Dress code to women & girls, clean chit to rapists?

January 18, 2012 | Filed under: Your Opinion | Posted by: Savita Hiremath

Back to square one. Women get raped because they wear jeans and short/sleeveless tops. This comes from none other than Bangalore University’s Head of Committee Against Sexual Harassment K K Seethamma who is pressing for a dress code in the university because “women need to protect themselves by wearing good clothes”. Before this, Karnataka Women and Child Welfare Minister C C Patil stated that women themselves invite eve teasing, thanks to their “explosive” attire.

“I’m against women wearing obscene clothes. With such clothes, they tempt men and that’s why they get raped. Even when one wears saris, long-sleeve blouses must be worn,” Seethamma has been quoted as saying in TOI yesterday.

Going by her statements, Seethamma, who teaches women’s liberation and feminism, seems to have loads of statistics stacked on her table and all of that seems to be suggesting that those who got raped so far were wearing jeans and short tops and sleeve-less blouses.

Each time I get to read/hear such statements, my instant reaction is: “God, it started again!” Up goes the spout all the theories and case studies by feminists of all stripes and criminologists and medical and socio-psychological experts that clearly reveal that rape is not about sex, it’s about power. It’s a crime committed by male rapists who exercise their physical power over girls and women. It’s basically an act crazed with misogyny. A lot of wrong socio-cultural conditioning is at stake here, not the length of the skirts or T-shirts women wear.

Seethamma has also warned her women colleagues that they cannot expect respect from their male students if they wear salwar and jeans but that “only a sari with long-sleeve blouses invokes respect for women teachers, nothing else”.

Let me put it on record. I have also headed a journalism institute for a year and wore all that is being termed “obscene” here. None of my male students disrespected me or went absent from my classes in protest. We had healthy fun discussing all kinds of issues and there wasn’t a peep of protests, or innuendos hurled at me or my girl students, when women’s rights came up for discussion. Perhaps they were more mature and knew how to respect women for the content of their character and not pay heed to such demeaning public discussions against half the human race.

After dress code comes another. Since Seethamma is also advising that women should be back home by 6-6.30 pm, we can easily draw an inference that almost all rapes happen after sundown. I wonder if this advice is rooted in certain cases of BPO women employees who got raped and murdered. If yes, what about those women who do not work in BPOs, who are back home by nightfall, who wear saris with all the ‘grace’ she is advocating and still get raped?

Apart from outraging women for no fault of theirs, the worst outcome of such small-time moralism is that it openly tells rapists that they did everything just right.

Is this how we should be discussing rape—a serious human rights violation—in public spheres? Can it degenerate any further? It can. Degeneration knows no bounds. It’s a bottomless pit.

Since dress code is being dangled like a Damocles’ sword each time eve teasing and rape come up for discussion, those in power should also answer these questions: what do you have to say about schoolgirls in their uniforms who get molested/raped by van drivers and their accomplices? What do you have to say about those little three- or four-year-old girls of construction workers who get raped in construction sites in broad daylight? What do have to say about those women aged 60 or more wearing saris and long-sleeved blouses who got robbed and raped at their homes in Bangalore by marauding criminals? What do you have to say about those newborns in their nappies dozing off in their cradle who get raped by mail servants/relatives?

Finally, what do you tell those fathers who rape their own girl children right in front of their mothers and render them pregnant: “Well done! Your daughter simply deserved it”?

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Courtesy : savitahiremath.com

17 Responses to Dress code to women & girls, clean chit to rapists?

If you leave your door unlocked and someone robs you of all valuables, would you first regret leaving the door unlocked, or would you first blame the thief? When these officials are saying such things, they are just actually cautioning us, “lock your doors”. It is just increasingly becoming a fashion to bring in gender equality, interpret these comments as to be “giving clean chit to rapists”, and thus calling the person who made such a comment as “moral police” or “outdated”. It makes no sense. Agreed that women not wearing provoking clothes are also teased and molested, but then, locked houses can also be broken into. The thief is to be blamed, but you are not being modern by dressing modern, at the probable cost of your modesty.

