'Finally, Death Penalty
for all the Delhi Gang Rape accused!' read the headlines of the news articles
as the court pronounced all the four accused guilty and awarded them capital
punishment. And the entire nation is rejoicing. After hundreds and thousands of
rapes and molestation faced by women, finally rapists were
awarded the most severe punishment: hang till death. But I am not happy,
obviously because, unlike everybody else, I cannot see anything good about it.
How is death worse than, say, a lifetime of imprisonment, somebody please
explain. One fine day the death penalty will be executed and within a matter of
few minutes the rapists will attain ultimate freedom. The victim was tormented
with hours of brutality, was flung out of the bus naked on to the streets of
Delhi before she succumbed to her injuries in the intensive care unit of a
Singapore Hospital. The victim died, the rapists will too, but what is the
difference? The death itself or the presence or absence of suffering while they
were alive?
After the gang rape incident happened in Delhi, mass protests took place in the capital city as well as all throughout the nation demanding the death of the accused, stirring an argument over the current laws pertaining to crime against women and the failure of the system to deliver justice. What baffles me is the relentless attention given to only one facet of the scenario while entirely ignoring the other. Definitely, one way to assure women's safety is stringent laws and an equally effective judiciary system but what about preventing such incidents from happening?
Oh no, I'm not talking in favor of asking the women to refrain from wearing short skirts or going out at nights or anything of that sort. I'm talking about the perception of women the society has as a whole, comprising of both men and women. And even deeply, the origin of this mentality. The stereotype that labels the women as the most vulnerable strata of the society who needs to be obedient towards their superior and stronger counterparts. A woman is supposed to take care of the house, have a little or no social life, and be unquestionably submissive towards the men in her life and should thank destiny even if she ends up with a husband who takes her out every weekend for dinners. What is even more bewildering is that this stereotype is not imposed upon women, it is fueled by women; every time a woman fails to raise her voice against the pettiest of the injustice she is faced with, every time she teaches her daughter to be less egoistic and less authoritative towards the men, every time a woman decides to conveniently gulp down insults on her dignity and chooses to ignore the scars on her self-respect, every time a women lives up to the stereotype!
Some five years back, the residents of my apartment thought girls coming out to play badminton with the boys in the apartment premises was an inappropriate gesture and we, girls, were denied the right to play in the apartment. What disgusted me was the fact that all girls and their mothers reverently accepted the decision and stepped back. Are we not proving ourselves weaker and helpless and placing ourselves at the mercy of the society and the men? And if we are promoting injustice, of course we are if we are not fighting against it, what right do we then have to complain when men take the authority a little too far and start taking decisions for our lives?
Coming back to the death penalty for the rapists and how it is going to question this mentality. Let us all admit that rape is not the only form of injustice that a woman faces. What about the mental trauma that a woman goes through because she is supposed to live up to certain ideas and notions that this society has formed for her? Domestic violence, how many cases are even reported in the police station? What about the freedom and equality she is denied in the family or in the society? Ask any lady what she feels when she's harassed verbally and she'll tell you she's developed a deaf ear to it and is pretty indifferent to such petty ill-treatments. Alright, why should women be then offended when these petty ill-treatments take heinous forms?
What was even more surprising was the outrage on this particular incident in Delhi. This wasn't the first rape case in the city. What made it rarest of the rare case is a fascinating evidence of how the definition of "unacceptable" dynamically changes as we progress ahead. A few decades back rape itself was big deal. A few years back, gang rape became the new unacceptable, obviously as rape became something we read in the newspaper every few days. Gang rape became so common that it was too less to evoke aggression in the hearts of the protesters. So what was so unique about this particular case that made everyone say enough is enough? The fact that she was gang raped not in an abandoned bungalow but in a moving bus on the sprawling streets of the national capital and the rapists went a step ahead and shoved a rod inside her and pulled organs out of her body and after they were done they threw her body onto the streets leaving her to die. Why should even the pettiest of the injustice tolerated, I ask. Why should any rape case be different that the other?
And what is everybody happy about regarding the death penalty? If you think that death penalty is going to deter criminals from committing such crimes in the future, let me tell you it is a fallacy. Things don't go around in such an uncomplicated manner. A person who is in a mental frame to inflict harm onto the other person will never think of the consequences. If it was so, even with the existing punishments in our law, crime rate would have decreased in these many years, would not have grown substantially. What has made the crimes surge in these many years? The absence of law? Definitely not, the laws have become more favorable for women. Then what has contributed to the rise in the crimes against women? Our growing tolerance, or immunity, should I say.
Consider an acid attacker. Let’s say we hang the criminal to death. How is that even going to change the life of the victim where the damaged has penetrated to her soul? If you read such cases of molestation and abuse, you’ll notice that they are done by the criminals to take revenge from the victim. Revenge, because the girl refused to pursue a romantic relationship with him? And men in our society are not taught to accept refusals or rejections. When a woman says no to them, it is so ego-hurting, so offensive to their manliness that they can think of nothing but taking revenge in the most atrocious manner. Don’t we need to stop validating their absurd notions of manliness and alter our perceptions of men and women at large?
