RELIGIOUS SEXISM IN INDIA

All religions are sexist. Want proofs? Follow:

1> BUDDHISM : A nun, even if she has been ordained for 100 years, must respect, greet and bow in reverence to the feet of a monk, even if he has just been ordained that day. (Monks pay respect to each other according to their seniority, or the number of years they have been ordained.)

2> ISLAM: No female cleric. This is the greatest example of biased views in the book of religion.

3> CHRISTIANITY: No female pope. This is the greatest example of biased views in the book of religion.

4> JAINISM : The bleeding that occurs in menstruation is thought to kill micro-organisms in the body, making the female body less nonviolent than the male body.

5> HINDUISM : Female Foeticide. Need I say more?

- By Moupiya Das

Pussy Riot member released

Yekaterina Samutsevich freed

An appellate court in Moscow released Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, a member of the anti-Putin punk band, Pussy Riot, but upheld prison sentences for two. It changed her sentence from two years in prison to two years probation. Her two bandmates, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, who both have young children were unsuccessful and sent back to prison to serve the remainder of their two-year sentence.

In previous hearings, there was considerable evidence that Samutsevich neither sang nor danced  by the altar. She barely managed to get her guitar out of its case before being nabbed by a security guard. Samutsevich is not even seen in the video of the incident, which has created a sensation online. Anna Usacheva, the court’s press secretary, issued only a brief explanation following the decision: “The court made a conclusion that the correction of Samutsevich would be possible without her isolation from society.”

In a heated hearing on Wednesday, Samutsevich apologized to believers and insisted that she did not consider the performance at the church a crime. Ten days prior, she changed her lawyer, saying the original defender “had let her down.”

Pussy Riot in their short dresses and bright balaclavas

In February, the band donned short dresses and bright balaclavas and sang a “punk prayer” denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s Church of Christ the Savior. Almost immediately, the three were arrested on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The three were jailed in August for a demonstration in the form of a controversial song performance, against Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow's main cathedral.

Before their church performance, Pussy Riot was virtually unknown—both inside Russia and on the international stage. Yet the government’s response to the incident—widely seen as heavy-handed—came after a wave of protests against President Vladimir Putin, who formally returned to power in March. Since their arrest, the band has attracted popular supporters such as Madonna, Yoko Ono, and Paul McCartney. And after their initial guilty verdict in August, protesters took to the streets in Moscow, while colorful balaclavas began appearing on monuments throughout the city.

From L to R : Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina
and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova

Despite Samutsevich’s release, critics continue to point to the judge’s decision on the other two band members as a miscarriage of justice. “The country is falling apart,” said Gennady Gudkov, a member of the opposition, who was recently expelled from Parliament. “But the system continues to go after young mothers. Instead, the Kremlin, which has been behind every decision in the Pussy Riot case, should punish those who kept…Samutsevich in jail for half a year.”

- By Moupriya Das

RESPECT ME

I have to face the horrifying experiences of cat-calling even when I am wearing a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt on a daily basis while walking down the road. I have to go through horrendous groping dressed in the same manner while travelling in the crowded metro on a daily basis. There was an incident which goes as such - on a weekday office time in an overcrowded metro a bunch of office-goer men were literally pushing me out of the door saying me to board the metro through the door beside “ladies” seat as if rest of the doors are entitled to ”gents”.

Maximum of male passengers of public transport and male pedestrians acts as if the road and public transport vehicles belongs to them and as if they are the only tax-payers for infrastructural development and we are nothing but “useless-eaters”. We women contribute to 50% (approximately) of Indian population. We provide more than 50% of the workforce whether it is domestic or industrial yet we earn less than 2/3rd of what overall male population earns. 

We are not supposed to be ogled at by any anonymous passerby as if we are booby–waisty-butty aliens from Venus roaming around on the streets. We should stand tall against all those incidents of sexual oppression and should fight against all those oppressors in our own might and consider those who watch an incident of sexual oppression or harassment on a lady and keep their calm as a partner of an act of sexual oppression. All those silent onlookers are as mentally regressive as those oppressors.

If a woman goes to lodge a complaint of sexual harassment, leave alone complaints of rapes, they are faced with another round of sexual harassment by the police men who raise uncivilized questions regarding social habits, drinking habits, dressing habits as well as sleeping habits of those women and prolonged this questioning sessions till midnight ending with saying “let’s grab a drink in nearest pub”. Here the protectors are word-raping the victims.

To end this all, I say, as a slut walker, I do not demand the freedom to dress skimpily. What I hate the most is that the supposingly “moral teachers” tell women how to dress but does not teach men not to rape. Oh well I get it, men think women are the source of corruption and that in order to stop the world coming to an end you must tell us what to think and how to act (and what to wear) because of course we have no brains, no sense of social responsibility, no spirituality and no reason. Women are constantly preached to about social responsibilities even though we are not the ones responsible for most domestic abuse, violence, crime, rape or “corruption”.

It’s time for our menfolk to preach to themselves about social responsibility. I believe both men and women have responsibilities to act and dress modestly. So men, be respectful to our intelligence and change yourself instead of blaming us for your perverted minds. All I want is not being blamed in any manner whatsoever, whether for dress, mannerism or life-style, for having being raped or sexually harassed. Neither do I believe that all men harass women nor am I a misandrist. I participate in this movement as I am against anyone who harasses ANYBODY and anyone who tries to blame ANYBODY for having been harassed- man, women or transgender.

- By Moupriya Das