Violence against women

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Originally Posted by nms

I dont know whether anyone have noticed that in Indian Movies the villain rapes and is punished (usually the victim marries him :banghead: ) and the hero goes unpunished for eve-teasing :cry: .Both are anti - women and are illegal.

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Funny you should bring that up...I was following the story of the Pakistani woman who was ordered to be gang raped by the village council and another one which happened in Madhya Pradesh( I think) where a woman was ordered to marry her father in law bcoz he raped her.The village heads decided that the husband she was with for 13 years was now her son and she had become the wife of the father in law when he raped her .
How can people think this way.Is illiteracy the root cause of it ? Its baffling.

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Originally Posted by ssanjinika

I was following the story of the Pakistani woman who was ordered to be gang raped by the village council and another one which happened in Madhya Pradesh( I think) where a woman was ordered to marry her father in law bcoz he raped her.The village heads decided that the husband she was with for 13 years was now her son and she had become the wife of the father in law when he raped her .
How can people think this way.Is illiteracy the root cause of it ? Its baffling.

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We have already discussed the case of Mukhtiar mai which you are referring to.

As for the second case I too am outraged though there are factual errors in what you have written,for example,it was not a order/judgement ,but a 'learned opinion/interpretation of Islamic law'.Further,contrary to the reports in media,the scholars didn't ask the victim to marry the rapist. :)

But none of these things can reduce the injustice that had been committed against the victim.The ruthless media torned her into pieces and the Chief Minister refused to intervene in support of the woman.I am of the opinion that the media should willingly offer the victim compensation for violating her right to privacy and violating the Supreme court directive on treatmet of rape victims by disclosing her name and details.

Word by word interpretation of religious texts,instead of an interpretation in the spirit of the text doesn't help either.At the end of the day,these 'learned men' look like donkeys in the sight of the public :evil: :x .

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Originally Posted by "blahblah

As for the second case I too am outraged though there are factual errors in what you have written,for example,it was not a order/judgement ,but a 'learned opinion/interpretation of Islamic law'.Further,contrary to the reports in media,the scholars didn't ask the victim to marry the rapist. :)

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Thanks blahblah for pointing out the factual mistakes in my post...I guess I was just too shocked by the whole incident that I misinterpreted the news reports..or dare I hope the news reports were a bit too creative :P
Anyways jokes aside the issue is serious..whats even more appaling is the fact that the government /law cannot do anything about it for fear it would spark communal riots.
Of course its not always the men who do the injustice...a lot of times men are victims too but any discussions on that would be out of context under this topic :P

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Originally Posted by blahblah

And Surya,it is always nice to meet an old friend,particularly,one with a saffron coat. :lol:

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Why thank you! I take that as a compliment!! :D :D Although I'd prefer a saffron bandanna. :wink:

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Originally Posted by lord

I do miss him & his catchy, to-the-point posts.......'wonder y he isn't visiting ne more......!

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I think our Blah *2 here has probably created a permenant phobia of public forums for Mr.Katty. :lol2:

I'm really disturbed by the news of that rape in Madhya Pradesh, guys!! Isn't India a secular country with a common code of law for all its citizens???? So, why cut so much slack for religious laws???? :shock:

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Originally Posted by nirosha sen

I'm really disturbed by the news of that rape in Madhya Pradesh, guys!! Isn't India a secular country with a common code of law for all its citizens???? So, why cut so much slack for religious laws???? :shock:

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Sorry,I forgot to point out another factual error in Sanjinika's post.Muzaffarnagar where this incident took place is not in Madhya Pradesh,but in Uttar Pradesh.

India is ofcourse a secular nation but not with a common code of law.When it comes to personal law,the Muslim Personal Law Board acts as a competent authority to carry out the Shariat law[I object to this].Unfortunately the right wing Hindu fundamentalists have made it a habit to make use of every such incident to malign the Muslim faith that they have driven most of the Muslims to an extent where they can't accept a Uniform Civil Code.

Today,a common Muslim has more faith in their own 'out of the age' laws than in the Indian Penal Code and I am forced to say that a very small group of Hindus[who deserve as much punishment as the Taliban]is responsible for it.

A uniform civil code is a real need and it is the solemn duty of the citizens of India[who belong to other religions]to convince the Muslims that it wont be used as a tool to suppress them.

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Note to mods:Though religion is a forbidden subject here,you can surely understand that I am speaking for national interest here.I believe I am not biased and that my views are balanced.So please let my post stay here! :D

News in today’s(23-7-’05) “Mumbai Mirror”:

23 lakh young men may not find brides in 5 years

1.37 crore female foeticides in a decade jolt NHRC, panel chief warns of serious implications if situation continues.

Chandigarh: With 1.37 crore female fetuses destroyed following sex determination tests in the last decade, National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) on Friday expressed concern over the menace of female foeticide and warned that if the situation continued, over the next five years, over 23 lakh young men may not find brides.There are enough laws to check sex determination tests but their implementation remains poor, NHRC chairperson justice A S Anand told reporters on the sidelines of a workshop on HIV/AIDS. ‘I cannot recall one incident where a diagnostic centre has been closed down( which was found guilty of carrying out such test). This is a murky business,’ he lamented.

