The heinous crime that took place last week in Mumbai has drawn righteous anger from all sections of the society. The police did good work by nabbing the criminals quickly, and now hopefully justice will also be swift and fair. Between all this there were remarks made by a few politicians and a section of the media asking women to wear “proper clothes” (not sure what exactly that means). Let’s assume they were asking women not to wear western clothes. This is nonsense because of two reasons (among many).
First, instead of preventing the crime from happening, these people are asking women, the victims, to compromise with their lifestyle. What kind of society asks victims to compromise and try to convince them that it is for their own good?
Second, it does not even demonstrate a proper understanding of the problem. If western clothes cause rapes, what explains the rampant cases of rape in India’s villages? Or the victimisation of women who wear the burqa?
The problem is not with clothes, but with the mentality with which we see women. We view them as the weaker sex and dominate them with our dogmas. We also expect women to accept our ill-conceived notions without question. And when they do question, we mistreat them. This attitude should change. Change will not happen quickly but at least we should move in the right direction. We need stronger implementation of the law. Educating children about gender issues from an early age will help. NGOs that are doing great work in this area need better support from the government.
Only steps like these can eliminate ancient ideas weakening society. A change in the thinking would do more good than a change in clothes.