Cold SnapDragon

Random Rant about the discourse on women's 'rights'  Because, of course, there's no shortage of people who will tell you that 2013 was the year in which women began raising their voices in India. When women's rights began to be considered seriously. When feminism became the in thing (though not always necessarily a good thing). And, yes, there certainly have been many, many, many column inches devoted to violence against women in India’s newspapers and magazines this year. And there have been more than a few journalists who’ve written gut-wrenching pieces about violence against women in India for media outlets abroad. That said, it isn’t at all clear (to me) that there has been any substantive change in attitudes towards violence against women in India: it’s undeniable that more people talk about the subject but it’s worth listening to what they’re saying before beginning to celebrate about seeing the subject having become talked about. The fact of the matter is tha...

I find the manner in which 'anti-rape' apps are being promoted bizarre. I don’t think that apps which allow women (or anyone else, really) to contact persons in case of an emergency are a bad idea at all. I do wish those marketing them were a little more realistic about what the apps are capable of achieving; it’s hard to believe that they’re anything along the lines of 'the best anti-rape weapons' around. Not when a stranger is the least likely person a woman is likely to be raped by. Not when the apps do nothing whatsoever to actually prevent rape. Also, I find it telling that these apps don’t seem to connect directly to the police — they assume a woman has her own network to reach out and ‘protect’ her. Which, of course, may not always be the case. It seems difficult to see how these apps help beyond alerting one's circle that there's a potential problem. Perhaps, once an alert is sent, they could also begin automatically recording whatever is going on to cre...

It would appear at first glance , that the premise underlying the Sexual Assault Ordinance is what may be the most complete expression of patriarchy imaginable: the ownership of some women by certain men. This basic premise seems to be evidenced over and over in the text of the Ordinance through what is made a criminal offence and what it not, and a theme which seems to run through the substantive amendments to the Indian Penal Code is that men who would historically have been considered to own or have various rights to specific women would not be held to be criminally liable for sexually assaulting those women. The Indian Penal Code, as Madhu Mehra has said , "continues to be steadfast to its patriarchal moorings." The most glaring example of this is, of course, the non-criminalisation of marital rape of women with two exceptions: where the wife is under sixteen years of age or where the wife is ‘living separately under a decree of separation or under any custom or usage’ —...