This post was written by my sisterA woman working in a call centre in Bangalore was raped, and then murdered. A few weeks later, I received a forward carrying pictures taken after her death, and the message :
“With due respects to the lady who has been murdered, please take a look at the dress that she had worn(a sleeveless shirt and a pair of jeans) during the macabre incident. This should be an eye opener to all the parents who have some misdirected souls as their daughters and also to all those morons who think that wearing less clothes and being foolishly bold is a measure of modernity...Well, one lady has paid the price...atleast, be careful from now on...”
This made absolutely no sense to me, because the entire event was pre planned. Any six year old could conclude that the assault had nothing to do with what the girl was wearing.
However, the mail represented a deeper issue.
A common belief, I have recently discovered, is that women who don’t dress conservatively are asking for trouble. Therefore, if they get raped, it is their fault to a large extent. It is believed that they are only provoking men(who are naturally unable to control hormonal rages as they still remain barbarians from the stone age) by showing skin.
The truth is, it simply doesn’t matter what women wear. A girl in a salwar still hears leering remarks as she crosses the road, and probably gets harrassed more than a girl in a t shirt, simply because she looks more vulnerable.
When will society learn to punish the perpetrator instead of the victim? Instead of expressing outrage, we send emails blaming the girl. In the name of a conservative culture, we shy away from reality and hide behind walls of half baked opinions with no substance.
Somewhere, we are confusing preservation of our cultural identity with condoning ruthless crime.
