It would be hard for any human being to not feel for the horrific
attack on the young woman in India recently. We don't know
this woman's name, though I sick of her being referred to as 'the
rape victim', and will not define her as such in this article,
she is a 'human being' who has been abused beyond belief.
What is hard to comprehend is that this happens more often than
anyone wants to admit and not just in India. The difference
with this one is that it received massive media coverage, which
resulted in many actually being confronted with a situation that
no-one ever really wants to think about.
The Drum had an article “Where are the feminists to defend Indian women?”
written by Swati Parashar, which actually infuriated me.
Not because I did not care what this Lecturer was arguing for,
but that it is a futile argument. Dr Parashar is wanting
more feminists to take up the cause for Indian women, which in
itself is not the problem, the problem is in how you actually do
that? In current times it seems to be that if you are
white, living in a first world country, and dare to advocate for
change in another country you are either racist, bigoted or
touted as ignorant, not understanding cultural contexts and base
accusation of how dare you insult another culture.
There are some very good woman in this country, fighting for
equality, equal rights, better representation for women in all
aspects of our lives from business to politics, yet, apart from a
few, Dr Parashar is correct in her assertion that the majority of
feminists are rather quiet in regard to the abuses of women in
India. I am not an academic, though, I am a female and as
such we tend to sit together and discuss things as women
do. The consensus was shock and sadness for this poor woman
who was abused, though this was balanced with the feeling of
“There is nothing we can do about it”. When this issue is
discussed further, it comes down to the base fact that the
average female (and in fact even males in this country) are so
cowed by the worry of being labeled a racist that we have been
trained not to comment on what happens in others countries, or
even in this country if another race or culture is
involved.
This whole situation is wrong! Surely, when we as a more
affluent country see wrong in the world it is a moral obligation
to stand up for it? The world is getting smaller yet the
more knowledge we have about others cultures the more we seem to
keep quiet when we see wrong. I will admit now, I am not an
expert on Indian culture, I don’t really understand the power men
have in that particular country. I am also not a religious
person, though I am a person that tries hard to be fair and
educate myself when possible. So I ask myself, what is more
important when confronted with the facts and figures of what is
happening to women in India? Is it more important to cower
behind political correctness not daring to comment for fear of
being called racist, or is it more important to care about what
is happening to millions (yes, millions) of women and try to do
something about it, regardless of small-minded barbs that will be
thrown at you.
I would like to think we can all care more about being
Humans. This is also where I take issue with Dr
Parashar. I don't think it is just up to Feminists to
defend the rights of the women in India. It is the
obliglation of all humans, male & female, to defend the
rights of 'humans' in all countries, particularly when we see a
wrong that is being perpetuated, such as in India. Our
Government wants to deal with India, in regard to commerce and
with their much vaunted Asian Century White Paper, so how about
we raise the issue of human rights as well? Dealing with
heads of Government who don't seem to be interested in doing
anything about sexual assault and abuse is to condone the lack of
interest. People protest about child slave factories all
the time and try to punish those companies that use them.
Maybe we should be hassling our Government to do the same,
attaching women's rights programmes to the Uranium deal would not
be a deal breaker and would at least show that we as a nation do
not condone what is happening in India. Maybe there are
other ways that this can be raised, there are smarter more
knowledgeable people than me out there, I just hope they can come
up with something. As something has to be done.
Of course there are more atrocities happening all over the world,
victims of civil war in Africa, Asia child slavery, the
disadvantage of kids in some of our Indigenous communities, there
are too many to name. No-one knows why the media will often
latch on to a particular story, often it will drive me insane
what they focus on at the expense of other stories or issues,
though in this case, we should make the most of it. The
plight of this poor woman is in the public eye, so for once,
let’s take advantage of the media’s focus. We can’t bring
this woman back to her family, but we can try to highlight the
issue, fight against the abuse and hopefully at least attempt to
do change attitudes so that this horrific act of abuse does not
happen to another human being.
Maybe it is time for all in power to think more about ‘humanity
in general’ than excusing assaults on humanity by bowing down to
the authority of Cultural Political Correctness and having our
hands tied by so-called cultural sensitivities?
Noely
@YaThinkN
