Blog 6: Indian Women Channel Rape Outrage into Elections

Summary:

Written by Swapna Majumdar, this article addresses the issue of a man, Ah Nazeem, who is a member of the legislative assembly from Pondicherry. Nazeem made a comment that a gang rape of a 20-year-old woman could be attributed to prostitution. Because of this comment, women in the All India Democratic Women's Association joined together to get people out of high government positions who make malicious statements against rape victims. Their goal is to "expose candidates that do not respect women" and request that Dravida Munnetra not nominate Nazeem "because of his support to perpetrators of a gang rape." These women feel that they have been ignored in politics over the years and are standing up for the fact that they will no longer be taken for granted. Their long-term goal is to have more women serving in political roles in order to create a larger change in the government.

Analysis:

Egypt has been a notoriously oppressed country in terms of how their women are treated. This article does a good job of addressing one particular way that women feel that they are continuing to be oppressed. The issue of rape is not something that should be taken lightly, and the women in the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA, we will say) agree with this. They are arguing to get politicians out of office who do not take rape seriously, and who might let people who commit rape back into the streets. This is a form of oppression because the men are not the ones having to suffer through the rapes (most of the time, anyway) so they do not understand the repercussions that it can cause in someone's life. The women who are suffering are taking a stand against these politicians in an effort to try and (slowly) change the way the government thinks about things. Majumdar does a great job in this article of showing the anger that the women of this association have towards this particular politician, and she also does a nice job of showing their long terms goals. She explains the importance of having more women in government, which is their way of making a long-term change in the world of women as they know it.


http://womensenews.org/story/the-world/140319/indian-women-channel-rape-outrage-elections#.UywuWK1dVa0