If you have to protest, protest against the lack of crime control. Don’t protest against such comments which are just analogous to the maxim “prevention is better than cure”. And that maxim does NOT say the disease is a good thing. So even these officials are not saying rapists are good people. They’re just saying for your benefit!

Tanay
January 18, 2012 at 7:35 pm
When traveling alone in a not-so-posh area, any dress code is not making you safe.
It is a sorry affair, but the truth remains that there is no point in wasting breath on people who are expressing their “concerns” as dress code. It is better if we direct our anger to the law makers and law keepers of the land who are responsible of ensuring safety to man and woman alike.

Ekta Pal
January 18, 2012 at 8:21 pm
- Dear Ekta,
  
  You are right in saying we need more effective laws. But my worry is the same law-makers and law-keepers can also rape at will.
  
  Moreover, I think, rapes cases do not occur only in “not-so-posh” areas. Criminals can strike anywhere, anytime. It’s got a lot to do with one’s own mental conditioning. And wrong, misguided conditioning could very well be happening in educated and economically upward families, too! It’s just that they are better equipped to fight the cases, hush them up or weaken them to the point that the complainant finds it impossible to fight on any further. And yes, they also rape their domestic helps and then term the rape incident “consensual sex”.
  
  Thanks for the comment.
  
  Savita Hiremath
  January 18, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Dear Tanay,

You seem to be applying relative analogy, implying that “leaving the doors unlocked” is equal to women wearing “provoking clothes”. If you mean it is this sexually provocative clothing that makes men rape women, then you need to understand this: rape is not about sex. It’s about power. For most rapists, it is one of the most satisfying way of ‘punishing’ women who exercise their right to live the way they want.

There was this recent, heart-wrenching case of Sowmya (Kerala) who was pushed out of a train, badgered, and then raped by a man who turned out to be a habitual offender. Sowmya wasn’t wearing any provocative clothing! Similarly, many burqua-clad women also get raped. Which house did they leave unlocked?

If you still agree with the “moral police”, then I have nothing more offer as a counter-argument. But if you do argue for better “crime control”, then let me tell you this: no proper legislation can be brought about until such facile and ludicrous comments are made by people in power.

Anyway, since you are saying it yourself that both locked and unlocked houses can be broken into, I don’t see why we can’t ‘carelessly’ leave the doors unlocked and get ‘looted’. At least we are ‘paying the price’ for our own blunders!

Thanks for taking your time out and reading the article.

Savita Hiremath
January 18, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Hello. Thanks for your reply.

I agreed that women not wearing provoking clothes are also teased and molested. Also, that comparing human emotions and modesty with material analogies like a house being broken into are not the best way to put it. But the analogy with “prevention…” maxim, is sensible, I hope. But what I emphasised upon, was that the wrong thing is being targeted: it’s the law and order that needs to be criticised, not the idea that women can actually protect themselves. And not that women INVITE trouble, but it’s just about prevention.

Tanay
January 18, 2012 at 9:32 pm
- Dear Tanay,
  
  If you think it is all about just “prevention”, how do you view the Internet Censorship Bill put forth by the US Congress? If a country that prides itself on freedom of speech and expression thinks such an act is legitimate even as it calls other countries opting for similar measures ‘retrograde’ and ‘primitive’, then where is the end to it?
  
  In case you say you do not agree with such gag orders, then, we women, do not accept lessons on ‘modesty’ and measures of ‘prevention’ either. All these are basically about gagging people from saying and doing what they want. Be it dress codes or internet codes.
  
  It begins this way, and how it ends is anybody’s guess.
  
  Savita Hiremath
  January 19, 2012 at 1:01 pm
thats only a situation a girl were wearing sleeveless/short tops ,not the reason of committing crime..in a village this crime is committed everyday (as news paper mention) nobody take any type of action on this issue …We need to find out out the answer of WHY not where/when …

Syed Rubaid Ahmad
January 18, 2012 at 11:16 pm
- Dear Syed,
  
  I agree with you. Your comment reminded me of the recent naked parade of a Dalit woman that took place in Chavan’s backyard. Caste confabulations rule rural areas. Feudal lords are capable of taming women from ‘lower’ castes into submission whenever they want. None of it gets recorded in the media, forget police stations.
  
