LIVING in a male dominated society makes one think about every hardship a girl has to face from the birth till the end. The attitudes in a male dominated society facilitate crimes against women like rape. Ironically, Rape is considered a “women’s issue”. However, everyone should stop and think to evaluate how a crime that a man commits is reckoned to be an issue primarily about women?
In our society, a girl is unceasingly lectured about Do’s and Don’ts about her lifestyle: How they should dress up, walk, go out and comeback. So much of our society’s energy is expended on sermonizing women, when crimes against them are committed by men. Little and scattered attempts are made to educate sons about the importance of respecting women and seeing them as equals.
Perhaps, if we’d spent as much time on keeping a track on the conduct of our sons, as we spend on reprimanding daughters about coming back after sunset, we would have been in a better place.
All over the world, someone is raped on an average of every 2.5 minutes. In every 15 minutes, a rape case is registered. Many prefer keeping it a secret, either willingly or under the pressure and counsel from other members of society. It is a pity that our society has been created on principles that deem it better to let a rapist move freely. This is primarily because even as the rapist commits a crime, it is our women who are said to lose their “honor”. How do women lose their honor if they’re merely victims of a crime not its perpetrators?
We do not even have a culture of educating children and creating awareness about these issues. Many girls don’t even know what rape means until they become victims of it. Every country spends millions on protecting its borders from enemies while women within these borders become victims of violence every day.
Our estimates collect data about the frequency of women getting raped. This is how we receive news about rape; as something that is being done to women. Why can’t we shift the focus on how many men rape women every second? When we turn our attention from the perpetrator to victim, what does that imply and what should we do instead? These subtleties are instrumental in how a society views various issues.
Every day, women are sermonized, which is nothing but a way of telling her, “don’t get raped”. We must redirect our energy to reiterate and tell men every day, “don’t rape” — not because you have a mother, a sister, a wife or a daughter. Don’t rape because she is a human too.
Mir Seerat
Student DMPS Sopore
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