Expressing concern over the declining sex ratio, he said 204 districts in the country had skewed ratio and added ‘if this situation continues, over the next five years 23 lakh young men may not find brides to marry.’

Even in the national capital, the sex ratio was 819 females per 1,000 males, he said adding only public awareness can help tackle the problem.

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Originally Posted by ssanjinika

where a woman was ordered to marry her father in law bcoz he raped her.The village heads decided that the husband she was with for 13 years was now her son and she had become the wife of the father in law when he raped her .
How can people think this way.Is illiteracy the root cause of it ? Its baffling.

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Many times, I had raised a question about the holiness of religions itself. Whether we have to consider religions as great and holy and blame just few humans as if they had interpreted wrong. Do you think that the village heads had taken their own decision or their interpretations are wrong?

Just read Sura 33:36-38 to understand which is wrong. Religions or its interpretations. I don’t want to explain further. I am leaving to individual’s own understanding. Read point 6 & 7 of the following web site if you nned any more details
http://www.fam.aust.com/helal/alhaqq...lam/woman.html

A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court directed the Central Government to evolve a common civil code as response to a public interest litigattion.
Of course no government has the political will and guts to bring in a modern civilised common civil code for the fear of losing minority votes.
An other option is to modernise and truly "civilise" the civil code of each religions. Though the Hindu civil code has been amended innumerable times to the advantage of women, including property rights, abuse and divorce procedures, any attempt to change the muslim civil code, the clerics shout holy murder. Infact in the famous Shah Bano case, the Rajiv Gandhi Govt. went to extent of amending constitution to evade supreme court ruling which would have given life sustenance to the innumerable hapless women who are left in lurch by the husbands.

From a very sensible & enlightening article by Shabana Azmi in today’s “Hindustan Times:

What you’d rather not know about the girl child..

..In the posh areas of Mumbai such as Colaba, 860 girls were born for every 1000 boys in 2003. In New Delhi, the residents of the affluent South Delhi are among the worst offenders. Late last year a survey of births in hospitals in the area revealed that only 762 girls were born per 1000 boys. In a normal population there should be more than 950 girls for every 1000 boys.

The fact is that the worst form of discrimination and violence against girls is perpetrated in affluent, educated, urban families across the country. It is practiced silently, behind closed doors, with the active connivance of doctors and with the use of technology. Two words describe this phenomenon- sex selection. Selection of the desirable sex and elimination of the unwanted one.

An analysis of the statistics reveals interesting patterns. The worst child sex ratio is in the more prosperous states, in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. These are all the states where the rate of literacy is higher than the national average and where economic growth is higher than in other regions. Baffled? Look around you, in your neighbourhoods, and you will begin to get the clues. Notice the mushrooming of ultrasound clinics and nursing homes and you will see a pattern. Technology is providing the answers, not just for the way we run our lives, but also how we influence the creation of life itself.

There is an Act (The Preconception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques or PCPNDT Act) that prohibits sex selection, before or after conception. Testing the sex of a child before it is born is illegal. Sadly, there have been no convictions under this Act so far: The only real impact has been that the practice has gone underground.

Sex selection, however, is not only about technology. It is about the status women have in society and the prejudices they face from the time they are conceived. Amongst educated families (if that is indeed an appropriate term) the desire is for two children, a result of years of conditioning to “Hum do, hamare do”. Of the two, one child most certainly has to be male. So, what happens if the first child is a girl? Subsequent daughters are eliminated until a boy is conceived. Propertied families would rather not have the burden of a girl, lest the son-in-law demand a share of the goodies once the daughter is married. In families that have no landed property or assets, the issue is one of dowry. In short, daughters are an economic liability.

A common argument that I have heard people use for their preference of sons is that since women often face a raw deal in life, it is better not to bring one more into the world. This is like saying that it is justifiable to eliminate poor people to prevent them from suffering a life of deprivation. If we fear having to give dowry, let us eliminate dowry, not daughters. If we fear that a girl will go through life facing violence, let’s eliminate violence, not women. Is daughter slaughter the response of a mature society?

So, what are the consequences of having a society that has a paucity of girls? My friends often jest that it will be a blessing in disguise because it will increase the value of girls. Anecdotal evidence demonstrates how far that assumption is from reality. In states like Haryana, where sex selection has been practiced over a period of time, the results are already visible. Incidents of trafficking of girls from poor areas are in the increase. The girls are ‘bought’ and forced into polyandry. Instances of child prostitution and abduction are already being reported.

What then will be the structure of society be with a paucity of women? What will the consequences be for the family unit and community, and what of the institution of marriage?

Imagine the plight of women forced into polyandrous marriages. I shudder to think how much more vulnerable a woman would be to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/Aids. What of the increase in violence against women? One can only conjecture, but the possible scenarios are frightening…Stop sex selection.