STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM!

 

Unless you’re living under a rock, you sure are constantly noticing the growing instances of crime against women. Ok with the recent elections mela, the news channels have pushed these crime news to the backseat, but as you know, once the election flavors die down, they’ll be back on track.. The debates about these crimes against women go on and on with the blame games(Read Arnab and his primetime debate ;) ). Is the government taking sufficient safety measures? Are our laws strong enough to punish these crimes? Is gender equality a distant dream? Is death penalty the right option?

But what has been bothering me is a different perspective of this debate. The perception that a woman invites trouble by the way she dresses. Ridiculous, right? Wait.. Not all of you think it’s ridiculous? I know!!

I was angered seeing the numerous ludicrous comments by politicians who blame the victim for the crime. The most recent one being “Boys make mistakes, they shouldn’t be hanged for that” I just assumed they were uneducated and have barbarian views. But again I happened to notice comments on facebook, by apparently-educated men supporting the view. I was shocked. What pained me the most was men on my own facebook friends list sharing videos endorsing this view! It was then that I decided to write this blog.

To all those backing the view, I have a few questions.

• Crime against women are more common in villages than in cities. Does that mean women in villages are more skimpily clothed than their counterparts in city?
• Child rapes/abuses are on the rise. Do you blame their clothes too?
• You pass a house and an enticing aroma of your favorite meal reaches your nostrils. Will you barge in and eat it? (Oh come on, it’s their fault that they let the aroma linger out of the house!)
• Yes, a girl who wears shorts and dares to walk through the streets will be the cynosure of most men’s eyes in our country. A girl in the same attire in the Western nations will not be looked at twice. So is the problem with the clothes or the mindset?

And this is to the women who wag their tongues(I have done this too before I realized its wrong!) over other women’s clothes. Trust me..! “Decent dressing” is a relative term. For someone who wears a burka, a salwar/saree might be over-exposing. For someone who’s clad in saree/salwar, jeans might be obscene. For someone in Jeans, shorts or tank tops might seem skimpy.. so next time you want to moral police on someone’s clothes, remember that your clothes are not perfect either and someone might do the same to you.

The root cause of these crimes is the mindset.. I solely blame the parents(and partly society) of every criminal for failing to teach the right values and the fact that women are no lesser than men.

Image taken from internet.