8th March. 2020 :

I watched #Guilty two days ago and #Devi this morning never has a movie ever triggered me so much. It made me open my eyes and realize that rape isn’t something that happens to uneducated and underprivileged women . It can happen to you,to me, to anyone. It makes my blood run to even think that as I step out my house today that might just be it. The mere thought of it terrorizes me.

7 years after the infamous rape and murder case in the nation capital, India has made very little progress in preventing crimes against women. As you’re reading this a woman in our country is getting raped so is this women’s day really happy ?

From the rape of 8 year old Afisa in Kashmir to a 71 year old nun getting raped in West Bengal it occurs regardless of age ,religion. and ethnicity.

So my question is what are we doing?

We’re participating in a society that helps raise a boy to think it is okay to stare, it okay to touch without consent, its okay to catcall , its okay to harass IT’S OKAY TO RAPE . Blaming the victim, trivialising sexual assault, making sexually explicit jokes, publically scruntinizing the victims clothes / motives , saying/believing that promiscuous women deserved to get raped is how our society operates rape culture.

We’re all perpetrators to this culture by using misogynistic language or objectifying women’s bodies we have normalized sexual violence.

Schools are executors of this. As soon as we turn into teenagers our teachers, mothers,grandmothers tell us to dress and behave in a certain ways in order to be safe and not make a man believe that we’re ‘available’. The only sex education ever provided to us in school is wear a slit to hide our bras , wear skirts upto an appropriate length , sexualize our own sanitary napkins in public, walk and sit a certain way to not make our legs and breasts look promiscuous and we eventually become operators of this society which calls on women to be of lower value than men. But we need focus on HOW TO NOT RAPE instead of HOW TO NOT GET RAPED. So stop teaching boys that all they are entitled to have their wants and desires met. Stop promoting the idea that men are unable to control themselves when tempted and that is our duty as a female to attend to their needs.

So this women’s day pledge to celebrate the good in women. More in women. More than the body you see. More than what meets the eye. This women’s day pledge to respect women, even if they’re not related to you because respecting only women you’re attracted to & related to is not respecting women. This women’s day, pledge. This women’s day, learn. This women’s day, become a good human.

-KB