(Be it war between nations or a family feud, women often find themselves as soft targets by the perpetrators who commit numerous acts of violence against them. This article analyzes the reasons and proposes solutions)
When a man fights a man, a woman is deemed to be the ultimate sufferer. This is how it goes even in the ‘Modern’ world which promises to have advanced the men to a new era altogether.
I look down throughout the history and I see that multiple wars have been fought. Some over women and some for women. Some wars were fought to have women as wives, some as concubines, some as slaves and some merely for pleasure. Women have suffered every time a war has taken place. But if I leave the war for a while and take the family matters now – A woman would be physically, verbally, mentally and sexually abused for having talked to another man, for not delivering a male child, for not bearing children at all, for bringing less dowry, for being ‘lazy’, for wearing ‘offensive’ clothes, for not following the orders of the ‘master’, for arguing even if she answers the question asked and lastly for being a woman.
We all are aware of how the women members of the society are abused, violated, used and multiple atrocities are inflicted upon them. But let’s examine the reasons for why women are the soft targets.
I read an Article by Mazumdar which says that evolution of society in itself manifests the poor state of women. Howsoever I see the article as a pessimistic one, the article does convince me about how the growth of society and evolution of institutions led to women being subjected to inferior position. The Traditional society saw women as the Home-maker and the men as the breadwinner. The family (as per Mudrock through his research on 250+ Tribal Families across the globe) which had the opposite case was seen with disgust. The inferiority, Mazumdar says, gave a notion that was to later become a Moore that Women are the dignity of a Man i.e. you steal the woman and you just break the back of the man. This evolution of Moore was further consolidated when Gatherers would settle as Agricultural Farmers where an inch of fertile land would be competed for. Interestingly, the lack of manpower in those days compelled women to work along with men and hence the wars so fought were more to take women as Labourers than for pleasure. The later evolution of the social architecture into Organized Polity would lead to Class stratification. While Polity would provide strength to stability, the protectors would engage into pleasure activities during the time. Thus, the wars would begin to be fought for women for sexual pleasures. Again, with the coming of multiple religions, the fundamentalism would spread and the Medieval world would see wars being fought as a ‘revenge’ against the other religion (Call it the Medieval version of hypothetical ‘Love Jihad’). The modern world, however, would have different notions altogether. Here, instead of religion, the wars would be fought for Economic or Political motives. The women however, would be sufferers since the winning armies would want these women as ‘trophies of wars’.
The one basic point that Mazumdar missed is the Social Attitude towards the control of Women Sexuality. If we examine the Indian society now, we see that the roots of the very social attitude of controlling the women sexuality lie in the wars themselves. Women sexuality is primarily controlled to keep the community intact. Since nature provides women the gifted power of bearing children, the women often are subject to being ‘children bearing machines’ who are instrumental to keeping the lineage and the Clan evolve and move generations over generations. The other aspect which is often neglected by Contemporary thinkers if the Communal aspect of society which still persists (Take the UP matter of ‘Love Jihad’ for that matter).
The other aspect in contemporary world is again communal wherein dominating Fundamentalists would inflict sexual violence on women from other communities to ‘strengthen’ their religious base and clout (as may be seen from the rapes in Iraq by ISIS Militants and Rapes on Minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh)
What possible solutions may we have to ensure that women do not become targets at all – One of important source of women emancipation may be economic independence. Ensuring that the women control Home finances leads to a reduction in Domestic violence (as evident from the writings of Das in his case study of Gujarat in 2007 having liberal Property tax regime). A further step may be gender sensitization right from the very beginning of inculcating human aspects to Children. Some other aspects may be rewarding parents for educating girls thereby setting examples in the society. Protecting women’s’ economic freedom after divorce through legislations would further build confidence in women.
At times, I feel that women are soft targets because they have accepted the very fate. I often see women don’t rise up on the issues that hinder their growth as a community in the society. Again, the social emancipation procedures may best be implemented when women fraternity demands for reforms (in society, economy and polity) and not just wait for somebody like me to raise issues of their concern which often go unheard.
Chirag Goel's Blog 