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JUHI AGARWAL expresses her outrage regarding the attitudes of the Delhi gang rapists

 


After reading an article about an Indian court’s decision to ban the controversial interview with a convicted rapist from being broadcast, I was mortified and outraged. What could ever possess a person to perform rape? I can’t fathom what is going on in the mind of these people, and why they feel that this is something that they should do.

They say it is to teach girls a lesson. I am not sure what lesson has to be learned. I didn’t know going to the movies with friends was a crime. I didn’t know that dressing in any way that I want gave the “green light” to men to approach me and do what they want. No. There is no lesson that has to be taught. The lesson has to be taught to the men who think that because they are men, they can do as they please.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night,” he told the BBC. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal.”

“Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.”

I’m sorry. Was there some curfew set that I wasn’t aware of? If my parents are fine with me staying out after 9pm, then I don’t see why you have a problem with it. Just because a girl stays out a little later is not an invitation for men to take advantage of her. He says that housework is for women. When was it determined that rape is for men? He knows nothing about her life. That could have been the first time that she had ever gone out and all other times she is either focusing on her studies or helping out her family.

What right does it give the man to rape a woman, just because she is out at night? This girl in no way was doing the “wrong thing”. Spending time with a friend is not wrong. She went to watch a movie; she was not at a bar. She was not intoxicated. And I don’t know about you, but when I go to the movies, I don’t dress provocatively. Even then, a girl can wear whatever she likes and it isn’t wrong. He talks about a ‘decent’ girl. Maybe he has an obscure dictionary where rape is a decent act and that decent men rape girls.

No where is safe now. A woman can’t even walk down a street without having men whistling at her and giving her leering looks. She is just going on about her business but is now afraid to step out of her home. Men are meant to protect women. Not prey on them.

What absolutely horrified me is what else this bus driver said:

“When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back,” Singh told the BBC, saying she should’ve permitted the assault. “Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her.’ “

Why shouldn’t she fight back? She didn’t want this. These men first beat the girl, and her friend, before raping her. And that too with an iron rod. Raping is bad enough that she has to be beaten as well. His statement does not even make sense. Either way, they wouldn’t have just ‘done her’ and then let her walk free. The intention was to cause harm to her otherwise they wouldn’t have beaten her.

And how is death sentence for rape encouraging it further? It should in fact warn all that if you do rape, you will suffer the worst consequence. Singh says that now rapists will kill the girl instead of “letting her go” like these rapists did. Though not before practically beating her to death. If they kill the girl, either way, they will be facing life sentence or ending life. It is no brave act. What is the point of “teaching a lesson” in the most mortifying way and then facing a life sentence? What is achieved? You end up dying and so does the girl.

It is most surprising to hear that these men are so young. You would think that as time goes on, viewpoints would change on women only being responsible for taking care of household chores and not being allowed to leave the house at all. It makes you think where they learned these ‘values’ from – where it is acceptable to rape women to put them into line. Stop and think that everyone woman is either someone’s daughter, sister, wife, mother. The rapist should stop and think how they would feel if their loved one was raped.

A woman can do whatever she wishes, but this is not an invitation for men to “set her straight” and rape her. So the next time you feel like jacking off, use your own hand to relieve your urges, not the next girl that walks by.

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