Intimidation, Violence and Rape – The Everyday Lives of Women

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Shweta Krishnan

Dec. 29 was a sad day for India. A 23-year old woman died two weeks after she was gang-raped and maimed in a private bus, in New Delhi, the Indian capital. Over the last two weeks, thousands of Indians have have marched on the streets asking that safety for women be improved and the usual excuses of what the women wear and what time they travel not be trotted out as excuses to ‘blame’ them for rape. Activists and academics have written prolifically about rape and violence against women. Men and women have stood up for women’s rights to public spaces.

Though we blog about abortion issues, we believe that all forms of violence against women should be questioned and criticized equally. While rape is one form of violence inflicted on women in order to “put them in their place”, the denial of abortion is another form of violence inflicted on women to control their bodies and fertilities.

So, we decided to share some of the best articles that have been written on this tragic incident, with our comments on how these arguments can bring reform and social change.

Are We Inured To The “Rape Culture”?

You only have to look at the objectification of women in the media to know this is true. But as people (rightfully) take to that streets asking for public spaces to be secured, it is time to ask ourselves what a secure space really is in a society that is taught to condone most forms of gender violence.

Akshi Singh writes, “The continuum between the family (the place of safety for women, the home where one is taken care of) and rape have to be stressed: both are fantasies of control, of doing whatever it takes to keep women in their place, wherever that place is.” (Read the entire article here)

As long as we live in a society that seeks to “put women in their place” it is hard to imagine the complete absence of rape. Some men cannot imagine stooping to rape as a form of intimidation. But the “need to intimidate a woman” and “put her in her place” permeates a patriarchal society. Unless women are empowered and given autonomy over their bodies and lives, and until men learn to behave as equals, rape or even merely the threat of rape will unfortunately remain a tool of intimidation.

Will Death Penalty Stop Rape?

Not really; because the solution to a rape culture  is more complex than that. In a society where some forms of violence are condoned as necessary evil, it is hard to deal with the deeper questions of rape, without unraveling the very fabric of such a society.

Paromita Vohra, filmmaker and activist writes, “Demanding capital punishment, especially in the case of a crime which is tied to the very basis of the social structure — patriarchy and economic disparity — is just a way to absolve yourself of any responsibility in changing things while looking like you care.” (Read the entire article here.)

I cannot but agree. Death penalty seeks retribution by punishing the criminal. It does nothing to deal with the crime itself.

Justice For All:

Even while these arguments are raging in the Indian capital, a similar incident happened in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu. Another 23-year old woman was raped by three men at 8p.m. in the night, and left unconscious on the road. She was from the lower classes, and the incident, though immediately attended to (thanks to the protests in Delhi), has not been treated with the same surprise or disgust. It leaves you wondering if there’s a hierarchy among victims, and perpetrators of rape?

Unfortunately history will show you that there is such a ladder. Men of the upper classes have historically put the lower classes in their place by exercising control over the women of these classes. So, even today the rape of a woman from a minority group or a lower caste is viewed with less sympathy than that of a woman from the upper classes.

But A. Narayana, the editor of Paadam, and Indian Magazine, writes, “I don’t want to be a cynic. Especially not now. Agreed, thousands of these chest thumbing and high pitched youth and University students are not protesting against the rape and harassment heaped on adivasi women or dalit girls in villages, but angry that one amongst them has become a victim of gang-rape of the most heinous kind in a high profile city suburb. Still, to see thousands of youngsters from urban middle class spontaneously coming together, braving the biting cold of Delhi winter and laying siege to Parliament and other powerful leaders’ bungalows is surely the sign of a likely revolution.”

While these and several arguments are bringing to light the unfortunate status of women in India, I do hope that these arguments go beyond this one country.

While these and several arguments are bringing to light the unfortunate status of women in India, I do hope that these arguments go beyond this one country. Last year, politicians in the U.S. –presented to us very often as the “civilized” world — tried to redefine rape, and classify some forms of it as “legitimate”. If 2012 taught us a lesson, it is simply this: it is time to stop whispering our complaints against patriarchy. It’s time men and women stepped up for a better, more equal world!