By Pamela Agboga
When I heard the comments about the Indian rape case I decided to check for the whole story online. There is a long Wikipedia page dedicated to the case. I read it and wept. Then a couple of days ago I read an article by someone who obviously hadn’t got the full story. For one, she claimed it was the doctors that removed the victim’s intestines. No, it was the perpetrators. The doctors might have removed the 5% that was left after the attack, but they weren’t the first to take them out. Then she said there was a mass protest in India but if it was Nigeria nothing would be done. Again, NO. I remember friends who went on the protest walk when a lady was raped in ABSU. And to Nigeria’s credit, the walk was done after we heard the story, in India they waited till the victim died before they protested. I wonder what they had been waiting for? Apart from that, she wrote an okay article but I enjoyed the comments that were posted beneath the article even more.
I shall leave the link to her article that talked about emancipation as the solution to rape. While I would just love to feel free to walk the streets wearing nothing and not be shouted at as a loose woman or a mad one, the solution to rape is not just the way the world sees the woman. In my opinion, many things are involved, namely:
The mind set: The weaker the mind, the more amenable to evil it becomes. Imagine some robbers raping their victim simply because a herbalist told them that the charms he gave them won’t work if they do not do so? A strong mind should be able to resist the deception or temptation to commit evil. Male or female, the mind has to be strong to resist the temptation or urge to do evil, it is that weakness that makes female teachers and house helps a threat to minors.
Upbringing: We teach our daughters to dress ‘well,’ to sit ‘well,’ to avoid bad company. But our sons are left to their own devices. How many parents sit their sons down to lecture them to respect their girlfriends and wives? How many drum it into their sons, while still young enough to learn, that it is beneath them to hit a woman or even spend time in a shouting match with one? Parents have a lot more to do in raising their sons. The world needs more men of character and less louts.
Peer pressure: Can you imagine a guy just sitting down with friends and saying; “I just want to kill myself.” We all know the friends reactions, they would talk the idiot out of it. So imagine the guy saying, “I just want to kill someone.” And they pat him on the back and say, “hey, go for it, we are right behind you!” But that’s exactly what happens when a gang rape is organised. So they all do not know they are affecting a human being’s life for EVER? A rape is a murder, the murder of someone’s joy, peace and sense of security. And truth be told, anyone capable of rape is very capable of murder. Case in point: in the Indian case, after throwing the victim out of their bus, they allegedly tried to cover the evidence by attempting to run the bus over the lady. Her friend who had been badly beaten was the one who pulled her out of harm’s way.
TRUE STORY: THE MOOR MURDERS– A couple Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, assaulted and murdered five children. Myra came from a home where her parents beat her regularly, and her father was an alcoholic. She took up with Ian because he showed her love, and he convinced her to assist him in assaulting and murdering the children. While she died 15 November 2002, her partner Ian Brady is still alive and serving out his life imprisonment term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders#Myra_Hindley
All the points I raised are present here: Myra had poor upbringing, joined up with bad company, and had a weak mind. And the reason the UK public reviled her the most when they were caught: SHE WAS FEMALE! There dies the emancipation story.
Here’s the Wiki link for the Indian case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape_case#Victims and here’s the link to the article that got me talking (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/14/nigeria-rape-india-culture#start-of-comments), and we should not stop. Women and children are not animals; help them by speaking for them. If we can help prevent rape, we can be saving lives. It begins with the man in the mirror, help build the minds of our young men and women, to respect life, theirs and others. Your word in our favour might prevent a gang rape or an assault.
Thank you in advance.
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This article was first published on 21st January 2013
pagboga
Chojare Pamela Agboga is a Legal Practitioner, Writer, Editor, Chartered Secretary and Administrator. She is currently working on her first novel 'Weekends are for Loving' as well as a devotional for women.
Comments (1)
All I know is that the 17 years and 6 months young man is either going to be killed or he will go to jail for life until he can prove that he’s reasonable again. There is no way in which he’ll get off.
Where do you get off ripping someone’s intestine out of her stomach, is she an animal? Crazy stuff! Mean, wicked stuff.