In The Name Of Honour

As I held this book "In The Name Of Honour" by Mukhtar Mai,  in my hand, standing in the library, I just knew I wanted to read it.  Although, generally I don't enjoy reading a biography, but i decided to pick this book up instinctively.  The cover page shows the side view of the face of Mukhtar Mai.  You can't miss the confidence and the strength on her face.  The language is simple.   The book gives a chronological account of the happenings without going into too much detail about the unfateful day, the trials and tribulations that this young woman faces to get justice for herself. 


The book very well brings out the social, cultural, religious and political state of the country.The existence of tribal law, religious law and the law of the land are different.  Women bear the brunt when revenge is to be sought, accounts have to be settled and punishment is to be awarded.  Prevalence of caste system is not unknown to India too.  In this case Mukhtar Mai belonged to Gujar caste and the higher caste who had the monopoly in the Meerpur area was Mastoi. 

As I began to read the first page of the book, I felt hot flushes flowing down my spine.  I was going to read the story of a woman who used her humiliation to empower herself... and to seek justice from the law of her land.  (Also, it struck me later while writing this post that the last book which I read and wrote about "The Palace of Illusions" also had a similar tone and story, Draupadi seeking revenge from Kauravas for her humiliation).  

I had read about this news, years back, and to be precise in June 2002.  A young woman is meted out a punishment by the local tribal court in Pakistan. Her fault was that her brother was found sitting with a girl of a higher caste in a wheat field.  The punishment was that she be gang raped by the men of that higher caste for the 'honour crime' her 13 yrs old brother has committed. 

The news had jolted me like many others and had created a uproar in the whole world.  The young woman's name became a synonym of women's right world wide.  She was a poor, illiterate young divorcee, daughter of a small peasant, she taught embroidery work to other young girls.  Simple at heart and religious.  

She and her family were fooled, as she was to ask for forgiveness for what her brother had done (her brother was sodomized and beaten brutally though).  As she thought, her words of apology would close a chapter of family feud, little did she know that she is going to be pushed inside a small stable and gang raped by four men, while the whole village will become a witness of her helplessness. Little did she know when she walked back to her home after that, carrying the weight of that body covered just by his father's shawl, bearing the pain of that body which has been violated so violently, that her pain, her anger, her anguish will pave the way for a women's movement in her country and in the whole world.

Revenge and justice are two different things.  When there is no faith left in justice, we seek revenge.  

Mukhtar Mai wanted justice and because of the  spread of the news at international level, and various NGOs closely watching, she does get justice finally after a lot of problems, due to which she realises that she was being fooled at every step as she was illiterate.  Therefore, the money she receives from various aides is used by her to run a school for girls as well as boys in her village.  She wants no other girl to put her thumb print on a paper on which the only words written are treachery and exploitation.

A story of sheer grit and  determination in face of acute poverty and fear for one's life.  An amazing read.

RESTLESS

Custodial Death Of A Rapist - Should We Be Happy??

Ideally, I should not have been happy to read this news.  It's about death.  about death of a human being.  About death of a man in police custody.  Does death in judicial custody not bring out anger in us?  It does.  But not this time.  I am sorry.  I am surprised with myself.  But, I am happy to know, this guy Mohana Krishnan who was a cabbie in Coimbatore was killed in a police encounter two days back. 

Was it a conspiracy? Or the alleged "act of self-defence" by the police officers? or the Robin Hood act?  I don't know.  But as a citizen of this country, where there is a general feeling of hopelessness in the law and order situation, I am happy.  As a mother, I am happy.  As a woman I am happy.  But believe me, as I type this, there is no smile on my face, because as a human being, somewhere I am pained by this man's death, because ultimately he was a human being, who had even requested his doctor for a lethal injection during the medical examination just 2-3 days before his death in this shoot out, when he allegedly snatched the revolver of one the police inspectors and shot him.

