Understand girls' anger, don't preach to them
These girls' frustration towards men is completely justified.
Girls are angry. Girls are sad. Girls are troubled.
In just 48 hours, three reports of rape emerged from different areas in Delhi. Victims of different ages. Different types of rapists.
The prestigious Lady Shri Ram College for girls in Delhi has moved its classes online because ensuring the safety of girls was difficult. A rape had occurred in a nearby park.
This is the capital of the country. Here is the Delhi Police, which is under the control of the Centre. The same Delhi Police that interrogates a hundred times before even a simple event. The situation is such that when fifty girls decided to take to the streets at night without flags, slogans, or posters, hundreds of police arrived, roads were cleared, and the police claimed they were providing security, but the girls questioned why they do not receive protection when they are attacked?
And the police had no answer!
Girls from Delhi University had come with banners and slogans. These were not the usual slogans. They were not slogans from student movements or feminist movements. The girls had crafted them themselves - "One tea, two samosas, what trust in the male species? A woman belongs to herself, not to anyone's father."
Fresh slogans. Slogans of the common people.
Slogans of this generation. Gen Z, as they say. They have recently made the government bend. Both the ruling and opposition parties are trying hard to please them.
The problem is that even the victories of their generation do not become their complete victories. They may get the right to exams and jobs, but the issue of their safety in colleges, offices, and even on the roads, in parks, and at home remains solely theirs. Apart from four days of noise, no one is affected. A large part of society is busy blaming them.
Why did you wear such clothes? Why did you go there so late? Why were you hanging out with a boy? Why didn’t you inform your family? And so on.
When a video of the recent incident in Jamui went viral, such questions began to be asked, and a minister from the ruling party, instead of condemning this 'moral policing', started advising that it should have been a little lighter! No one is asking the question of who gave the right to completely immoral goons to engage in moral policing? Society? The government? The Constitution? Or the police?
And then some angry men will come and say Not All Men.
So, you will defame an entire religion based on the names of four terrorists. There has been generalization about so-called Dalits and backward castes for centuries, and no one had a problem. Here, the rapists are a hundred percent men. So, will the question not be raised about the animals? From twelve to fifteen-year-old boys to seventy to seventy-five-year-old men. From those picking up garbage on the street to government officials, leaders, businessmen, teachers, professors... all kinds of men! So why shouldn’t girls question the 'male species'?
The Nirbhaya incident happened in Delhi. There was an uproar across the country. Men perhaps came out in large numbers against rape for the first time. Laws were made. Discussions took place. And then... and then everything returned to normal. The government has only one remedy - strict laws. If strict laws could stop crimes, then crimes like murder would have stopped long ago.
And the laws have to be implemented by judges, right? So, they are still searching for penetration, tearing clothes is not an attempt to rape, attempting to forcibly enter a house and tear clothes is not rape, inappropriately touching private parts, attempting to force is not rape. All this has been said in various courts. So, if a rapist does not succeed in committing rape, should he be released so he can try again? Grant him bail so he can kill the victim? When society is patriarchal, the laws made in favor of women will also be implemented in a patriarchal manner.
And from Kathua to many other places, we have seen that processions in support of the rapist have started now. If the rapist belongs to one's religion or caste, he becomes a deity. Big people come out in support of him. There is a crowd of lawyers in court and supporters on the streets. Newspapers start reporting that the rape did not happen at all. The media's verdict comes before the court's.
So what should girls do? You have left them with only two options - either to remain silent and confine themselves or to protest with all their might.
If they have chosen to protest, do not lecture them on the methods of protest; if you have too much knowledge, give it to the rapists, give it to the upbringing that turns a girl's body into a battlefield. Change that family structure where a girl's birth becomes a cause of sorrow. Give it to those newspapers that are not ashamed to support rapists. Give it to yourself, who cannot stop the humiliation of girls/women around you.
The anger of those girls is justified; bow your head in shame before them and look at yourself in the mirror. Who knows, a potential rapist might be hiding there too.
