An ode to people who blame the victim

If you were walking on the road and suddenly a dog or a pack of dogs attacked you; to Whom would you blame? The dog or yourself?

Obviously you would blame the dog, as you were just peacefully minding your own business. Now, what if people around you who heard of your plight, blamed you?

Maybe they said you were wearing shorts and that’s why the dog was incited by your flesh? Or that you were out late at night and that’s when dogs usually look for trouble.

This sounds outrageous right? Now, change the attack to rape.

A woman who is walking on the road is raped by a man or group of men.

Who would you blame?

Unfortunately, in most cases the rape victim or survivor is the one at fault and everything from the length of her clothes to her family is judged.

Even news headlines and famous personalities come out with atrocious statements which shelter the rapist and accuse the woman.

Here are a few of the reasons we give to why a woman was “asking for it”:

India has been dubbed the rape capital of the world. Whose fault is it when someone is raped? Is it the aggressor who couldn’t hold his urges and decided to destroy someone’s life or the victim/survivor? How is it fair to blame someone to be out at a particular time or wearing particular clothes? Or what about when a man is raped? This is a whole new story where the man is considered weak and laughed at.

It’s the hypocrisy that we all indulge in which needs to stop. We all have a responsibility to keep each other safe and make sure that justice is delivered to the culprit and not to an innocent person.

Write to us with your views and opinions to jaagorein@gmail.com or tweet to us @JaagoRe with the hashtag #whosefaultisit.