I share my happiness of this fast track justice with those many cab drivers and auto rickshaw drivers and the people of Coimbatore who celebrated his death by distributing sweets.  Of course, they had a reason to be happy.  After all, this man had brought a bad name to their profession.

Mohana Krishnan, a 23 year old cab driver, who worked as a school van driver for a few days, picked up two children, a 10 year old girl and her younger brother before their usual school van arrived.  He had originally planned to abduct the kids for ransom, but later developed cold feet.  He tortured the children, raped the little girl and later threw the helpless innocent children in a canal near Tirumurthy dam, 77 kms from Coimbatore.  He was helped by another tractor driver.  This is such a ghastly act.  How can we be so intoxicated with greed, with lust that we are unable to understand how helpless a child is?  Were we not children once.... does that memory also does not scare these animals when they decide to do such ghastly acts against little angles??

This man, died in police custody, while he was being taken to another place (the reasons behind his movement at the early hour is unclear).  Police says that this guy snatched a revolver and was almost on a shooting spree, when they had to kill him in self defence.  As expected, there is an enquiry into this matter.  (Thankfully, a small news in one corner of the newspaper, and not the front page, mentioned about it today, or else I would called it displaced sense of priority or sensitivity).  Now, the Human Rights people may also raise their voice on custodial death.  May be they have a point, yes they have a point, as whether a person is guilty or not is decided by judiciary and not the law enforcing agency ie Police. 

But, do you know, a similar case happened in Delhi just one odd month back.  A school van driver, again a young man, used to sexually exploit three siblings - one girl and two boys, all between 6 to 12 years age (as far as I remember), the girl being the eldest.  This man, on the pretext of picking these kids up for school would take them to some houses, where he had access and would rape the girl and sodomise the boys. The kids were drugged every time.  They got used to the material abuse.

All this continued for almost two years.  I am aghast to think about it.  The kids were too scared as the man allegedly had made MMS of the three kids in objectionable condition and had threatened to kill them as well.  The pitiable part is that their widowed mother was a working woman, living alone with kids in Delhi, and she could never realise, that the children are not reaching school for many a days.  The kids, specially the girl started withdrawing herself and showed change in behaviour, of course the drug had physiological effect on all three of the kids.

It shocked me and pained me, as everyday, the update on this kept coming.  Just another day, I read that, this man guilty of drugging and sexually exploiting poor and helpless kids had been arrested.

Now, does it make us content?  Does taking somebody to custody is punishment enough?  Will he be tried? or will he manage to unshackle himself, courtesy some who's who of the power capital Delhi?  Will the children, who had to be put in a rehabilitation centre to get out of habit of drugs, would ever live a normal, healthy life?  This scar in their innocent minds will pain them all their lives. 

And if the the situation goes bad, in all likelihood, we are witnessing  the making of another rapist, another abductor, another thief, another molestor.  Will he be or for that matter, they be feeling guilty of what they are doing..... when they grow up? NO.  because they would be giving back the society what they got.  They had their childhood trampled under a pair of filthy boots, they are going to give the filth back on the face of their world, their families, their relationships and anybody who comes in touch with them.

However, education can help, counselling can help, but a bad memory of childhood moulds us, moulds our psyche and our being.

There is a need for us, parents, us guardians, and teachers and people to preserve the childhood of not just our children but children, in general.  The channel of communication with our kids should always be open to know what they are experiencing.  Parents need to be more sensitive and perceptive with small children, as they don't even know how to express things.  We have a huge role to play in this increasingly unsafe world.  Also, please try to think beyond my kid, my home, my family mentality.  We get affected because overall, situations go bad,  and we keep our eyes shut saying, this has not happened to me.  It's time we stop being selfish.

Meanwhile, the accidental shoot out or encounter, whatever you call it, this quick justice is making me feel good...... mmmm bad..... well a mixed feeling.

How do you feel about it? let me know.

RESTLESS

Added later -To support the post on Indivine, click here