Thursday, October 30, 2014

Uttar Pradesh Police (Strikes Again)

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Lokesh Khurana (an RTI Activist) had in July asked for details on the number of rapes in India’s most populous state and the reason behind a spurt in incidents. 

The response that he received on Wednesday from the police in 62 districts, ranges from regressive to plain bizarre.

Responses from cops around the different UP districts are listed below

Nasirpur  - “rapes happen due to lack of entertainment options”

Moradabad  - television and vulgar advertisements cause rapes

Firozabad -  the way women dress tempts “men with wrong intentions.

Allahabad - women’s clothes, appearance, DD telecast, mobile phones and vulgar songs are reasons for rape

Meerut -  the increased use of electronics and the deluge of information through digital media was dangerous and too much to handle.

Etawah - too much socializing between boys and girls led to such crimes

Hapur - illegal relationships and vulgar telecasts.

The varying theories on rape were submitted, ironically, on a day a minor girl in Amethi was gang-raped in the fields - she had gone there as there are no toilets in her village.

The Uttar Pradesh police have often been criticized as a lawless force that has allowed crime to thrive and that is prone to using a heavy hand while dealing with the public.

These atrocious thoughts on rape betray a retrograde mindset that blames largely women. How can they stop rapes!!!!!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Shout Out to make up

I just saw a post on Facebook of two pictures with a caption in between them: one photo was a girl without makeup and the other was the same girl with her make up done. The caption read “this is why you take her swimming on the first date.”


Let me say this… It’s posts like this that keep sexism alive and well. You say that like she’s trying to trick someone. Like her thought process getting ready was “the only thing this guy will like me for is my made-up face, which I am a monster without” and like if she loses that make-up, she’s lost her chance. NO. This girl and all girls are beautiful, no matter what. With pounds of make-up on, no make-up at all, hairy armpits, shaved armpits, 300lbs, 95lbs. It’s a woman’s prerogative to look like, be, and do whatever she wants. She’s not doing it for YOU. She’s not doing it as a trick. I wear make-up almost every day, but I don’t feel any less confident without it. And, quite honestly, if someone was so concerned about my physical appearance and found me less appealing as a human without make-up, I wouldn’t want that person in my life. Period.


So maybe consider breaking your patterns and your ignorant ways of thinking.


Especially the person who posted these pictures, who has a small child which I’m sure is now learning that “women should look and act a certain way.”

Submitted by Anonymous.
#yesallwomen

Muthalik Moment & Sudin Dhavalikar

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A senior minister in Goa’s BJP-led government has said “young girls going to pubs in short dresses is against our culture

The (practice of) young girls going to pubs in short dresses does not fit in our culture. What will happen to our Goan culture, if we allow this? This must stop,” said Sudin Dhavalikar, Goa’s Public Works Department minister and a leader of BJP ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.

Mr Dhavalikar said: “Muthalik is against pub culture and he is right in opposing it.

Brilliant. I would like to have a drink with these two guys, in  Goa, in a short dress.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

RR Patil

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June 11, 2014 .

Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil has said  “Crimes like rape have increased due to downslide of moral values. Even if we provide one policeman per house we can’t stop crimes against women,"  in Maharashtra Legislative Council.

Patil also said that crime against women is less in Maharashtra compared to other states.

"UP records the maximum number of crimes. 6.34 per cent rapes are committed by brother and father, 6.65 per cent rapes by close relatives, 42 per cent by known persons, 40 per cent rapes committed by luring for marriage,” he said. (wait.. WHAT?)

There’s more. The Home Minister said, “Rise in atrocities against women due to obscene images used in advertisements.

Oh yea.

Ramsevak Paikra

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Ramsevak Paikra, the minister responsible for law and order in India’s central Chhattisgarh state, made the remarks as he spoke to journalists, according to AFP.

Such incidents (rapes) do not happen deliberately. These kind of incidents happen accidentally,” he said late on 8 June, 2014.

Paikra, who is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was asked for his views on gang-rape when he made the comments.

Akhilesh Yadav

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A woman journalist asked Akhilesh about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh to which he had said: “I hope you have not faced any danger!

When the journalist replied in the negative, the chief minister said, “Thank you. You should propagate this.

The journalist’s question was in the backdrop of the Badaun case and another gang-rape incident in Azamgarh, the constituency of the Samajwadi Party chief.

Mohan Bhagwat

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Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the right-wing RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), believes that rapes are an urban crime shaped by westernisation, and are not a matter of concern in rural India where traditional values are upheld.

Mr Bhagwat said, “Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But such crimes won’t happen in ‘Bharat’ or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes.”

He added, “Where ’Bharat’ becomes 'India’ with the influence of western culture, these type of incidents happen. The actual Indian values and culture should be established at every stratum of society where women are treated as 'mother’.”

Mr Bhagwat’s comments come at a time when the death of a young medical student, who was gang-raped in Delhi, has impelled introspection on attitudes towards women in a country where a rape is reported nearly every 20 minutes.

This statement  was made on January 4, 2013

Mulayam Singh Yadav

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Mulayam’s statement triggered a controversy at a time when women’s security has emerged as one of the key issues in the elections, especially against the backdrop of the December 16, 2012, gang rape of a paramedical student in Delhi.

Mulayam as quoted as saying, “Rape ke liye phaansi dena ghalat hai, ladkon se ghalti ho jaati hai, hum satta mein aaye to kanoon mein badlav karenge (Handing death sentence for rape is not fair… boys make mistakes… there will be changes in the law if we come to power).”

He added boys and girls fall in love but part ways due to differences. “When their friendship ends, the girl complains she has been raped.”

This statement was made on April 10, 2014

Babulal Gaur

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On 6 June 2014, Babulal Gaur, the home minister responsible for law and order in the BJP-run central state of Madhya Pradesh said: ‘This is a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong.’

He added: ’Until there’s a complaint, nothing can happen.’

The BJP dismissed Gaur’s comments as an expression of his personal views, and not the party’s.