Why was 'India's Daughter' Banned?
I watched 'India's Daughter', the story of Jyoti Singh, a feisty rape victim, who succumbed to her injuries, dashing the hopes of her inconsolable parents.
The video, a 59 and odd minute documentary played on BBC Four recently. It made me shudder. Not that I am not aware of the existence of men like Mukesh and the boy now simply called "The Juvenile". I see them everywhere, on the streets, in the malls.
The video is well shot. The interview with one of the perps, the unrepentant, unashamed Mukesh treats the whole shoot like a moral lecture. He looks straight at the camera and without batting an eyelid supports the rape. He says, the girl was asking for it. What gall the girl had to step out after sunset to watch a movie, with a boy who did not fit the "accepted" definitions of men like Mukesh: husband, brother, father, and so on. The girl was asking for it, he says. She had to be taught a lesson. Even if Ram and Mukesh's twisted minds saw the whole thing as an assertion of female freedom. Perversion or being twisted is not the question here. It is about the right for a woman/girl to dream and achieve her dream. Jyoti's mother, softly sobs into the camera, slowly rocking herself, back and forth, back and forth, tears streaming down her face, she gulps hard, before managing to speak.
I think each and every Indian woman and man must watch this video. If men are accused of being patriarchal, women are not far behind in holding up the patriarchal stereotypes. Education cannot purge the minds of young men and boys from trying to control a girl/woman, it has to get into the blood, the genes.
In the near future, I do not see it happening.
A Jyoti will get brutalized regularly till we, the women, stop looking up at our men, stop treating them as demi gods, and start treating them as they are: human beings.
Mothers must, I repeat must be extra cautious in feeding accurate stimuli while bringing up sons, ensuring their sons do not at any point feel insecure about themselves in order to feel confident about a successful woman.
The sons, the future Mukeshs and Ram Singhs, must be made aware that a woman walking on the road is not a "Sweet" that they can grab and devour. No, they must realize that a woman is a human like themselves and has the right to live.
And yes, till the time we as a society get courage to face these devils, we must, ban the video. We must be ostriches and try to save the juvenile. He must be set free in December 2015 because he is not mature enough to understand that inserting a rod in a girl may kill her, poor kid, what does he know of an overactive penis, he knows only to lure customers for his bosses, Mukesh and Ram, the two innocent brothers. Two men who were so innocent that their mother claims they have been framed, even after one of them killed himself in jail and the other gives an interview, proudly describing the dastardly act. Yes, it must be banned because we are a conservative society, we do not allow our girls outside after 6 pm lest they set off the hormones of devils like Mukesh and invite them to rape her. We must ban all such videos. We must, as a society be called Ostrich-India.
The video, a 59 and odd minute documentary played on BBC Four recently. It made me shudder. Not that I am not aware of the existence of men like Mukesh and the boy now simply called "The Juvenile". I see them everywhere, on the streets, in the malls.
The video is well shot. The interview with one of the perps, the unrepentant, unashamed Mukesh treats the whole shoot like a moral lecture. He looks straight at the camera and without batting an eyelid supports the rape. He says, the girl was asking for it. What gall the girl had to step out after sunset to watch a movie, with a boy who did not fit the "accepted" definitions of men like Mukesh: husband, brother, father, and so on. The girl was asking for it, he says. She had to be taught a lesson. Even if Ram and Mukesh's twisted minds saw the whole thing as an assertion of female freedom. Perversion or being twisted is not the question here. It is about the right for a woman/girl to dream and achieve her dream. Jyoti's mother, softly sobs into the camera, slowly rocking herself, back and forth, back and forth, tears streaming down her face, she gulps hard, before managing to speak.
I think each and every Indian woman and man must watch this video. If men are accused of being patriarchal, women are not far behind in holding up the patriarchal stereotypes. Education cannot purge the minds of young men and boys from trying to control a girl/woman, it has to get into the blood, the genes.
In the near future, I do not see it happening.
A Jyoti will get brutalized regularly till we, the women, stop looking up at our men, stop treating them as demi gods, and start treating them as they are: human beings.
Mothers must, I repeat must be extra cautious in feeding accurate stimuli while bringing up sons, ensuring their sons do not at any point feel insecure about themselves in order to feel confident about a successful woman.
The sons, the future Mukeshs and Ram Singhs, must be made aware that a woman walking on the road is not a "Sweet" that they can grab and devour. No, they must realize that a woman is a human like themselves and has the right to live.
And yes, till the time we as a society get courage to face these devils, we must, ban the video. We must be ostriches and try to save the juvenile. He must be set free in December 2015 because he is not mature enough to understand that inserting a rod in a girl may kill her, poor kid, what does he know of an overactive penis, he knows only to lure customers for his bosses, Mukesh and Ram, the two innocent brothers. Two men who were so innocent that their mother claims they have been framed, even after one of them killed himself in jail and the other gives an interview, proudly describing the dastardly act. Yes, it must be banned because we are a conservative society, we do not allow our girls outside after 6 pm lest they set off the hormones of devils like Mukesh and invite them to rape her. We must ban all such videos. We must, as a society be called Ostrich-India.
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