Something is seriously wrong, unless society admits, such crimes will continue
ACID ATTACK ON WOMEN…
An acid attack on a girl in Srinagar, last week, has shaken everyone in the Valley. The heinous crime is yet another example of the pathetic situation that Kashmir’s womenfolk are facing here. Unfortunately, an unprecedented rise in the crimes against women —such as physical, emotional, or psychological violence, sexual abuse, blackmailing, harassment. online abuse, stalking, forced marriages, and so on — have been showing an ugly upward trend in Jammu and Kashmir over the years.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has confirmed a ten percent increase in crime against women in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2020, in comparison to the previous year —2019. As per the NCRB report, released last year, as 3,414 cases of crimes against women were recorded in J&K during the year of 2020, while the number stood at 3,069 in 2019.
As per the Crime Gazette-2020, prepared by the Crime Record Bureau of J&K Crime Branch (Kashmir Images holds a copy of the same), as many as 3193 cases of crime against women —like rape, kidnapping, molestations, eve-teasing, and cruelty against women and so on— have been registered in the Union Territory (UT) in 2019.
Ironically, the number of the cases rose to 3513 in 2020. Of them, 2391 cases have been registered in the Valley, and the rest 1122 in Jammu province.
Case-wise statistics from the Valley suggest that as many as 202 cases of rape; 503 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and girls; 1358 cases of molestation; 25 cases of eve-teasing; 01 case of dowry death; 149 cases of attempt to suicide by women; and 153 cases of cruelty by husband or a relative of the husband have been registered here during the year of 2020.
Experts say that the official figures about the cases of crime against women are alarming, and they cannot be ignored. They say the actual numbers must be higher than the officially recorded numbers because such cases are not always reported to the police. They emphasize that the recent acid attack on a girl in Srinagar should not be seen as an isolated incident; rather it should be treated as a reflection of the existing gender-based crime scenario in our society.
To know the root causes for the rise in crime against women in Kashmir, and to understand the various dimensions of the issue; KASHMIR IMAGES spoke with some experts.
Here are the excerpts:
Dr. Mir Suheel Rasool
Expert on social issues – with a doctoral degree in sociology – works on mental health, suicides, and woman issues in Kashmir
The crimes against women are increasing here day by day because of the pathological nature of our society. This disease is basically the result of a mental default of our male population, especially youth.
A teenage girl recently told me that a boy she was in a relationship with, in the past, threatens her to make her personal photographs public if she refuses to marry him. Earlier, some time ago, I dealt with a case wherein a boy released nude photographs of a girl on a social networking site on the day when the girl was getting engaged and her would-be in-laws had come to her home. Later, the girl could not bear the burden of guilt and attempted suicide. This is how teenage boys are harassing girls and subjecting them to violence. We see cases like this occurring every once in a while. Take a look on social media: whenever a girl uploads a picture or a video of hers on a social networking site, people start commenting on it with brutal language. As a keen observer of society, I can tell you that teenage violence is found more in our society wherein girls become victims of the rage of the male. We do not find these kinds of crimes in civilized societies because people in these societies are mentally evolved enough to ensure the dignity and honour of women is not harmed. In our case, we as a society are grappling with various kinds of diseases.
The recent case of throwing acid on the face of a girl in Srinagar reflects the animalistic nature of the perpetrator, and also the pathological nature of our society. We should not see the incident as an isolated case. Neither is it about a single person (the aggressor). Acid attack is one of the animalistic acts and it comes out of the pathological nature of the society. An acid attack is basically the epitome of violence. And the idea of committing such a heinous crime can only come when you continuously groom yourself in a pathological society. That is why I say this particular incident is a reflection of an ill society. I am afraid if the social diseases are not cured immediately, we might find more such attacks.
In this scenario, I would suggest that every stakeholder should come forward to shoulder the responsibility to eradicate this animalistic tendency especially found in youth. The cure should begin from a family to a community and then to overall society. We need to examine the behaviour of our young male population and fix it.
For this, we need to review our ancestral philosophy of moral obligations. Historically, we have been a harmonious society. Ours was a society wherein girls and women used to be respected. Until the 1990s, we never used to see a heinous crime occurring against womenfolk. Our society was full of moral obligations. We were into morals and we lived morals. And we need to review that society again.
