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Some reflections on sexual violence and the struggles against it .
Kavita Krishnan .
Following a series of instances of rape in West Bengal, the Chief Minister first denied the rapes, cast aspersions on the morals and veracity of the complainants, and then announced restrictions on timings of bars, nightclubs etc. In Gurgaon, following the gang rape of a woman employee of a nightclub, the Haryana Government first announced a ban on womens employment in late-night jobs. When this diktat was faced with outrage, the Government clarified that it was not seeking to ban women working late, but it would monitor womens employment in such jobs to ensure their safety. The Delhi Police Chief recently said that women who chose to go out, unescorted by a brother or husband, at 2 am should not complain of rape. The DGP of Andhra Pradesh said recently women provoked men to rape them by wearing fashionable clothing. Mamata Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) said in a recent interview about violence on women, that women should take their Indian culture along with them when they leave their homes, in order to protect themselves. (It is a little difficult to fathom her reasoning, since she was commenting on the fact that most rapes are perpetrated by family members.) These instances (which are not aberrations but part of a persistent pattern) raise questions about the States and societys response to sexual violence, and about how sexual violence, and violence on women, is understood. This article is an activists attempt to think out loud about some of these issues, and their implications for the womens movement and struggles for social transformation. .
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Why is rape taboo, while other acts of violence against women are not? .
Rape is taboo in society. There is a widely shared moral disgust and outrage at the idea of rape. .
However, other forms of violence against women are not taboo in the same way. For instance, in India, domestic violence continues to enjoy a great deal of social sanction, as does sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, mental and physical torture by in-laws, dowry harassment and killings, coercion and violence against women making self-choice marriages, and so on. Why, then, do other forms of violence on women not generate the kind of moral outrage that rape does? What is the social meaning and connotation of rape? Rape is, of course, understood as sex by force (as indicated by the Hindi word for rape, balatkar). But I would argue that there is a slippage between the word rape and the social connotations it conjures up. There is a fundamental misrecognition or misdirection that is at work every time we talk about rape. Rape is widely understood as illegitimate sex. Not as sex against the will of another, but as taking what is not yours, as sex with a woman to whose sexual and reproductive labour you are not entitled. Therefore, rape is seen as a soiling or spoilage of a womans worth as an asset to be enjoyed by her legitimate sexual partner. Isnt this why marital rape is considered a contradiction in terms in Indian law? According to Indias rape law, sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not sexual assault. Even as the rape law is being sought to be expanded now to cover other forms of sexual assault beyond penis penetration, the draft Amendment Bill retains the marital exception. This also explains the tendency to suggest marriage with the rapist as a just resolution to a rape complaint. The reasoning is that by raping an unmarried woman, the rapist has soiled her. She is used and therefore unmarriageable. And so, the rapist can redress matters by offering to marry her, thereby acquiring sexual rights over her, and undoing the harm done to her chastity and moral worth. If the rapist marries his victim, his sexual usage of her no longer counts as rape. .
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Madhya Pradesh News - एक बलात्कार पीड़िता को गाँव के पंचों ने फिर से पीड़ित किया। दरअसल बलात्कारी छोटी जाति का था, सो पंचों ने पीड़िता की शुद्धि के लिए मांगा भोज। उन्होंने कहा मांसाहार का भंडारा कराने से लड़की का शुद्धिकरण हो सकेगा। #balatkar #aligarhrape #childabuseawareness
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