Cologne Attacks and Feminist Debate.
- In
- 05:25 AM, Jan 11, 2016
- Harpreet Kaur Mehta
A huge debate ensued when the Mayor of Cologne urged a "code of conduct" for women. There are those who support his suggestion and those who shun it as an archaic thought. Feminists threatened this harks back to the "dark ages". For us in India it was revisiting the entire Nirbhaya debate all over again. Those who requested women to preserve themselves, were called the oppressors of society that were taking the nation back to the Stone Age.
Sadly, on both counts, the entire point is missed. Suppression of the male sexuality and regressive thought processes fed to a child when he is young leaves telling marks. The said "culture" of the attackers, is very telling of the situation and their psyche. When they are constantly surrounded by women in shrouds and zero physical contacts with the opposite gender, their psyche is intrigued. Also, when they are "religiously" told that the female is to be treated as an object that is solely to please and serve the superior gender, there is no surprise that every woman they come across henceforth is an object for pleasure. Both religious and local "culture" contribute to cement this ideology that appeases the male. Freudian, none the less, it does not gel well with the progressive and excelling female race globally. We are teaching our girls to be free, but sadly most are not teaching the boys to respect that freedom of the girl and take it in his stride. While I write this, I already come across an article on how the Nordics are trying to train the Syrian and Afghanistan refugees on how to deal with Nordic women. So it seems a gradual ripple begins. (Muslim refugees taught to not rape women as rapes soar in Sweden and Norway)
Women in Gujarat are celebrated and treated as equals. Same can be said for pockets in North East and South India. The Gujarati men respect a woman and treat her with respect. The woman of the household has an equal say in the worldly matters as the man in the household matters. They just have a partnership of mutual love and respect. That does not mean there are no rape cases in Gujarat or no crime against women, or for that matter dowry deaths. Just as crimes against women in USA, UK or Germany happen even though women enjoy freedom in comparison to their Middle East counterparts.
Being brought up in an orthodox Punjabi-Sikh family, whilst being exposed to this Gujarati culture, turned me into a free spirit with an awareness of self-preservation. As much as my parents feared my travelling alone after dark, in Ahmedabad, they never refused to let me go out.
There was wisdom in telling me about the dangers and probable measures to be taken if I am in distress. This equipped me well for my future, when I travelled the entire country for Hockey matches (as a teenager) as part of the Gujarat team or when I worked as a journalist and used public transport and often returned late at night. Yes, our Hockey coach did have to school us about our behavior and code of conduct when we visited Bihar and Punjab in the early 1990s. Touring within Gujarat never invited such a training or talk. It was a way of life for all Gujarati girls. As a Journalist returning home very late, I knew the dangers and was alert at all times. Never was I assaulted even once.
Gujarat is like Cologne- a place where we have the Navaratri, the festival of dancing nine-nights celebrating the Adhya-Shakti. Women dance with abandon till the early hours of the next morning, often returning home at dawn. They are safe and never have I ever seen anyone complaining about safety.
Coming back to the point. After the recent growth of the city's population, it is wise to take some precautionary measures. Initially everyone in Ahmedabad knew every other person they met at a social gathering or public place. That is not a case anymore.
So what do we do? Do we stop garba and celebration of Navaratri? Do we stop our girls to step out of the house for a late night jaunt? Nope, what we do instead is become wiser from our past experiences and equip our children better in the code of conduct in an "open to all" event! (And that is definitely what the Mayor of Cologne is advising as a future measure. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mayor-of-cologne-says-women-should-have-code-of-conduct-to-prevent-future-assault-a6798186.html)
I have daughters and as much as I want them to enjoy the Navaratri with abandon, I want them to be self preserving and alert at all times in a public place, when there is no control on the people visiting.
What is therefore wrong in Germany or India teaching their women to "keep strangers at arms length"? Especially where refugees from repressed nations have come to take shelter in an "open minded" nation.
As much as the country is well meaning in sheltering these men, to not see the imminent danger to their own women will be definitely plain "stupid” What the Mayor of Cologne said makes sense. Either equip yourself to avoid future assault or deport the said refugees back.
The woe or dilemma does not end here. The German police is yet to trace and locate the identity of those 1000 men. But yes, it can already equip its women better for such future occasions. It is easier to train our own than change the outside factors. The guilty will be caught and charged, but the scar on the assaulted will always remain.
Thousand men is not a small number and the fact that they walk scot-free after such an assault, is a panic situation! They knew what they were doing and they are walking free among German women even as I write this. So should women not become weary of such strangers? Do the pseudo-feminists and liberals not see any harm in letting their women walk into such traps unawares? Either they shun the practice of helping refugees or they shun the practice of equipping their women better. I think they are royally confused.
Always debating and shunning advice, without seeing the big picture, is immature and Utopian view towards the complexities of society. Now news report say that Austria faces similar rape incidents like that of Germany. Is the threat not increasing?
Therefore, both Indian and German people who are asking the women to "be aware and have a code of conduct in place", are not cavemen who are suppressing their women or turning the society into a regressive one. What they are simply trying to do is, equipping their sisters-wives-daughters better, to tackle oppressors better in the future.
What say you, o Pseudo-feminist and Liberalist?
For me "prevention is definitely better than a cure.
Comments