The Delhi Gang Rape has caught India by storm... and for the first time I feel such agitation is needed to draw attention to this problem.... rape is always such a sensitive topic... prevention rather than cure is always the norm...
Growing up the only thing i used to fear in my life was rape.... to me that represented the ultimate humiliation of a girl... the subjugation, the sexual abuse and the exercise of power over a woman was to me the greatest fear I had... added to that was the societal acceptance that yes, you could get raped... something in the attitude also spoke about how as a woman you should prevent it from happening... and if it did happen then you need to figure out why.... it seemed, at that point in time, to be the worst possible thing that could happen to a woman...
that fear never left me... I went to law school and the one thing that happened was the fact that I dont need to feel helpless in the face of sexual assault... and that if you are raped that does not mean that it is your fault... that the man can be challenged....that there is life after rape... I felt calmer and stopped including this in my list of things to be afraid of... but the fear never left entirely.... Benazir Bhutto in her autobiography specifies that she herself was so scared of rape that many times she would not step out of her room at Harvard if there was man in the hallway .... so it was not just me... every woman feared this.....
most recently, when the robbery happened the first thing that crossed my mind was what if the robber had decided to attack me... and till today I do not know how I would have reacted if I was attacked....and thank God everyday for sparing me....
I have always felt strongly about rape and rape victims... many times helpless in the wake of what I consider is a societal attitude... movies depict rape as an "easy option".... an easy weapon to use against woman and her family.. its almost like she doesnt matter in the game of life.... and she can be swept aside by any man for any reason....
When will start viewing women as human beings????
Growing up the only thing i used to fear in my life was rape.... to me that represented the ultimate humiliation of a girl... the subjugation, the sexual abuse and the exercise of power over a woman was to me the greatest fear I had... added to that was the societal acceptance that yes, you could get raped... something in the attitude also spoke about how as a woman you should prevent it from happening... and if it did happen then you need to figure out why.... it seemed, at that point in time, to be the worst possible thing that could happen to a woman...
that fear never left me... I went to law school and the one thing that happened was the fact that I dont need to feel helpless in the face of sexual assault... and that if you are raped that does not mean that it is your fault... that the man can be challenged....that there is life after rape... I felt calmer and stopped including this in my list of things to be afraid of... but the fear never left entirely.... Benazir Bhutto in her autobiography specifies that she herself was so scared of rape that many times she would not step out of her room at Harvard if there was man in the hallway .... so it was not just me... every woman feared this.....
most recently, when the robbery happened the first thing that crossed my mind was what if the robber had decided to attack me... and till today I do not know how I would have reacted if I was attacked....and thank God everyday for sparing me....
I have always felt strongly about rape and rape victims... many times helpless in the wake of what I consider is a societal attitude... movies depict rape as an "easy option".... an easy weapon to use against woman and her family.. its almost like she doesnt matter in the game of life.... and she can be swept aside by any man for any reason....
When will start viewing women as human beings????
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