India's 'rape culture' can be changed: Women authors
By IANS - WASHINGTON
03rd January 2013 11:47 AM
Two women authors, one Indian
and the other American, believe that "India's rape culture" can be changed in the wake of the gang-rape and the subsequent death of a New Delhi student that has galvanised the nation.
"India has laws against rape; seats reserved for women in buses, female officers; special police help lines. But these measures have been ineffective in the face of a patriarchal and misogynistic culture," wrote Sonia Faleiro
in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
"It is a culture that
believes that the worst aspect of rape is the defilement of the victim,
who will no longer be able to find a man to marry her - and that the solution is to marry the rapist," she added in the article on "The Unspeakable Truth About Rape in India."
"Change is possible," wrote the Indian author of "Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars." But "the police must document reports of rape and sexual assault, and investigations and court cases have to be fast-tracked and not left to linger for years."
"The volume of protests in public and in the media has made clear that the attack was a
turning point," she wrote noting, "In retrospect it wasn't the brutality of the attack on the young woman that made her tragedy unusual; it was that an attack had, at last, elicited a response."
"Indians,
it seems, have had enough," wrote Naomi Wolf, American author of "Vagina: A New Biography" in the Canadian daily Globe and Mail on "Ending India's rape culture" taking note of "dozens of large and increasingly angry demonstrations" over the gang rape.
"The deeper truth underlying the protests can be found on blogs, where young Indian men and women bemoan the fact that travel guidebooks routinely warn women about pervasive sexual harassment in India and advise them to
move around in groups," she wrote.
"Movies, religion, music and women themselves are all blamed for male sexual violence against women, but rapists are not held responsible. A 'male-cosseting culture,' as one
blogger put it, in turn supports a rape culture," Wolf wrote.
Noting
"the connection between rape, male privilege and female sexual vilification was one of the key insights of feminists in the 1970s," she
hoped "that the protests in India will inspire the West to emulate the protesters' lack of complacency."
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Comments(5)
Isn't this a social political religious cultural crime treating women as sexual-fodder ? The physical weakness of women and children to resist brutal attacks and rapes must be protected effectively. The brutal diabolic crimes of rape reveal the decay and corruption of society and the nature and nurture of vulgar violent culture towards women.
Posted by vigil at 01/03/2013 19:23 Reply to this Report abuse
test
Posted by f at 01/04/2013 06:57 Reply to this Report abuse
hey'f" and others, ok 'f' your post is there , unfortunately u have confused the issue by globalizing "unnatural death" . do you know more people die of tuber culosis than AIDS, but we spend more money on AIDS than for TB cure because of international marketing , these issues must not be mixed up with the issue of RAPE, i am not sure if you have a daughter or sister , not sure if you have seen the condition of the human after the incident , perhaps you need to ... i think the media and youth of India have made this a national issue and is now forcing Govt./police to act. i dont know if you have ever seen the humilation in police station the victim undergoes during filing FIR, it is horrible, and the questions the police and people ask!! Allow civilized society to force a severe action on such rapists. also a lot needs to be done to educate youth on not looking at women as "figure or item" as potrayed in movies. let our people be safe -- even young boys are not spared by some or girls
Posted by vinod at 01/04/2013 17:08 Reply to this Report abuse
The few of INDIA, 10% or 15% (including the rich & powerful & politicians), under the influence of western culture, values & mainly MONEY, both good & bad, wants to change the broader population of remaining 85% or 90% of BHARAT is the underlying issue. Also the few of INDIA, due to getting influenced by western culture, values & mainly MONEY, pushing the broader 85%, without MONEY, to extreme situations here. So whether all the 100% need to follow India's sanskar, tradition and value system or wash it off totally is something to think over. Remember 2 or 3 decades ago, we were mainly admired by foreigners for the India's sanskar, tradition and value system which the majority followed, out of which great scientists, mathematicians, scholars, teachers, doctors all came out of. What I mentioned above needs to be thought over since everyone knows the quality of life and people in today's world we get in India, including doctors and engineers, who have turned nothing but greedy.
Posted by vbs at 01/04/2013 23:23 Reply to this Report abuse
tag
Posted by h at 01/08/2013 04:52 Reply to this Report abuse