Does Mumbai Hate Its Women?

The following article was my response to a personal poll conducted in a daily newspaper. There were six people interviewed. The question here was: What are the reasons for increasing number of rapes in Mumbai? Four out of them said that the reason for a rise in this crime is the provocative dressing style of girls now-a-days. They said that girls willingly expose their assets and under such circumstances how can women think that they wont be raped. On being questioned about what measures would they suggest to put hold on the crime, one of them said that ‘purdah’ should be made compulsory, not only for Muslim women but also for others. This is what I replied them back:

In response to: Does Mumbai hate its women?

The responses to your above article dated 8th November,2007 were really beyond belief but still predictable. Four out of your six people surveyed suggested that the whole fault lies on the ‘modern’ girl alone and she is the only one responsible to invite trouble for herself.

This is yet another stronghold of male chauvinism epitomizing the fact that these people want to protect their male fraternity against the rampant increasing heinous crimes subjected to women and girls. This may sound like a really feminist and biased attitude, considering the fact that I am a girl, but the responses have really evoked me to show up my feminist side.

Have they ever considered the fact that women in purdah too are raped and tortured equally? Now will they defend themselves by saying that women shouldn’t come out of their houses and should be confined into the four walls of the houses, live and die there? Speaking about the skin show, the mere subject is totally baseless. People talk as if women are roaming around wearing bikinis. The question is, why can’t men stop drooling all over the place? They are the ones who will keep on staring at you even if you wear a sleeveless dress.

I would also like to highlight the fact that all of those who think that exposure is the main raison d'être for increasing rapes and similar appalling treatment against girls, they have this solitary reason-EXPOSURE. They are visibly unable to present any other reason that can hide the fact that what they are doing is wrong and consequently tend to refute the style of feminine dressing. The recent rape of a BPO employee also goes against this. What could have been a feasible explanation? EXPOSURE? I don’t think so.

No one wants to blame the film industry for depicting such provocative things under the U/A label, no one wants to stand against the open selling of porn movies in Mumbai markets. Aren't these films one of the main factors for "directly" seducing masculine minds? Every one just wants to blame, blame and blame. Yes, even i am doing the same thing.Yes, I understand that to some extent, women are responsible, you can’t clap with one hand. But this crime shows a striking imbalance of attitudes.

It is also seen that most of the girls who are brutally raped mostly belong to poor and lower middle class societies, who have no reason to expose whatsoever. It should be accepted, that rapes are the outburst of men’s barbaric, carnal and sexual desires, nothing more.
Through centuries, this important and relevant topic has been merely reduced to a blame game. Men accuse women and always will and vice versa. Battle of sexes, as they say will persist. Sadly, no one wants to do anything about it.
No one wants to stand up for this fight, no one wants to device the panacea for this. Rapists all over India are roaming at large. It’s high time we stop this warfare and do something to stop this offense and help the poor victims.

MANISHA BHANDARI