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The NCRB report shows that more than four lakh cases of crimes hostile to women were filed across India in 2021. Eighty-seven rape cases in one day were reported in India in 2021. A report by National Family Health Survey-5 states that around one-third of women have been through violence, be it sexual or physical.
My Fellow Indians,
Are you all alive and thriving? Do you have your privacy and freedom intact? Have you slept carefree of troubles of harassment? Or are you a woman?
Isn’t it amusing how we give very little thought to the simple freedom of walking around in whatever clothes we decide and at whatever time we like because we aren’t women?
Being a woman, I can certainly tell you that I give these things a huge thought because the best-case scenario is that I am just verbally abused while walking down the street alone even in daytime minding my own business or just get gawking eyes at my non-visible cleavage.
In this day and in an older one, as this describes my best-case scenario, this is fascinating, isn’t it?
As per data published by WHO, about 736 million women are put through sexual or physical violence by a partner or non-partner across the globe.
The problem of considering women as men’s property and edifying them a lesson if they try to walk free of the shackles of patriarchy and misogyny by rejecting everyday marginalization and repression is the one going unnoticed.
The recent rape and murder of two minor girls in India’s most populated state is enough of a proof of how men consider themselves to be the owners of women’s bodies, rights and even their breaths.
The shifting of limelight of it being a women’s issue to a religious one (for the criminals belonged to a certain religion) proves the regretful situation of attention feminism gets in India.
The problem that “THEKEDAARS OF SAMAJ” have merely one job, and that is to show women their standing in society as being far inferior to men, is horrendous.
They won’t hesitate to elect a bloodier path and not stop till they have the perfect Samaj they intend to create. And in their quest for the perfect Samaj, women lose every time regardless of their age, caste, religion, fame, education, money in their bank account, or number of followers on social media.
As how can we forget when Sushmita Sen was called an attention seeker for adopting a girl when she was twenty-four years old or when Priyanka Chopra was shamed through numerous jokes on social media for marrying someone younger than her or when Sania Mirza was questioned frequently if her loyalty still stood with India when she married a Pakistani cricketer.
Women in Iran are protesting in unity for the death of a 22-year-old woman, they have united for the woman who was repressed and tortured in one or many ways.
Their rejection of certain piece of clothing or chopping off of hair is a symbol that shouts in the deaf ears of all the sexist people who typically pass uneducated verdicts of it being a failed attempt at establishing their naïve practises for pseudo-equality in society.
When in fact feminist movement over the years have been critical of each institution that has stood in their way to achieve not merely equality but respect and dignity that have been denied for way too long.
The movement in Iran isn’t particularly critical of the piece of clothing but of the system of subjugation that it is a symbol of, it is against the authoritative government forcing its way of life on women.
The protest and petitions against the ban of same clothing article in educational institutions of a state in southern India reflects the same ideology.
The petitions to remove the ban isn’t about going against any one particular religion or to threaten the dismantling of rules that ensure equality, but is against the control and oppression that compels the women to give up a piece of clothing they so much wish to wear.
The fight in both the cases isn’t about accepting or rejecting the said apparel but rather about the freedom of choice to dress as they please, it is about fighting the suppression that in any way rejects them their basic right to freedom or choice or development or in case of Iran even the right to life.
We watch one half-woke feminist film with the lead actress having more dialogues than male counterpart, or we congratulate ourselves to have the second female president and just one-woman prime minister in seventy-five years of independence, and we believe we have reached equality.
For I still see women in a normal household eating after the men have eaten, for I still see having no chief justice of India of supreme court being a woman or that having first finance minister a woman after years of independence!
Or solely the fact that my drinking habits or the time of the day that I am out on the streets decides my character. India today feels like is taking one step forward and two steps backward in case we have our attention on women and feminist issues.
The picture where everything is a rainbow that is drawn via opponents or ignorant believers of social media wokeness is in stark contrast to the reality. The NCRB report shows that more than four lakh cases of crimes hostile to women were filed across India in 2021.
Eighty-seven rape cases in one day were reported in India in 2021. A report by National Family Health Survey-5 states that around one-third of women have been through violence, be it sexual or physical.
Proprietors of the society believe they have a responsibility to educate women and if they are a rebel student than simply imposing a ban on a piece of clothing or denying the fact that women have inequality in any aspect of life.
The moral policing or the wokeness towards fake feminism is much more prominent than the problems of existence of moral police in first place and no regard to actual, in flesh patriarchy for it doesn’t serve the interest to belittle women.
I have heard people of opposite and even my own sex calling me out being super tight and rigid if I call out casual and not so appreciating sexism, they call “women like me” opinionated!
They call us extra, they call us rebel monsters, they blame us for creating hill out of mole, they blame us for disrespecting rituals, they blame us for indulging in over-the-top malicious behaviour, they blame us for noticing unnecessary things.
But as I look at the rank of India at 135 out of 146 of global gender gap index as presented by World Economic Forum— I pledge not to stop, for I have opinions when you comment on my right to abortion.
For I am extra when I am instructed to add a patriarch’s name beside mine for I am incomplete, for I am a rebel as I refuse to accept the release of my molesters under the new fancy scheme, for I will create hills tall enough, so my personal becomes political— I will not be silenced.
For I will reject rituals and traditions that don’t allow me my economic or political independence, for I will act in a malevolent way when I am molested solely because I belong to my gender, and for I will notice when you forbid me my right to life.
Yours indignantly,
A woman of India.
Image source: doidam10, free on CanvaPro
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