Fwd: [socialactionfoundationforequity:13907 Rape & hypocrisy | Deccan Chronicle
anityasarva 00
From: Avnish Jolly <avnis...@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 10:51:28 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [socialactionfoundationforequity:13907 Rape & hypocrisy |
Deccan Chronicle
To: SAFE - Social Action Foundation for Equity
<socialactionfou...@googlegroups.com>
Rape & hypocrisy | Deccan Chronicle
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/editorial/op-ed/rape-hypocrisy-666
We may be thousands of miles away from the scene of action, and the
culture wars across the Atlantic, but very few urban Indians today
will ask “Dominique Strauss Kaun?”
A globalised world of satellite television and the Internet produces
scandals without borders. So, one of the most memorable images of the
past week — that of an unshaven, manacled Dominique Strauss-Kahn (or
DSK as he is called in his native France) flanked by New York Police
Department officials, was transmitted instantly across the world. And
everyone — not just the French and the Americans — was quick to adapt
the scandal to their own needs and milieu. The enterprising Taiwanese
promptly came up with an animation treatment of the DSK scandal.
The rest is history, or its first draft, as a torrent of tweets. For
us in India, the scandal can be a key tool to bust some of the popular
myths about sexual assault and rape. Rape is not about sex and
seduction. It is about power and abuse of power. Rapists don’t
necessarily look like ogres. They can be perfectly nice and charming
in one setting and turn violent in another. Just because someone is
intelligent and talented does not mean the person is incapable of a
sexual assault. These qualities neither add nor subtract from the
gravity of the crime. Similarly, it is irrelevant to delve into the
sexual likes and dislikes of the victim (or survivor, as some would
say) of a sex-attack. Rapists/sexual assaulters often have partners
and can get sex from elsewhere. But they mostly get their buzz by
hitting on those who are vulnerable and socio-economically inferior to
them. How often do you hear of a man sexually attacking a female boss?
To get back to the plot for the benefit of those who may have been
hibernating the past week: Till last week, the 62-year-old Strauss-
Kahn was among the uber-powerful on earth — managing director of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and widely viewed as a presidential
contender in his native France. He seemed to have it all — name, fame,
riches, power, charm, choices that most of us can only dream of, and a
beautiful glamorous wife, a former French TV icon.
Then, all of a sudden, like Humpty Dumpty, he had a great fall. Mr
Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with an alleged sexual assault,
including an attempted rape, on a chambermaid in a luxury suite in New
York City’s Sofitel Hotel. From a $3,000-night suite it was the four
walls of the notorious Rikers Island jail. At the time of writing, the
former IMF boss has been released on a $1 million cash bail (and an
additional $5 million in bond), but remains under house arrest in a
building close to Ground Zero in New York, under surveillance by video
cameras, armed guards and electronic monitoring devices.
The scandal has all the necessary elements of a long-running serial.
So we are assured of a continuous flow of tidbits about the accuser
and the accused in the coming weeks. The reactions, so far, have been
interesting. Barring some feminist groups and a few journalists, much
of France thinks DSK was a victim of a “set-up”. Friends of DSK are
shocked that one of their highly respected national figures was
handcuffed and paraded before the media. One close friend of the
former IMF chief even called it a “lynching murder by the media”. Many
of his supporters have questioned the integrity of the maid. Then
there are the myriad conspiracy theories and charges of a frame-up.
In the United States, and much of the English-speaking world, very
many people are seeing the case as a good example of an egalitarian
justice system where an immigrant chambermaid can slap charges against
a wealthy and powerful man who sexually assaulted her.
The question that pops up again and again, however, has a sense of
deja vu: How can an educated, talented, charming man, who had so many
women friends, be a rapist? His wife, Anne Sinclair, says her husband
is innocent and that she will stand by him. Does that have a familiar
ring? The wife of Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who allegedly raped his
18-year-old maid, and is currently on bail, also said something pretty
similar.
DSK was a famed “grand seducer”. “Yes I like women… So what?” he once
quipped. But the critical issue today is something else. DSK is not in
the dock because he liked women or because some of them reciprocated
his feelings. He is in the dock because he is alleged to have forced
himself on an unwilling woman. Those who have been screaming “honey
trap” conveniently overlook the fact that a single mother and an
immigrant, like the chambermaid, who levelled the charges against DSK,
stands to lose everything if it is proved that she has been lying. The
best lawyers that money can buy will be trying to prove that there had
been no sex attack and the maid was making it all up.
In India, we have been pretty slow to debunk myths about sex attacks
and their perpetrators. However, there has been some movement forward.
The health ministry recently took a strong stand against the degrading
and traumatising practice of using the “two finger test” as a method
to collect medical evidence in rape cases. “It is supposed to assess
whether girls and women are ‘virgins’ or ‘habituated’ to sexual
intercourse”, a 2010 report by Human Rights Watch had noted in a
scathing comment.
This is not enough. It has to be ensured that such recommendations are
followed in practice and across the country. There are other
impediments to justice as well. Rape is still defined very narrowly —
only forced peno-vaginal penetration is considered to be rape. The law
needs to change, as do mindsets.
The key lessons — sex attack is not seduction. Just because “nobody
died”, to use a memorable phrase by one of DSK’s friends, does not
mean no one was assaulted sexually. French feminists are out in the
streets protesting. They are supported by men who are brave enough to
question social mores. Activists worldwide, including in India, have
been flagging these issues for long. Everyone is innocent till proved
guilty. That applies to maids and moneybags alike.
Meanwhile, can we change the slogan please from “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity” to “Liberty, Equality, End of Hypocrisy”.
* Patralekha Chatterjee writes on development issues in India and
emerging economies and can be reached at
patralekha...@gmail.com
--
Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it
there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a
right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth. -
Mohandas Gandhi
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