Mukhraran Bibi and Keshiya Devi who?

On July 13, 2002, two women in Sadaan village of Hazaribagh district were gang raped and forced to swallow excrement. Their crime? The alleg...

On July 13, 2002, two women in Sadaan village of Hazaribagh district were gang raped and forced to swallow excrement. Their crime? The allegation that they helped in the murder of an 8216;upper class man8217;.

The story, which appeared in Rashtriya Sahara, is datelined Ranchi, July 14, 2002. The women are 50-year-old Keshiya Devi and her daughter-in-law, Vasanti Devi. They were first shut in a room where five villagers gang raped them. Then they were dragged out, their faces smeared with dung and forced to walk naked through the village. Finally, as the ultimate act of depravity, they were forced to eat shit. The people of this miserable village were meting out their loathsome justice on two hapless women. Hazaribagh is the constituency of our newly-appointed foreign minister, Yashwant Sinha, whose name appears everyday in connection with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other international fronts. He hears daily from his counterparts in USA and UK but may one ask if he knows what is going on in his own backyard?

Next door to us is the case of Mukhraran Bibi, an 18-year-old girl in Multan, Pakistan, who was gang raped by the consensus of the village elders. Her crime? That her brother had dared to fall in love with a girl from a different caste. And the 8216;wise men8217; thought what better way of punishment than by using a woman8217;s body to settle scores? While the entire village watched in silence, the hapless girl8217;s body was used as a battleground for caste rivalries. Does the ruler of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, so preoccupied with national and international matters, even bother to notice what is happening in his own backyard?

Mukhraran8217;s case had led to women in Lahore, Karachi, and other parts of Pakistan, coming out on the streets. The police sheepishly arrested a few people as a face-saving gesture. In Hazaribagh, the police arrived and according to the media some women blocked their way so the culprits escaped. Now this very police is dragging its feet.

In writing this piece I am hoping that Keshiya Devi8217;s and Vasanti Devi8217;s cases also create public fury and the right thinking women and men of this country take to the streets.

These are two reported cases from India and Pakistan. But we know too well that there are thousands of such cases in South Asia. This is what happens to the poor of our country, men and women.

This incident should be flung at all those leaders who we have voted to power and at all those religious sants, sadhus, mullas, muftis, whose aim is to keep women on the straight and narrow path.

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Its parallel in Pakistan should be flashed in red letters before the self-proclaimed rulers, the clerics, the squabblers and schemers. A howl of protest from men and women of South Asia should puncture the ears of all these comprising the political and religious elite in both countries.

What are India and Pakistan?

Two nations of poor, ragged, malnourished, oppressed women and men. And yet two nations poised on the brink of destroying one another? Not the ones who lead, not the ones who sit in boardrooms, not the ones who attend international parleys. The Keshiyas and Mukhrarans are victims of this elitist amnesia which blocks out the ugly reality unless somehow it translates into votes. How many wake up calls like Hazaribagh and Multan do we need before we realise that for 54 years we have been fooled, cajoled and duped with non-issues? As Dylan Thomas said, we South Asians should 8216;Rage, rage against the dying of the light8217;.

The writer is a former Member, National Commission for Women