presence or absence of the hymen and the general "laxity" of the vagina, and presumably, the victim herself.
Whereas India boasts many high profile female politicians, authors, filmmakers and public figures, Indian culture venerates a machismo ethos in which women are akin to a property transfer, first belonging to their fathers and then their husbands.
Indians by and large will vehemently voice their objection to this assertion by listing Hindu goddesses and holidays that celebrate women, failing to recognize that women are celebrated not as equal members of society, but rather as dutiful mothers and subservient wives.
India is a nation that fails its women in its family structure, the media, in law and in politics. So while I am grateful that this incident has forced women and men out onto the streets in protest, I am pragmatic enough to know that until Indians undergo some sort of socio-cultural metamorphosis, our daughters won't be safe from our sons.
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But judging from the amount of men standing in solidarity with women in the protests there must be some hope. Attitudes of the sort you describe Supriya, must be less widespread or at the very least eroding.
I was born in South Africa in the midst of apartheid. It took one generation to get rid of the very worst of the prejudice and racial hatred towards black people out there but it happened. I do not personally know of one person under 30 who has the same archaic prejudices their parents had. There is some hope if people keep up the pressure that these cultural habits can and will become a thing of the past.
on esolution is to go back to india's real culture of consciosuness not to distance oneself from cultural integrity
disrepect for the other male or female is lack of consciousness stresssfree brain
India haspossessed the knowledge of releif and prevention of stress for 1000s of years namely transcendental meditation (TM) and the rest of the ancient and ever new vedic knowledge [[ ayur veda, sthapatya veda, Jyotish grahashanti , Dharma , vedanta etc ] but how much of it is known and properly used very little of it ; it didnt help that for centuries India's culture was corrupted by foreighners ; one would have to go back to the Gupta era the Maurya kings or king Ashoka or Vikram maybe up to King Raja Raja 1000 AD to have some sense of vedic civilization
real India knows that mahalaskmi and mahasarasvati and mahadurga are the mother of god of Brahma real indians respect the female as embodiment of the Divine mother [ in the case of young girls respected as Kumari ]
how to make it so for the majority in India ? learn TM and fund a group of 10 000 maharishi vedic pandits i.e. real metamorphosis , foundational transformation [[[ zero point motion or unitary transformation, energy Eigenmodes of the unified field in terms of modern superstring theory]]]
metamorphosis ! yes that is th word but some sort indicates lack of understanding of what it is that it is
this blog and the education which produced it are not a solution ; understanding needed is of the brain; what is th ebrain ; what is a problem free brain; what is a brain which does not ever cause problems or sickness for the individuals and their milieu
undesirable improper behaviour violent or not is not caused by lack of words; it is caused by damage or stress to the brain or lack of proper development of the brain in particular the preFrontalCortex ; the CEO in the brain chief executive function and chief ethics officer
if university education could prevent this problem university educatedpeople [ e.g. G. Bush Junior , W stands for wisdom] would be problem free themselves and would not cause violence e.g. Obama Biden both well educated murdering at a distance suspected terrorists in violation of civilized norms and causing death indirectly by allowin gpollution for the sake of profit
i dontknow what miscogenous means nor is th eword of any help to anyone [what does attawa-piskat mean or ottawa-bigcat] theproblem is severe stress traumatic stress which here and there erupts into violence
and in the meantime is the substratum of ignorance in both poor and rich educated and uneducated
if violencehas increased then party warfare democracy and capitalism are a cause of it cont'd
The two are linked. Women's rights are human rights.