Ezabir Ali
Founder/Secretary EHSAAS (an NGO); Executive Board Member Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI); Member Women Mediator from Commonwealth country
Besides the fact that Kashmiri women have been falling prey to the repercussion of the protracted conflict that we are living in for decades, they have also been experiencing social, cultural, political, and religious suppression over the years.
Although our religion provides sufficient rights to women, misinterpretation of the religious doctrine by menfolk ensures women are deprived of these rights, which otherwise were there to empower and protect them. Take for example freedom of choice: Islam has given a woman the right to choose a partner she would like to live her life with. But due to certain cultural and social traditions and pressures, women get and deprived of this right in our society. Even sometimes a woman is subjected to violence and crime just because she tries to exercise her right to choose. For instance, the details of the recent acid attack in Srinagar suggest that the victim girl wanted to get rid of the relationship with the boy due to certain reasons, but he could not deal with the rejection and committed the horrible crime against the victim. Such crimes against women have been occurring here and might occur in the future as well unless society does not change its view about womenfolk. Crime against women happens mostly because of the inability of men to know how to respect women. I would say society needs to focus on the upbringing of male children. They must learn to respect the women, have positive behaviour, and learn to accept the rejections as well.
Since I have been working for the rights and welfare of the women in Kashmir, I can tell you that women in Kashmir are always at the receiving end when it comes to gender-based violence. Women are judged by men for what they wear, for they being outspoken, for they being outgoing, and so on and forth.
That said, I am absolutely in favour of moral and cultural values. I am not for the misinterpreted feminism which believes in the suppression of menfolk. That is not feminism. We have to balance the relationship between men and women. God has created all human beings as equals. Neither of the sexes should try to overpower each other. Nor should they try to deprive each other of the rights given by law of the land and the religion.
The misinterpretation of religious guidelines is common in our society. In the past, I have dealt with so many cases of half widows, wherein I saw how people interpreted religious doctrine as per their convenience. In some cases, the half widows were forced to wait for their missing husbands for an unending period to deprive them of their property rights and to ensure they do not remarry. But in some similar cases, the missing people were declared dead just to grab the property of their children as they would say that the orphaned grandchildren cannot inherit the property from their grandparents. Similar misinterpretations are made when it comes to the rights of women on their parental property. It is said that instead of making religious teaching tools to ensure a woman is not deprived of her rights and not subjected to any kind of crime and violence, in some cases we use religion to discriminate against women.
Another example of discrimination with the girls is generally observed when it comes to their right to education. I have dealt with several cases wherein girls despite doing well in competitive exams had to fight with their parents to pursue their studies and career. I can go on and on with examples to prove how girls and women are subjected to injustice, violence, and crime in our society. This inadequate social environment impacts women psychologically. Look at the mental health scenario of our women. Many of them are grappling with mental depression because they do not find protection and a safe space in society.
Having said that, I must also tell you that Kashmir was not like that earlier. It was known as ‘Peer Waeer’ (the land of saints), where a woman used to be respected and protected by one and all. But things have changed now for the disadvantage of women, over a period of time.
We must acknowledge the fact that wrong things have crept into our society over the years. There are demands for dowry, and dowry deaths occur here. Domestic violence is rising, and women are forced to commit suicide in some cases. Incidences of rape, abductions, abuse and so on and so forth have been occurring in our society on daily basis. However, many people are in denial in this regard. The official figures speak for themselves, though. I would suggest that police and the administration must release these figures on a monthly basis so that those who deny the reality would understand how grim the situation is in terms of gender-based crimes in the Valley.
Tahir Ashraf
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP); Formerly, SP Cyber Wing, Kashmir
Crime against women was always there in society; however, its intensity has got accelerated lately, due to certain reasons. First, modern education has impacted our family and religious values to a large extent. The traditional mechanism of moral education at our homes has weakened because the family bonding has been getting disintegrated over the years. Second, the dark side of technology has also paved a way for social degradation. Technology and gadgets have ensured accessibility in terms of male-female interactions in society, and eventually enhanced the vulnerability of the weaker sex. Third, sometimes people try to hide the cases when it comes to crime against women. Many people do not come forward to report and provide their witnesses to these cases, and eventually the perpetrators get off the hook and get encouraged to carry on with their immoral activities. To eradicate or at least minimize crimes against women, society has to play its role.
