Forgive the audacity, but if you are among those who think women are responsible for rape, if you think their bodies are a mere means of quenching men’s libido and if you do not respect and love mothers, sisters, daughters and women folks in general, quit reading this piece now. I want to stir the moribund sensitivity of the nation toward violence against women through this write-up.
In front of Nepal Rastra Bank at Baluwatar, a group of people, mostly youths and professionals, gather every day to draw the state’s attention towards the cases of violence against women, which is constantly on the rise. Reports of girls as young as three years old, and elderly women, being raped are pouring in almost every day. The activists of Occupy Baluwatar are demanding punishment to perpetrators of such crimes. They clatter plates and spoons. “We want justice,” they shout. They hold out placards, some of which read “I am Sita Rai,” “where is Chhori Maiya Maharjan?” “real men don’t rape women,” and “castrate the rapists.” The slogans are directed at Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadhar, who can and must address the issue within no time.
It goes without saying that the issue is sensitive. Our PM is the father of a daughter. From their age, one could make out that Saraswati Subedi (allegedly killed by her employers at Anamnagar), Sita Rai (robbed and raped by TIA officials) and Sudha and Sushila (daughters of Chhori Maiya Maharjan who has been missing for about ten months now) could be the age of PM’s and HM’s (if he has a daughter) daughters. There must be much in common between Sudha and Sushila, and the PM’s daughter Manushi. They want to build their careers and grow into independent women. Likewise, Saraswati Subedi’s father, who dissolves into tears now and then as he shouts ‘justice to the victims,’ brings to one’s mind the PM’s own aging father. Yet, about three weeks since the movement started, nothing substantial has happened to bring the perpetrators to book. The Baluwatar movement is likely to fizzle out without reaching a meaningful end. It is not hard to fathom why.
First, activists of Baluwatar movement may be losing their energy. When your calls are ignored for long, you lose the passion for continuing with the cause. When you go to Baluwatar every day to awaken the state institutions, and they pretend not to hear you, it is natural that you lose confidence about the success of the movement.
Second, the authorities to whom the activists are appealing for justice are apparently bereft of all sensitivities. The PM and HM have shown their proximity with the corrupt, criminal and the crooked in the recent days. As Chhori Maiya’s daughters told this daily last week, the HM himself is responsible for protecting one of the suspects of their mother’s disappearance, Nikki Singh.
If the HM can induct Kavre’s local don Ganesh Lama, who has a list of crimes under his belt, into his party, and walk side-by-side with him, it is no surprise that he shelters men of dubious reputation like Nikki Singh. As for the PM, he has mired himself in controversy of Dekendra Thapa’s murder case. Apparently, he is as insensitive toward women’s suffering as the prominent cartoonist of this daily, Rajesh KC, has portrayed (pictured above). Besides, with Thapa’s murder case, polarization is widening between the ruling and the opposition camps, and the focus of the politicians is shifting from the capital towards Dailekh. In this context, it looks like the protestors will have to be content with the PM’s lip service to women’s issue.
Of course, the opposition parties could have added to the momentum. But violence against women remains somehow institutionalized among political parties in Nepal. No wonder, therefore, that we have a leader’s son in the UCPN (Maoist) with plural wives, a Don Juan who deserts his first wife to elope with a college girl in CPN-UML, and a prominent leader in NC who once broke into a woman’s room and earned the reputation of being the “wall minister” (the story is that the leader, who was also the minister at the time, had climbed into the woman’s room through the back wall of the house). Honestly, political parties are not that sensitive towards women in this country.
As I say this, I should also mention an element that often lets the perpetrators go off the hook: The political economy of punishment. It should be noted that not all perpetrators of violence against women (VAW) have been spared. But most perpetrators who go through the punishments are often poor. The rich and affluent are often beyond the arms of the law. If, for example, the perpetrators of Chhori Maiya and Sarswati Subedi and Sita Rai’s cases were from among the poor class and without any political shelter, they would perhaps have been behind bars by now. Thus, it is vital to institute a system that punishes every perpetrator, regardless of his class and political status.
There is an illusion among us that patriarchy needs to be uprooted to keep women safe. This is not true. Patriarchy is present in every household. For example, I want my wife to change my daughter’s diaper, because she does it more dexterously. I expect her to do the washing, cooking and cleaning, while I may be reading newspapers or watching TV. I want her to not stay out until late; I want her to tell me where and with whom she is, when not with me. If eliminating patriarchy means reversing this order, then patriarchy is not going anywhere. But despite this, I also understand when she is overburdened with work, and lend my hands to her. I am with her when she cries and when she smiles. This bond of sensitivity has never let the idea of patriarchy come into the way of our relationship.
I am enraged to hear about three-year old girls being raped. I am mad to hear of a woman my wife’s age being robbed and raped by the TIA officials. And I would not demand anything less than castration and death penalty for such men. It is this rage that took me to Baluwatar a couple times, and it is the same rage that is driving me to write this commentary. What if the three-year old girl raped at Thankot was my daughter? What if Sita Rai was my sister or wife? A woman once raped becomes the subject of scorn, and the subject of multiple rapes throughout her life.
I wish the PM and the HM were as angry as me. Once the PM and the HM see the reflections of their daughters in the faces of Sita Rai, Saraswati Subedi, Sudha and Sushila, and numerous other victims, once they start empathizing with the pains and the sorrows of the victims, once the raped sensitivity in them returns to life, many problems regarding the VAW will be solved. That is to say, unless violence against women becomes the direct concern of men, from the PM to the commoner; women alone will find it hard to win the battle for justice.
Given the cruelest and the most insensitive of times that we are living through, the protestors in Baluwatar may have to back out without reaching a conclusion. But the best thing about the movement is that it has created a national awakening on women’s issues. It has created a national debate in the discourses of newspaper columns and television, which will be recorded in the history of women’s rage against rape, including the insensitivity of the nation. For the moment, this little is a big achievement in the justice-starved nation.
mbpoudyal@yahoo.com
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