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| Friday, 18 July 2003 |
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How a woman was stripped of her dignity by Afreeha Jawad What have the so-called women's organisations got to say? This time a woman has been raped inside an empty bus in Pettah. According to a newspaper report, she was on her way to attend a family function somewhere outstation when she was misdirected to such vehicle and raped, blatantly watched by some others. She was certainly not of the elite class but one of the proletariat - a garment factory hand who after a hectic day's work to earn her rupee was about to take on an arduous journey to fulfil a social call. Some may argue that she as a woman should have known better and refrained from exposing herself to nocturnal dangers but then as is Sri Lankan thinking, social beckoning of weddings, funerals and rites of passage would not give priority to such. Besides, what other transport mode would be at her disposal except that of the public, being a victim of, as the socialist doctrine pronounces -unequal resource distribution. Others would blame it all on her attire. There could be some truth in it but certainly no justification for such male biological imposition. That women's attire - somewhat of an increasingly provocative nature is 'trendy' these days - not that it wasn't either, historically speaking, - goes without saying. Women's organisations, on the other hand, might try to wash their hands off this responsibility by asking what on earth they could do every time a woman is raped? That's no excuse. They've got to activate themselves and make their presence felt in a big way even in hell holes such as Pettah, Fort and other areas of public congregation to stir-up the moral conscience in such anti-social acts - let alone bourgeois international fora, dolled up in the best of silks, Kashmirs and face paint. After all, Mother Theresa did not hanker after UN assemblies to espouse her cause. A woman of affluence, who gave up her splendour in favour of Bengal's squalor is no doubt a role model for those that seek women's well being - of course the Holy Mother fought in a much wider arena. This act of brazen human indignity is a stunning deprivation of the deprived. Poor girls of the like of this girl - victims of rape - do not know what it means to have institutional mechanisms fighting for their safeguards and rights. Perhaps, such ignorance is as bad as Punchi Singho not knowing what nation state and constitutional reform mean. Women's plight today is such that apart from burning the midnight oil to keep the wolf away from the door - they've got to carry the twin burden of tackling other wolves as well. While we in the South are compelled to hear such indignities, the Northern chief seems to be tackling the problem quite well. This writer recently was recipient of an interesting tale - all happening up there in the North. The event was a musical evening. Half way through, the lights went off followed by girls screaming out their lungs, not out of any fear of the dark but due to male power miscreants - all of whom were instantly arrested, handcuffed and brought on stage. When the lights came on the audience were treated to a different musical. They watched to their hearts content the whip-lashing of those that they lay their restless hands on women's privacy. |
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