This question often pops up in my mind whenever I think about stepping out of my home or any place I feel comfortable at. Or for that sake, when I see girls asking for permissions from their peers or brothers to go out for a party or any other stuff. Even after 71 years of getting freedom and celebrating Independence Day, for that matter, makes me question the very word “freedom” and its meaning. After fighting for the so called democratic country we are living in, the country which gives us the right to choose our representative, the country which allows us to vote once we turn 18, why does not this country gives us the right to live the way we want to? Is it really our fault that we are born as a girl or the minority one, whom people consider as a petty things to pass on from fathers to husbands, someone who should seek permission before going out, someone who should dress well because if we go out in a way we want to, we will act as a food for the beast, beast on the road, beast in the house, who want to ogle at our body and fantasize about us being with them , leading to rape, sexual assault.

This makes me question the very culture we are brought up in, is it the fault of their parents, or their mothers, or their upbringing. NO, this is not the case, because no mother teaches her child to look at any girl with disrespect, insult, then from where does this tendency to rape comes from? If this is not the upbringing then whose fault is it that the people are becoming so cruel that they don’t spare their own daughter, sisters, neighbors or anyone for that matter. Is it the fault in our clothes? our walk? or did we gave you any signal that we are interested in having a relation with you? I ask you, people out there , the educated ones, or should I say the so called educated ones to tell me who is at fault?

And if no one is at fault, I would like to know that why then India is becoming a rape country, where the newspapers are full of reports from all over the India of rapes , sexual assaults, sexual harassment, rapes with old ladies, children, and animals too. In India, brutal rapes and gang-rapes have become daily news. Each time we feel things cannot get any worse, men across this country, as if taking that up as a challenge, shock us with another brutal incident.  It feels so disgusting to read that someone can rape a goat , like really, how can anyone even think of raping a goat , dog. Is this what humans were born to do? Is this what we are taught at school , is it what we got freedom for? Is it what freedom fighters fought for?

And if this is the freedom, I would appreciate that we would have never been free, because this freedom which gives a man the right to rape a woman is not at all acceptable along with the government who does not take action for the security of the women folk.

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton