Women against women

Why is it that every sordid story about abuse of women’s rights has some other woman behind it somewhere in the background actively participating in violation of a fellow woman’s rights? Take the recent case of Mira Road where a tantric – so called medicine man – convinced a man to rape his daughter for 9 years and he too participated in the violation of the girl from the age of 12! In this case promises were made that by so doing the man will gain spiritually and financially. In this journey his wife also participated and encouraged him to violate their daughter. Not only did she let the father rape the child but also the tantric – how can a mother be so hard hearted as to allow such a fate to fall on her daughter? It completely baffles me as to why this had to happen at all. Do people not have the courage or the heart to decipher between right and wrong – specially when it comes to their own! The same fate was to befall the younger daughter, that is when the elder one took courage into her own hands and confided with her relatives, who thank God, helped her expose the sordid episode. I really would not have been surprised if the relatives had told her to shut up to protect “family honor”.

The tantric also had the gall to say that he would help by having his son marry the younger daughter – on being questioned why not the elder one – his response not so shockingly was that “she was too used”! The only punishment for such people should be stoning to death – no point in letting such people go through the legal system to walk free in a few years!

What about the mother? What should be her punishment? She brought a child into this world to traumatize her with such inhuman and barbaric acts of her own husband with her full knowledge and permission! This is something I cannot digest! There are innumerable stories of women being cruel to other women – the “Saas-Bahu” sagas on television have been running for years on numerous channels. They would not have had such runs if there wasn’t some element of truth in them. Why do mothers, when they become mothers-in-law behave differently with their own sons’ wife. Why is it that nagging and ragging both physical and mental occur on an ongoing basis in various households invariably leading to stove or gas accidents resulting in heavy burns to the daughter in law ending in disfigurement or death?

Harassment for dowry is a behind the veil fact in modern India. It is high time the Indian woman learnt to fight for her rights – to expose her cruel in laws and husband. This has started happening, I do hope other women take courage from these stray cases and come out of the closet to fight for their rights. One would think that the uneducated would be indulging in such behavior – but nope – statistically it is the educated who are more guilty of violating women’s rights. The punishment should be far more stringent for the educated than for the uneducated.

I sincerely hope and pray that the mother-daughter-daughter in law cycle of life flows in harmony. The mother hopefully will be nice to her daughter in law as the daughter would be to her mother in law.

In this saga of human relations, the husband needs to play the role of a peacemaker by being fair to the girl who comes to a new home and who would take time to adjust to a completely new environment. If the husband is a mama’s boy, then woe to the lady who becomes his wife – she would have married someone who does not have any balls! In life it always takes two to tango – get this principal right and you may have a lasting relationship – else the abuse will continue.