Why do we demonise women instantly & overlook men’s crime?

The festival of Durga Puja just concluded. During the festival, devotees pay their obeisance to the Mother Goddess. In mythology, the Goddess, who is seen as the epitome of women power and righteousness, saves humanity from evil. The festival ends with Dussehra, or Dashami, when good reigns over evil.

Earlier, an Indore-based organisation chose this occasion to burn the effigies of women, including Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of heinous crimes. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had to intervene to stop this organisation from executing its plan for Surpanakha Dahan, or burning Surpanakha.

Many of us are aware of the character Surpanakha in the Ramayana. She was Ravana’s sister who lost her nose after she professed her love for Laxman. Over centuries, her character has been seen as everything evil and everything that is not conventionally defined by Indian womanhood.

Surpanakha was born Meenakshi, a beautiful princess of Lanka. Her parents were Rishi Vishravas and Kaikesi, a rakshasin or a monster. Meenakshi was a feisty girl who grew up to be a rebel, defiant and headstrong. Her strong character earned her the name Surpanakha, which literally means sharp nails.

Surpanakha stands for everything that patriarchy tries to dominate. It is the patriarchal narrative that demonises Meenakshi as Surpanakha, and sends out a warning to women about their predicament if they try to defy the rules of patriarchy.

Of course, our topic today is neither Surpanakha nor the fallacies of patriarchy. Today, we will focus on how our society perceives women. Whether it is a patriarchal system, like in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, or a matrilineal system, like in Meghalaya, society does not let a chance go to castigate women.

Sonam Raghuvanshi, who is now known to every Indian, is in jail. Why? Because she is accused of killing her husband with the connivance of her alleged lover, who also happened to be her employee.

She has been accused of murder and not convicted. Which means, the evidence gathered so far shows she has committed the crime, but it has not been proven in the court of law that the investigation was right or wrong, that there is no other evidence that has been missed or that can change the course of the investigation, or that she is the murderer.

However, since the day of her arrest, social media has been flooded with cruel comments against Sonam. Surprisingly, many women suddenly turned moral police and got busy dissecting her character. Many social media users in Meghalaya were also ruthlessly critical of her alleged crime. She was already a convict in the virtual world even before the court of law could hear the case.

However, what the Indore organisation did topped every action so far. Its decision to burn the effigies of 11 women accused of various crimes only shows society’s deep-seated hatred and disrespect towards women.

Most of the people who criticised the outrageous plan were offended because the organiser of the effigy burning was maligning the Raghuvanshi community’s name and not because a particular woman, or women, had been targeted. Most importantly, none pointed out that the land has laws and a judicial system, and no one has the constitutional right to humiliate an accused before trial publicly.

Never have we witnessed such outrage against hundreds of men who rape and kill our women and children, who burn their wives for dowry, who throw acid at women for saying no. It is surprising how we are socially tuned to demonise women.

The crime that has been committed against Raja Raghuvanshi is unpardonable, and the family must get justice. But that is the judiciary’s work. We, as responsible citizens, can raise critical questions, introspect and take measures to make society better. We must not forget that our fight is against crime and not criminals.