Tasneem Kabir Self Introspection
While the international media and national forces are singularly focused on presenting insurgency as the greatest problem of Kashmir, there thrives a silent evil threatening the very fabric of our society RAPE. We all heard about the alleged rape of a minor of all but three years in Sumbal at the hands of a local.
We were all witness to the unravelling of the sexual brutalities Aasiya went through. On May 15 this year, A 20-year-old man was arrested in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly raping a minor days after the rape of the 3-year-old sparked massive outrage across the state. These are but a handful of the many incidents that get reported and then investigated. As for those who succumb to rape without being recognized as victims, they trudge on through life with trauma and paranoia.
Notwithstanding that these cases are fairly recent, rape is not a notion the Valley is alien to. All one has to do is talk to people around to discover that one is surrounded by quiet, unassuming rape survivors. This then makes us question why rape is persistent in our society at all.
Foremost, this can be attributed to the widespread view of women as commodity in the society. Consider how, in multiple cases of rape, the assault is carried out in retaliation or revenge for a feud or dispute. Worst amongst these is the incidence of cases wherein the rapist attacks the girl after being rejected by her.
In all these cases, what we see is a gross dehumanization of the woman, in that she becomes the öbject” that receives the damage. This dehumanization is further propelled by calling the woman the ïzzat” or “honor” of the household. So, this leaves scope for rape that is not sexually motivated, but intended at tarnishing this very honor to harm the family. All in all, the first way we can drag our society out of this abyss of rape culture is to restore women to their rightful place of being a human, and not anyone else’s property or honor.
Moving on, what seems most alarming is the number of rape cases that go unreported, no matter of what intensity. No complaints, let alone FIRs, are lodged and no action taken. No investigation is sparked. For anyone from within our community, the reason for this is amply clear: the taboo-isation of sexual assault. Somehow, in the light of some twisted logic, it seems to be the norm to shove an incidence of rape in the family under the carpet and hide it from others. All this, because it translates to some kind of shame that the rape victim has brought to the family.
This ends up making the poor victim feel like the convict or criminal. Another repercussion of this approach is that the actual criminals remain unfazed, due to lack of punitive action against them. It is interesting how nature deals with miscreants of its own – when a honeybee in the hive brings in some kind of poison, the other bees mutually kill it so as to prevent the spreading of the poison in the rest of the community. If not death, it would do us well to make sure rapists are severely punished, as means of deterring others from indulging in such acts. We humans, after all, learn the fastest from example.
Next, we come to the idea of dress. Many a people claim, even here in the Valley, that more often than not, it is the woman who is dressed inappropriately. That, in their opinion, invites the wrong kind of attention and makes women vulnerable to sexual harassment. To that, I would like to humbly say how in a place where most women are clad in modest ethnic wear or even Abayas and Hijabs does this argument hold true?
Further, who on earth has the audacity and the capacity for denseness to accuse children as young as three of dressing to provoke? Only the most ignorant lot. It all just boils down to finding absurd reasons to justify acts that should receive the highest possible condemnation. What’s more, it would serve our society well to transfer some responsibility to our males and ask them to view all women with utmost respect.
Lastly, in a place where Islam is the religion of the majority, it is astounding how casual our approach towards rape is, although it is punishable by death according to the Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence). From the glorious religious tradition that teaches both every-day good character AND rituals of worship, we uphold the latter and disregard the former.
This skewed approach to religion is, in my opinion, largely what has rendered our societal morals defunct and our conscience hollow. In a tradition that places the doors to heaven under the feet of the mother, and states that educating a woman is equivalent to educating a nation, it seems strange that a people can so conveniently ignore this major chunk of the religion.
Moreover, in a place where the political currents are such that the women live in constant trauma due to fear of losing their loved ones in uncertain clashes, we must go out of our way to ease the female’s life. Yet here we are with horrifying case after case of offence against women being reported. Unless we work on bringing about a change, Kashmir is bound to fall. Women and men alike.
