All that she did was to be born a woman

What should a woman do when she is raped?
Answer:
1. She has to scream.
2. Scratch the rapist’s face, struggle and try to escape.
3. Should pledge her life and fight even when he points a gun.
4. When he has finished rampaging her body, she should go to a cliff top to die as she has lost her modesty and virginity, which she has preserved only for her husband.
[or]
5. Go to police, file a complaint, take the culprit to court and fight for justice.

Oh yes… not to forget the society… it will call her a woman of loose morale… she will be shunned by her own family… but still she has to fight on… in the end there will be a man who will give her life by tying the knot and the entire society will praise him “What a benevolent man!”

It might sound filmy, but this is how we expect every case of rape to be…

Those who say NO should think how we place a woman who lost her life while struggling with a rapist and a woman who silently consented because she did not want to be killed by the rapist...

In 1970s Mathura… a 14-year old tribal girl eloped with her lover. Her brother lodged a complaint with the police to find the whereabouts of his sister. Police eventually found the couple. What happened next was a barbaric act committed by not only by the 2 police men but also by…the court

While her relatives were waiting outside, in the name of investigation the police took her in. The two police men raped her when the girl was too shocked and paralysed to scream.
The case came for hearing on 1st June, 1974 in the sessions court.

The Judgement

Mathura was accused of being a liar. It was stated that since she was ‘habituated to sexual intercourse’ her consent was voluntary; under the circumstances only sexual intercourse could be proved and not rape.

However there ought to be atleast one or two sensitive judges, right?

On appeal the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court set aside the judgment of the Sessions Court, and sentenced the accused namely Tukaram and Ganpat to one and five years of rigorous imprisonment respectively. The Court held that passive submission due to fear induced by serious threats could not be construed as consent or willing sexual intercourse.

Oh wait! We have the Supreme Court as well! Would you like to know what the Supreme Court ordered?

The Supreme Court again acquitted the accused policemen. The Supreme Court held that Mathura had raised no alarm; and also that there were no visible marks of injury on her person thereby negating the struggle by her.

This is the status of women not just in 1970s but even today. This is just an example of how our law and law enforcers are… Women’s movement took up Mathura’s case and fought a hard struggle for justice. According to National Crime Records Bureau's ‘Crime Clock'-2005 one rape is committed every 29 minutes in India. If this was the fate of the case, which was fought ardently by women’s movement, imagine the status of thousands of other women who have no support and whose souls are crushed saying that she is the one who has to be blamed.

So does it mean every girl who is raped should scream and fight till she is choked to death? If the rapist does not kill her in her struggle, should she kill herselves like our movies protray women to be??! Just because a girl or woman is forced to consent by threat, we shall not deem that it is NOT rape. When someone is threatened with a gun to surrender all the money they have, no one has a doubt in confirming that it IS theft. When a women is threatened and forced to have sex, we say “she is habituated to sex” or when she’s forced to have sex with her boss who threatens to throw her out of her job, we say “Well, she was the one who consented. She always had the option of saying NO and walking out of the job! Is a job more important to her?”

So a woman who has no other go other than sticking to one job to feed her family, shall be exploited? And then we leave the one who forced her saying that it was she who consented? Is a woman’s life centred only around her body? We all say NO but we all also know this is the reality.

What I have written here is just a drop in the ocean. Right from medical officers who give the report as “No symptom of rape”, when a 6 year old’s hymen is not torn but… her private parts are battered and butchered by a two legged animal, to Judges who free 20 year old rapists because it is their first crime… we have numerous examples as to how women are raped not only by these men but raped of their right by our very own judicial system and society.

If a man is beaten-up, we’ve supporters who gather. But in the case of rape, a victim is victimised again… and again…and again… when all that she did was to be born a woman….