As far as the role of law enforcing agenciesis concerned, it is being played well. We saw how the police did deal with the recent case of acid throwing. The police were prompt and swift to the extent that all the accused were arrested within 24 hours. Also, I must tell you that police have been raising their capability to deal with such cases. Thankfully, the Nirbhaya Fund has enabled us to enhance our infrastructure and capability to deal with the cases wherein women are subjected to violence and crime. Due to this heavily funded scheme police have been able to do a number of things for the security and protection of women. It helped speed up the investigations and updation and up-gradation of the system.
That said, I would like to request people not to hesitate to report the crime cases. It will help to send out the message to the culprits that society is not tolerant of the crimes. Sometimes, the negligence by the masses encourages criminals to become habitual.
Qurat-ul-Ain Masoodi
Chairperson, AASH –the hope of Kashmir (NGO)
First and foremost, we must understand that the crime against women has many forms. Inflicting physical harm to a woman is not the only form of a crime against women. Anything that hurts a woman physically, emotionally or psychologically falls in the category of violence and a crime against her. And by this logical definition, the dominant majority of womenfolk are subjected to violence in our society.
As per my observation as a social activist, I can tell you that many women are harmed at their in-laws’ places on various grounds. Even in some cases, young girls are unknowingly subjected to psychological violence at their parental homes. For instance, a gild child could get hurt psychologically seeing her parents biased in favour of her male siblings. In such cases, a girl child feels dejected and humiliated. Then, look at our traditional way of grooming our daughters at our homes. We have a common saying in Kashmir that ‘Kour Gaye Lukhund Maal’ (daughter belongs to someone else —her in-laws). In our homes, for every mistake, a daughter is scolded by the parents reminding her that she has to go to in-laws’ place where mistakes are not pardoned. Worst, at the time of marriage daughter is told that no matter what happens to her, she is supposed to leave in-law’s place only after she dies.
With this traditional way of grooming a girl child, parents unknowingly subject her to a lifelong vulnerability of getting subjected to violence. In fact, they deprive her of a dignified life and her right to choose. And, ultimately the flawed grooming of the girl child draws an adverse impact on the core of her mind. She gets conditioned and starts believing she is born to suffer and to tolerate everything silently.
Unfortunately, even the rise in our overall literacy rate has not helped us to get rid of our traditional thinking regarding women. I feel sad to see that in our so-called educated society many women are still deprived of their right to property. They are simply denied the share from their parental properties, which they deserve as per the law of the land and Sharia. And yet, we call ourselves Muslim. Depriving a woman of the property share is also a crime against her.
In brief, I would say that crime against women in our society should be looked upon in its totality. For this, we need a vigorous awareness campaign here to ensure everybody knows about the root causes of the problem. We need to be practical and facing the reality. Mere rhetoric will not work. Unfortunately, we don’t leave any opportunity to give sermons. But practically we don’t do much to eradicate the problem. Take for example the recent case of an acid attack on a 24-year-old female: After the incident occurred, every Tom, Dick, and Harry tried to become a preacher on Facebook. Since elections are nearing, even some politicians also got activated and started offering ‘help’ to the victim on social media platforms. Some lawyers started presenting themselves for legal counseling to the victim’s family. We see such cheap publicity stunts by the people every time some untoward incident happens. And once the matter fades away, the so-called social activists too disappear from the scene.
Earlier, only sincere people would come fore to help such victims because there was no scope for publicity at that time. For instance, I was simultaneously dealing with five cases of domestic violence, wherein five women had been burnt by their in-laws at different places in May 2015. Three of the victims, including a woman from Bengal who had married a Kashmiri man, were admitted at Burns Ward of SMHS Hospital. Of five, one of the cases was not even reported in the media. I worked day and night to ensure the victims get justice and some financial help through some schemes of the Red Cross. At that time nobody came forward to help because Facebook was not that popular then. Since there was no scope for publicly, no generosity was shown by these people.
To conclude, I would say let us talk less and do more to ensure crimes against women decline in our society. To begin with we need to make mass awareness about the various dimensions of the problem. Also, let’s make our daughters brave enough to stand up against the violence and crime against them. Let us tell them not to suffer silently but fight back.