  ‘Rape’ is one such repugnant landscape and so far and wide that it exploits many social lacuna like caste, creed, region, religion… “Gender bias”, which has become an irritating phrase for those opposing freedom of expression, is writ so large everywhere that we badly need a thorough discussion/debate on ‘rape’. To think that we can control this deeply criminal act by imposing dress codes shows our imbecility and total lack of understanding of basic human rights.
  
  Thanks for the read and the comment.
  
  Savita Hiremath
  January 19, 2012 at 8:05 am
disgusting, we are living in free india right and not taliban ?

Ambuj Varshney
January 19, 2012 at 10:15 am
a> Who will define the “ultimate attire” for a woman in which she will not be raped, come what may?
b> It is easy to tame the already tame, in this case women. So obviously, the so called well wishers will expect the ladies to correct themselves… rather than trying to put a leash on the wild rapist.

Although the point that “prevention is better than cure” is any day applicable is true, but don’t we already know that? There is a little common sense in all of us and if a girl feels that she is in a certain place where things can go wrong, she will do everything to prevent it, even wear “modest clothes” .

c> Is there is a feasible solution. No. Perhaps we really cannot civilise everybody. And how can we. Rapists come from even the educated masses. So i guess even education and good upbringing is not enough!

d> So what do we do?

….

We continue reading rape cases in newspapers, listen to people and wear modest clothes, and let time take it’s own course for setting things right…

anwesha
January 19, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Yes it is true. I have seen in Inorbit mall, hyderabad, many girls between 18 and 30 in short skirts and tight jeans. It made me tempted. To the eyes of men, women are appearing as sexual objects when they are in tight jeans or short skirts. I feel that immodest dressing sense is one of the reasons for the increase of Rape cases. India is a cultural country since ancient times and in India women are being regarded as form of goddess. So Indian men cannot digest women in such explicit attires. Lets don’t compare ourselves with foreigners. It is better for women and girls to wear dignified attires like saree or salwar to receive respect from men and to retain sanctity. Respect not only depends on behaviour but also on dress code.

rameshraju
March 5, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Women have a right to wear what they want. Women have a right to not be raped. Rapist rape women. Blaming the rapes on women who wear certain clothes is an excuse some people to deny responsibility for their actions.

Fred
March 13, 2012 at 6:44 am
- Thats what some of the “decision makers” in our country are yet to understand
  
  Anwesha Bose
  March 14, 2012 at 2:32 pm
- Can I ask you one question:What would a police do if a woman goes topless.Of course he will arrest her.Please try to understand that we are human beings and we should follow nature’s law.Men and women both should not reveal their assets.It is to be revealed to their husband/wife on the wedding night.It gets on the nerve of a woman that someone is teaching her how to wear but logical women dress herself in a modest manner.Don’t imitate bollywood actress(they carry bodyguard with themselves).
  
  Hussein
  May 22, 2012 at 12:33 pm
If the girls are wearing provocative dress, then it will be the mistake of the parents.
So parents need to suggest their daughters not to wear provocative dresses such as tight jeans or short skirts or sleeveless tops.

rameshraju
April 4, 2012 at 2:28 pm
- so you also think that the way a girl dresses leads to rape?
  
  Anwesha Bose
  April 4, 2012 at 2:35 pm
It is a thought-provoking article.Yes Rape can’t be attributed to dressing sense of a woman alone but women should not wear revealing cloths in public.Such attire whet the sexual desire of guys and they think sexually about that woman.I am 31 year old umarried man and have seen guys flirting with all sexual innundeos in talks and discussion.If kids are raped by male servants and daughters are raped by psycho father then this issue can be discussed separately.

Women who are dressed modestly receive ample amount of respect from all and sundry.It is just an advice given.It is up to you whether you take it or not.I hope all our sisters,daughters,mothers,wives remain safe and secure.Second thing:rape criminals should be hanged to death.This would act as a deterrent towards rape and other sex crime against women.

In most muslim countries sexual assaulters against women is trialed and sent to gallow.We should bring tough laws against violaters and criminals.

Regards
Hussein

Hussein
May 22, 2012 at 12:26 pm

Dress code to women & girls, clean chit to rapists?

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