My spirit is broken

There seems to be no hope. I have cried since it’s the only reaction I am able to muster. For the last 2 weeks my Facebook page, the articles I have read, have all screamed RAPE. In bold letters, in shocked tones. There is no escaping the sheer violence against women in my country of birth and in the world. Somewhere a 3-year-old gets raped, somewhere else it is a 17-year-old and elsewhere it is a 23-year-old.

Every time I read something of this nature, I think I am immune. After all, there is only so much pain one can read about, only so much pain one can imagine. I try to go about my life and make an effort to forget headlines, to forget status updates. The attacks, though, have been relentless.

How do I reconcile this age of violence with the dreams I am encouraging DD to see? How do I tell her to go out there and brave the world? How do I convince myself that she will be fine when she’s out of my sight?

I have a fierce urge to hold onto her tightly and to keep her hidden in the house? If she escapes prying eyes, eyes that undress you as they look at you, will she be safe? If she escapes groping hands in crowded spaces, will she be safe? Or will there be attacks from within? A good friend, an acquaintance, a fellow traveler, a coworker – any of these could be the “alleged” perpetrator.

I had prayed ardently for a daughter, I had asked for one everyday, when pregnant. One of the first things I said to her when I held her for the first time was “I promise I will keep you safe.” Today, I know I cannot keep that promise. To have brought her into this world is akin to throwing her to the wolves. How do I reconcile myself to the fact that I have failed as a parent? The very thing, the first thing that my child expects of me is the one thing I cannot successfully do.

Today, I wish I could have kept her in my womb forever. It was absolutely the only time I could guarantee her safety.

 

Women’s rights anyone???

“Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing (pregnancy) down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child”

Todd Akin 

“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Richard Mourdock

“Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I’ve always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.”

Rick Santorum

To amend Titles 16 and 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to criminal law and criminal procedure, respectively, so as to change the term “victim” (rape victim) to the term “accuser” in the context of a number of statutes making reference to circumstances where there has not yet been a criminal conviction; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Just in case you thought all these were ideas from the dark ages, the first 3 quotes were made during the campaign for the various house and senate seats in the recently concluded elections in the first world nation of the United States of America.

The last is a bill proposed by a Georgia State lawmaker to redefine rape victims as accusers.

Scared much???

I’m offering solutions….

As simplistic as it sounds, I think I have found the solution to the environmental, population and criminal acts against women  problems. Let us hang all rapists, across the world. Pedophiles, people convicted of sexual assault – let’s just hang all of them. Gunning them down on streets sounds like a good idea too. Life in prison for eveteasers and molesters. Given that their numbers are in the several million, it should help our population and environmental problems.

I sound vicious and unforgiving. I am not given to violence yet the escalation in crimes against women and children, particularly of the sexual kind are causing me to advocate this course of action. We’ve tried educating people, empowering women. It isn’t helping. In fact the better educated women are and the more liberal their views, the more they are being targeted. You have the audacity to wear a dress and go to a club. Well, let’s show you what happens to a liberated woman like you, we will assault you in public. The crimes cut through all swaths of society – rich, poor, educated, illiterate.  How are we to contain an epidemic of this nature?

Why are we so shy when it comes to punishing perpetrators of a sexual crime? If you can hang people for murder, a sexual criminal leaves his victims in a state worse than death. In the ever-increasing information age we live in, not only is the victim raped/assaulted once but over and over again by way of footage available on mobile phones and television and YouTube. (Refer to this and this). What is fitting punishment for a crime of this nature?

Please, let us not kid ourselves by saying that a prison sentence offers a chance at rehabilitation. There is no rehabilitating such criminals. Put them in prison for 7 years and the treatment they suffer in prison causes their frustration to grow, whets their appetite and causes them to take it out on an unsuspecting victim sometimes within months of their release.

So yes, as terrible as it sounds, let us change laws to put to death convicted sexual criminals. Let us fast track cases of such a nature. No point in having a case be open for 10 years and for the alleged criminal to be out on the streets.

P.S: It is obvious I am pissed off but as a woman and one raising a young daughter my outrage, I believe, is justified.

 

Fear

It was curious how she could fear him and fear for him at the same time. Fear him – because his gender alone granted him the power to live while his sisters were murdered in utero. Fear for him – because he would bear the burden of this terrifying legacy and be expected to carry it forward

I am outraged

as should every self respecting woman be. Have we lost it? What’s wrong you ask. Please read this article and come back and tell me if it didn’t cause your blood to boil. Aren’t we Indians obsessed enough with fairness already? How did a company come up with a product like this? How did an ad agency make an ad for something so abhorrent?

Not only is it important for women to have peaches and cream complexion (refer to the number of fairness cream ads on TV), have kaale, ghane, lambe baal (long thick, dark, beautiful hair) but now our privates need to be fair too. WTF?

Now, we’re going to actually interfere with the appearance of women’s genitalia!!! There’s something seriously wrong with our psyche if we let this ad be broadcast, hell, if we let this product be stocked in our store shelves. I had to read the article twice to actually believe what I was reading. Seeing the ad once was enough, though. I need to go scream loudly, break a few things, rail at a society gone mad for some time.

I’ll be back when I have cooled off.