Catarina Pinto
As International Women’s Day approached, the number of speeches concerning gender inequality inevitably grew. American actress Patricia Arquette called for wage equality “once and for all,” upon receiving an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film “Boyhood”.
British actress Emma Watson, whose speech at the United Nations last year was widely acclaimed, also took to Facebook to engage in a discussion about gender inequality on Sunday. She advocated for men joining the fight alongside women: “We’re never, ever, ever going to be able to fly as high, unless we’re both in support of each other.”
She’s right. But it’s hard to question humankind at large when we read that, “when being raped, she shouldn’t have fought back. She should have just been silent and allowed the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.” These are the words of Mukesh Singh, the driver of a bus in which a 23-year-old girl was gang-raped in New Delhi in 2012. She died of internal injuries soon after, despite having been flown to Singapore for emergency treatment.
“India’s Daughter,” a documentary film featuring the views of some of the young woman’s rapists, was aired last week on Storyville on BBC Four. The film was banned in India and was originally scheduled to air on Sunday – fittingly, on International Women’s Day – but was instead aired on Wednesday amid “an intense level of interest,” the broadcaster said.
In the film, some of the accounts and views, not only from the young girl’s rapists but also from their defense lawyer, caused controversy and sparked anger across social media. One of the defense lawyers, ML Sharma, stated that, “In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with an unknown person.” He continued, ”You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn’t have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman”.
Unfortunately, talking about gender inequality today does not amount to debate surrounding whether or not women have the same wage rights or the same career opportunities afforded to men. The documentary “India’s Daughter” unveils a far more disturbing gender inequality issue. As the film’s author, Leslee Udwin, puts it: “These offences against women and girls [in India] are a part of the story, but the full story starts with a girl not being as welcome as a boy from birth.”
The defense lawyer said, “In our culture there is no place for women.” Here it is, loud clear, the thoughts of many men in India, but perhaps shared by others who live far more close to us than we think.
What bothered me most after watching the documentary was that the rapists and the lawyer were speaking of another human being as if they were not human at all. They were discussing the girl as if she were worth nothing, simply because she was born a woman. The frightening thing is that people with these views walk amongst us, not just in India but in other countries too.
Although culture and tradition have played a role in justifying these men’s attitudes, for many of us, it is simply not a question of culture. It’s about fighting for human rights. It’s about fighting to treat human beings with dignity, be it in India, Macau, Hong Kong, or in Kazakhstan. It’s not about nationalities or respecting other countries’ cultures. Human rights have to speak louder than a culture. After all, in every culture, there is a human being who is treating another human being in a way that they wish to be treated.
A crucial aspect of a brighter future rests in younger generations who do not share those archaic values that encourage women’s portrayal as if they did not deserve the same rights as men. We should fight alongside them.
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