Blame The Victim

"I was brought up with the fear that once it's dark you should be at home.  I can't shake that fear."
 "These protests have at least given women the confidence to talk about sexual violence.  For too long, women have been made to feel guilty for these things."
Preeti Singh, New Delhi

Preeti Singh insists that her 20-year-old daughter, a medical student, plans to wait for daylight before returning home when she has a late night at the hospital.  She is too vulnerable to be out at night on the streets.  The recent gang rape, vicious beating and murder of a 23-year-old medical student has created a heightened awareness across India.

"We make sure she messages us when she reaches (the hospital) and when she leaves for home", explains Preeti Singh of the cautions her daughter must make to try to ensure her safety and security in India's culture of male entitlements.

Not that Indian women are not always aware of their vulnerability.  And do their best to cope.  They are told by authorities that they must cope.  They are instructed to dress modestly, not to venture out of doors after dusk, to remain vigilant, not to tempt the attention of men.  Their very presence as women is problematic.

Apparently, short of castrating all young men, Indian authorities can think of no solution to the endemic crime of sexual molestation by Indian men, accustomed to reaching out and grasping, touching, voicing innuendoes, vulgar calls, unwanted invitations.  Women must do their utmost, say Indian politicians, to avoid being molested, groped, raped.

Most women simply try to behave as though nothing untoward has happened, rather than draw attention to themselves.  It is not only women in India who do this; it is an embarrassment, women feel as though they have somehow invited this intrusion into their privacy, that they are themselves guilty; they shy away from confrontation in the West as well.

"What can you do? You have to work, you have to commute", a 20-year-old career counsellor in Allahabad says, whose parents will not permit her to venture out on her own after 7 p.m.  "Sometimes I do get angry and say something. But I'm also scared. You never know what could anger these men."

One can only wonder; 'these men' have mothers...haven't their mothers attempted to teach their sons respect for women?  Is the culture of male entitlement simply that overwhelming? Is misogyny that natural and common an emotional attribute? 

"When I'm on a crowded bus and someone says something bad to me, in my heart I want to give him a tight slap, but I've learned to ignore it. What's the use?  All the blame always comes back to the woman. We stay silent from a sense of shame. Or are made to stay silent."

The five men who committed the atrocity against the young medical student have all been arraigned before a magistrate. They have all pleaded not guilty of charges brought against them.  They have been charged with murder, rape and other crimes that may earn them the death penalty.

But the rapes, the gang rapes and the murders continue.