Rape: A powerless situation

    This piece of writing contains three stories on rape and its interpretation.

                  First story is from Tolstoy‘s “Kreutzer Sonnata”. The main character of this novel is a Russian writer who lives with his wife. Every night husband has a violent and humiliating sex with his wife without considering her decision. Husband feels pity and miserable each time he rapes her. Sex without consent is rape. Husband thinks that his wife is just an object of bestial desires. After some days, he gets disturbed with his own cycle of sex, hate and violence. One day he decides to kill his wife. He wants to end the misery that both husband and wife go through. Finally he kills his wife. Husband justifies that his dead wife becomes a human being rather than an object of desire in his eyes now. He begins to have a compassionate feeling for her. That empathetic feeling for his wife was absent previously. He justifies that women will never be treated as full human beings as long as sexual desire exists. Yes it is true. As long as the patriarch society controls female sexuality and considers women as a property, the status of women will be like an object.  Unnao rape case, Kathua incidents are the examples where women are dehumanized and treated as a disgusting thing.

                  The second story is from Prativa Roy’s Gandhiji Kahithile. In this story, Ganapati who was a Gandhian follower lived with his physical handicapped wife and a daughter named Masal. Masal was good student. One day some miscreant youth caught hold Masal on the way to her college; sexually assaulted her. She appealed them to leave by citing Gandhiji’s statement that it will be called Suraj (good governance) when women can freely and safely move at the dead of night. The miscreants abused Gandhi – Gandhi gave us independence, made us unemployed and no bride for marriage. Then Masal was raped and murdered.  Here this story depicts about the governance failure on Women security and protection. Also it shows another side of consequences of unemployment linked with crime.

                 The third and last story is from a FB post. This is all about a conversation between a mini skirt, a Saree , a Burkha and a baby girl’s diaper.  Mini skirt says that society blames me for rape because I am bit small to cover women’s leg.It provokes male and attracts. A Saree comes forward and says that I cover the entire body but still those who put me on are not safe and getting raped. Then Burkha interferes. And says what about me, I cover all the body and there is no space at all to show anything. The women who wear burkha are also being raped. Finally Baby Diaper in a melancholy voice says listen to me, I can’t even speak properly, I do not know how to dress and undress. Mom does everything for me. I don’t find any reason of being undressed and raped.  It symbolizes that females irrespective of caste, class, age and community are vulnerable as far as sexual violence and rape is concerned. The ugly mindset and wanton intentions of males are responsible for rape. A study reveals that rape gives a higher rate of risk factors for death and disability to women. This risk factor of rape is bigger than cancer, war and accidents.

                  The rapist should be punished and rape victims should get justice. No doubt on this. The fear of rape is a daily reality for many women. It is limiting their freedom movement and also reducing their quality of life. Fear of rape is becoming a norm for women and a part of woman’s culture to be passed from generation to generation.

              Whatever has happened in Hyderabad, where a young vet doctor was raped and brutally killed by four young men then the four accused were killed in an encounter by police gives a mixed reaction in society. There are two schools of thoughts on this incident.  For one school of thought the act of police by killing those accused is really a good move. This move can trigger fear among sexual perverted. The judiciary system is slow and there is trust deficit. This school of thought advocates immediate and instant judgment. This school also advocates for mobocracy.  And for another school of thought, this act of police is a threat to democracy and to judiciary also. Law and judiciary system are here to give justice. They promote reform in judiciary system.

                Public anger is an important motivation for justice. It can motivate punishment of wrongdoers. Retributive punishment is regarded as the principle factor in public satisfaction with justice. Anger, disgust and shock are rising up when we hear any rape and murder incident. Actually we are disapproving other people’s sexual behavior which is not legal. Emotions carry a very powerful force in the way individuals and law deal with sexual issues particularly rape. Anger and disgust dominate the emotions. Anger which is called as moral anger justifies its compatibility with liberal humanistic ideas of justice, whereas disgust as an emotion is sidelined. Moral anger also gives a path to justified revenge. So when four accused in Hyderabad vet rape and murder are killed by police, our moral anger celebrates over moral justice.