•- The hoary history of victimizing the victim is not only too predictable but far too archaic for the 21st century. One makes this statement in context to the recent counter-reaction by the NWHD to the spat of rape cases.
Digressing slightly—when Hitler decreed the FINAL SOLUTION of 6 million Jews during World War Two with a justification that fanned his racist rancour towards a people who were then, not only ‘generally enterprising’ but also ‘better-placed’ due to it than most other communities—did the Allies ever caution the Jews with advices of :-
- “Oh! You Jews should be a little less enterprising lest it irks the likes of Hitler!”
- “Be a little less Jew” (if there is such a thing).
Or did they form a legal addressable platform to ensure such annihilation never occurs again??? Known history speaks…
Therefore and as such, A RAPE IS A RAPE IS A RAPE!
A VICTIM IS A VICTIM IS A VICTIM!
“Rape”—let me clarify, is not just a violation of the body; but because the bodily experience is purely of the conscious mind, it is specifically THE RAPE OF THE MIND. It signals to the victim to remain at its place (brings in faint reminisces of Slavery, rebellions and the status-quo supporters like KKK and neo-Nazi phenomena). It is an act of power-politic—it relegates the feminine attribute as essentially weak. And hence, must/and can, only be oppressed and dominated—the bracket from within which victims must not steer clear of.
The entire Naga culture seem geared towards a discourse that cannot seem to comprehend protecting the victim—rather has been adding to the victim’s denigration. Nothing can justify rape!
Let’s be clear here, statistics denote that 95% of the rapes are engendered by those who are known to the victim, personally or not, but enough to know their whereabouts (in many cases family members). Shouldn’t such statistics prove that these rapes were systematically concocted with deliberation, to violate and humiliate the victims, despite the awareness of personal knowledge about the victim’s life—where goes then general human tendency of social bonhomie and non-animosity to those known (“general” being an idealised and emphasised term here)
What women groups and other groups with a genuine concern for halting all such heinous acts, need to do, is introduce a counter-culture that condemns all out, such crimes of subversion. This counter-culture must emancipate all women as equals, at homes and at public places—(this is especially for those of you still unaware of the fact that we still live in a State that refuses to even provide reservation for women candidates).
Women cannot afford to be diffused; after all, birth itself labels all women as “benignly oppressed”—and a vehement no, to those who think that we are all born humans—we are literally trained not to be. Women need to push the boundaries of Limit, whether of under-expectation of our mental capacities or our courage or our strength etc. It all begins with equal rights—one half of the State of Nagaland are not equal citizens—How can an unequal society claim that everyone has equal opportunity to pursue whatever they want? It is literally and practically impossible. “Un-equals” therefore require a levelled ground—issues of reservation have therefore entered the post-modern discourse.
And ‘NO’, one isn’t off topic. Stop for a moment and try to grasp and sense the bigger picture here. Women are the victims here, so far (who knows how more pervasive such acts will be in the future). Prosecution should be directed only at the perpetrators. We shouldn’t regress back to the Middle Ages and the burning trials of the “witches” and “seducers of good-men”. We should be addressing inequality and injustice—not the sizes and shapes of cloth worn by victims.
Lala Blackk,
Full Nagarjan,
Thilixu Village, Dimapur
Digressing slightly—when Hitler decreed the FINAL SOLUTION of 6 million Jews during World War Two with a justification that fanned his racist rancour towards a people who were then, not only ‘generally enterprising’ but also ‘better-placed’ due to it than most other communities—did the Allies ever caution the Jews with advices of :-
- “Oh! You Jews should be a little less enterprising lest it irks the likes of Hitler!”
- “Be a little less Jew” (if there is such a thing).
Or did they form a legal addressable platform to ensure such annihilation never occurs again??? Known history speaks…
Therefore and as such, A RAPE IS A RAPE IS A RAPE!
A VICTIM IS A VICTIM IS A VICTIM!
“Rape”—let me clarify, is not just a violation of the body; but because the bodily experience is purely of the conscious mind, it is specifically THE RAPE OF THE MIND. It signals to the victim to remain at its place (brings in faint reminisces of Slavery, rebellions and the status-quo supporters like KKK and neo-Nazi phenomena). It is an act of power-politic—it relegates the feminine attribute as essentially weak. And hence, must/and can, only be oppressed and dominated—the bracket from within which victims must not steer clear of.
The entire Naga culture seem geared towards a discourse that cannot seem to comprehend protecting the victim—rather has been adding to the victim’s denigration. Nothing can justify rape!
Let’s be clear here, statistics denote that 95% of the rapes are engendered by those who are known to the victim, personally or not, but enough to know their whereabouts (in many cases family members). Shouldn’t such statistics prove that these rapes were systematically concocted with deliberation, to violate and humiliate the victims, despite the awareness of personal knowledge about the victim’s life—where goes then general human tendency of social bonhomie and non-animosity to those known (“general” being an idealised and emphasised term here)
What women groups and other groups with a genuine concern for halting all such heinous acts, need to do, is introduce a counter-culture that condemns all out, such crimes of subversion. This counter-culture must emancipate all women as equals, at homes and at public places—(this is especially for those of you still unaware of the fact that we still live in a State that refuses to even provide reservation for women candidates).
Women cannot afford to be diffused; after all, birth itself labels all women as “benignly oppressed”—and a vehement no, to those who think that we are all born humans—we are literally trained not to be. Women need to push the boundaries of Limit, whether of under-expectation of our mental capacities or our courage or our strength etc. It all begins with equal rights—one half of the State of Nagaland are not equal citizens—How can an unequal society claim that everyone has equal opportunity to pursue whatever they want? It is literally and practically impossible. “Un-equals” therefore require a levelled ground—issues of reservation have therefore entered the post-modern discourse.
And ‘NO’, one isn’t off topic. Stop for a moment and try to grasp and sense the bigger picture here. Women are the victims here, so far (who knows how more pervasive such acts will be in the future). Prosecution should be directed only at the perpetrators. We shouldn’t regress back to the Middle Ages and the burning trials of the “witches” and “seducers of good-men”. We should be addressing inequality and injustice—not the sizes and shapes of cloth worn by victims.
Lala Blackk,
Full Nagarjan,
Thilixu Village, Dimapur
