WOMEN DISOBEDIENCE, SO IT'S RIGHT TO KILL THEM?

August 9th 2010. Anyone remember what happened in Mumbai on that fateful day? Since I can guess that we, Indians have a short memory, let me refresh it.

It was on that day where a young lady, a lawyer, a person who had her life ahead of her brutally murdered for resisting rape in a posh apartment in the burgeoning city of Mumbai. She was killed in her home, by the very individual who is supposed to protect her and other residents in the high rise apartment building.

The security guard tried to force himself on Pallavi Purkayastha and when she fought him off, he got angry and stabbed her several times. She managed to escape his murderous clutches and ran along the apartment floor, the blood from her wounds, dripping to the floor, ringing the bells of her neighbours with blood stained fingers. But not a soul came to her aid and she was dragged back to her home by her aggressor before slitting her throat and leaving her bleed to death.

Pallavi's lifeless body lying in a pool of her own blood was discovered by her boyfriend - the couple have been living together and were planning to get hitched.

Bang on! The security confessed to stalking Pallavi and eyeing her for quite some time. You know the core of this murder, the security opined that since Pallavi was living with a man, she is a harlot that would serve any Tom, Dick or Harry and on that basis, he attempted a 'go' at her. When his advances were rejected, he got furious and put her 'in her place' by murdering her. She is a WOMAN, so how dare she defy a MAN!! Her qualification, her reputation, her convictions are all secondary - the fact that she is female and females are not meant to be defiant and defensive are the primary attributes.

Similarly, in the Delhi gang rape case that happened in a moving bus in December, 2012, a med student was brutalized for defending herself from rape. She was accompanied by a male friend and the inebriated men in the bus taunted her for being with a guy in unearthly hours and then decided to teach her 'a lesson.' 

Jyoti Singh Pandey clawed, bit, punched, kicked and struggled as she was mercilessly raped by 7 men and displaying that she should pull her punches around men, they brutalized her in ways unimaginable, in the most horrid way possible. She was then stripped naked and thrown out of the bus like a rag doll.

She lay in the middle of the road, not a thread on her body, horrifically wounded but conscious. No one stopped to help her and her male friend despite their desperate pleas. People on vehicles would slow down, take a cursory look at them and then speed away. Even the police took their own sweet time to rescue the savagely raped girl and her beaten up male friend.

Gender animosity is the causal factor in both incidents and many, many more incidents that made headlines but soon forgotten by us It is the skewed perception that women should always be under men's foot. If women rise up to defend or prove themselves, then she needs to be taught a lesson and it is perfectly alright if she dies in the process - her story would serve as an example to other women to watch their ways. 

If a man slaps another man, the incident is soon forgotten. But, if a woman slaps a man, the man would harbour grudge and would try to get even with her in any way possible - some are even disposed to murder while others include splashing concentrated acid to disfigure her for good and demean her character to others, a potential suitor or boss to ruin her life and future.

We live in a society where we don't give a rat's ass to husbands saying that they have the right to clobber their wives and even kill them. A married woman is told to bear with her abusive husband for the sake of her family and the honour of her parents. If she seeks freedom from the abuses from her husband, her parents would be blamed for not raising their daughter properly.

Women are just as human as men; we feel pain, we bleed, we suffer and the feeling is the same as men. I am not asking men to treat women specially - just treat a woman, any woman like a fellow human being. That is more than enough. It takes very little to make a woman smile and feel safe.

Related articles:

- A message for young Indian men from young Indian women
- Sordid Indian male mentality
- Sexual harassment, the problem women are made to endure
- The Indian obsession with female virginity
- Rape: She asked for it! Oh, really?
- Virginity - A question of girls' morality
- India and violence against women: Any change after the Delhi gang rape case?
- How Hindu myths contribute to rape in India

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