Raw Rage by Tabassum Nasrat

Yet another day, another girl, another victim, another rape. It is a pity, and it is outrageous. When someone says why did the girl not call the police instead. Were you there? Were you in her place? Let me throw a bear at you and let me see you do the right thing instantly. So, because I am a girl I am supposed to behave as per the society asks me to, murder my own choices, be alert every second, watch over my shoulder, not live a life and yet get abused in one way or another?? So a girl is supposed to behave a certain way? Okay. Fair enough!! Which book says that a boy (because they are unworthy of being called a man) can behave however they want? Ruin anyone's life they want? And for what? For some fun. So their fun is more priced than our security and lives? In which world does this make sense at all? You overturn a nation in a day's time. From a state it becomes a union territory, from old notes it become the new ones, over a night!!! And till date no one could educate the male homo sapiens on how to behave. That they have no right over someone's life. No matter what! Candle marches, dead bodies, day to day abuses, filthy eyeing, the songs that objectifies a girl and everyone, I mean everyone, dances to them, weren't those enough to open the eyes? How many more girls have to be raped and killed? How many more lives have to be put in the line? How much more will the girl have to bend to satiate the needs of this patriarchal society? How much more will she have to become invisible so that she is safe? If you say hi to some guy because he said hi to you first, and you are polite human, you don't even realize but you have already become naked for him and characterless to others.   I am a girl, a woman. Every rape, every abuse, every day to day questioning and justifying my personality, and changing it, shaping it just so that the society doesn't point a finger, and even then it never being enough, is bone breaking. I want to live. I want to breathe. I want to be frustrated that my food hasn't come on time or that my nails came undone or my hair is not right today. I don't want to be stressing over what my one word, one move of the finger or me just breathing could lead to. I want to equally enjoy late night walks and take a cab back to home late at night when I have gone out alone to have some me time. I want to be able to work out without worrying about people looking at my ass or my cleavage or the transparency of my cloths. I see theirs too. I never make a big deal out of it. Never! I want to be able to go over to male friend's place or have them over at mine just to hang out without being questioned. I want all of that. And yes I am a woman. And I want to be a woman for all the lives to come if there is any. Because being a woman is beautiful. It is courageous. It is bold and it is sexy. No one can ever be what a woman can. She is a rock and she is emotions. She can be soft to you while picking the world's burden on her shoulder. Your food, your health, your needs, your support, she will be all of it. She will bleed and she will not. She will bring life to this world and she will lose life for this world. She will bear the pain and she will still make sure you are okay. That's a woman. It's a shame that we have to advertise slogans like "beti bachao beti padhao". This by now in this world of modern technology should have become a very ordinary, common norm, like drinking water. She is a flower, but she comes with thorns too. No matter what we do, no matter how many times we scream and yell and write and voice ourselves, we will always be silenced. Nothing will change. We will always be the one who did not do the right thing or missed out on the instructions as per the manual. When a guy says hi I should have not responded and asked him to buzz off. If he gets back at me I should have been polite with him in the first place. When a gang of guys tease me I should have reacted. And when they followed to attack me I should have kept quiet in the first place. When I am attacked by a gang of men I should have taken the manual out and read while they hit me and tore off my clothes. I should have been the one who said something or did something. Maybe called them my brother and they would have stopped. But I didn't. My brother will never abuse a girl. Just because you can dig it in me doesn't mean I was into it. It simply means I had a hole that you forced yourself into. If I was into it I would have moaned in pleasure not screamed in terror.  Whatever happens we will speak and we will voice the ones who cannot. We will show the world that a woman deserves much more. I have a voice, I am privileged and I will speak till the end. Story by: Tabassum Nasrat Art by: David L. Scholes ReplyForward