Culture of Silence

Tarun Tejpal is a classic example of hypocritical India where we preach something and practice just the opposite. Here is a man who claims to be the voice of the voiceless tries to silence the female colleague by character assassination to protect his ‘reputation’. Indian patriarchal mind- set considers woman as a property of man, thus character assassination works so well in a society that blames the victim. Blaming the victim and the concept of the ‘purity’ of a woman solely based on her body bring in a ‘culture of silence’ in the society regarding sexual crimes. Most of the times even girl’s family discourages her from speaking up fearing ill reputation.

 It  is shocking to realize that how a man is so focused on sex that made him stoop to the level to misbehave  even  with  his daughter’s best friend.  When we speak of sexual crimes, we attribute it to lack of education, and the uneducated and uncivilized men from lower strata of society are targeted. We conveniently forget the shallow treatment and exploitation of women by the sophisticated elite.

I appreciate the young journalist who dared to take on a high profile and well connected person like Tejpal despite the ‘culture of silence’ prevails here. In this profession, a woman has to be four times smarter than a man to be considered equal to him, unfortunately women have to face lot of sexual prejudices in media houses also.  Men of power and money think that it is their prerogative to treat women as they want. I think it is every woman’s duty to support this young girl for her fight for justice.

 Unfortunately the family of the men always support their rapist husband/father/brother  etc, whereas I doubt whether the men would support their females in such contextI mean when a women commit any serious crime). Most  disturbing example is  Ruchika  molestation case where the culprit  Rathod’s wife  was his advocate in the case. As a woman I couldn’t digest the fact that a woman appeared for his molester husband whose heinous actions   forced a teenager to commit suicide.I hope,if the women folks in family come out against their male partner’s misbehavior, things may change for the better.