If you still want, you can assure yourself thinking that death penalty is going to drastically(or slightly) reduce the crimes in future but I don't see anything like that happening unless we alter our attitude and address the issue at its root, take responsibility and stop being so tolerant and perennially forgiving.
After the gang rape incident happened in Delhi, mass protests took place in the capital city as well as all throughout the nation demanding the death of the accused, stirring an argument over the current laws pertaining to crime against women and the failure of the system to deliver justice. What baffles me is the relentless attention given to only one facet of the scenario while entirely ignoring the other. Definitely, one way to assure women's safety is stringent laws and an equally effective judiciary system but what about preventing such incidents from happening?
Oh no, I'm not talking in favor of asking the women to refrain from wearing short skirts or going out at nights or anything of that sort. I'm talking about the perception of women the society has as a whole, comprising of both men and women. And even deeply, the origin of this mentality. The stereotype that labels the women as the most vulnerable strata of the society who needs to be obedient towards their superior and stronger counterparts. A woman is supposed to take care of the house, have a little or no social life, and be unquestionably submissive towards the men in her life and should thank destiny even if she ends up with a husband who takes her out every weekend for dinners. What is even more bewildering is that this stereotype is not imposed upon women, it is fueled by women; every time a woman fails to raise her voice against the pettiest of the injustice she is faced with, every time she teaches her daughter to be less egoistic and less authoritative towards the men, every time a woman decides to conveniently gulp down insults on her dignity and chooses to ignore the scars on her self-respect, every time a women lives up to the stereotype!
Some five years back, the residents of my apartment thought girls coming out to play badminton with the boys in the apartment premises was an inappropriate gesture and we, girls, were denied the right to play in the apartment. What disgusted me was the fact that all girls and their mothers reverently accepted the decision and stepped back. Are we not proving ourselves weaker and helpless and placing ourselves at the mercy of the society and the men? And if we are promoting injustice, of course we are if we are not fighting against it, what right do we then have to complain when men take the authority a little too far and start taking decisions for our lives?
Coming back to the death penalty for the rapists and how it is going to question this mentality. Let us all admit that rape is not the only form of injustice that a woman faces. What about the mental trauma that a woman goes through because she is supposed to live up to certain ideas and notions that this society has formed for her? Domestic violence, how many cases are even reported in the police station? What about the freedom and equality she is denied in the family or in the society? Ask any lady what she feels when she's harassed verbally and she'll tell you she's developed a deaf ear to it and is pretty indifferent to such petty ill-treatments. Alright, why should women be then offended when these petty ill-treatments take heinous forms?
What was even more surprising was the outrage on this particular incident in Delhi. This wasn't the first rape case in the city. What made it rarest of the rare case is a fascinating evidence of how the definition of "unacceptable" dynamically changes as we progress ahead. A few decades back rape itself was big deal. A few years back, gang rape became the new unacceptable, obviously as rape became something we read in the newspaper every few days. Gang rape became so common that it was too less to evoke aggression in the hearts of the protesters. So what was so unique about this particular case that made everyone say enough is enough? The fact that she was gang raped not in an abandoned bungalow but in a moving bus on the sprawling streets of the national capital and the rapists went a step ahead and shoved a rod inside her and pulled organs out of her body and after they were done they threw her body onto the streets leaving her to die. Why should even the pettiest of the injustice tolerated, I ask. Why should any rape case be different that the other?
And what is everybody happy about regarding the death penalty? If you think that death penalty is going to deter criminals from committing such crimes in the future, let me tell you it is a fallacy. Things don't go around in such an uncomplicated manner. A person who is in a mental frame to inflict harm onto the other person will never think of the consequences. If it was so, even with the existing punishments in our law, crime rate would have decreased in these many years, would not have grown substantially. What has made the crimes surge in these many years? The absence of law? Definitely not, the laws have become more favorable for women. Then what has contributed to the rise in the crimes against women? Our growing tolerance, or immunity, should I say.
Consider an acid attacker. Let’s say we hang the criminal to death. How is that even going to change the life of the victim where the damaged has penetrated to her soul? If you read such cases of molestation and abuse, you’ll notice that they are done by the criminals to take revenge from the victim. Revenge, because the girl refused to pursue a romantic relationship with him? And men in our society are not taught to accept refusals or rejections. When a woman says no to them, it is so ego-hurting, so offensive to their manliness that they can think of nothing but taking revenge in the most atrocious manner. Don’t we need to stop validating their absurd notions of manliness and alter our perceptions of men and women at large?
If you still want, you can assure yourself thinking that death penalty is going to drastically(or slightly) reduce the crimes in future but I don't see anything like that happening unless we alter our attitude and address the issue at its root, take responsibility and stop being so tolerant and perennially forgiving.
