Article Title: How to silence women

Article Summary

The article at hand writes of shocking societal realities when it comes to the silence of female sexual assault survivors. The author’s overarching point in this article is that when women speak out against sexual assault, they are immediately hushed up by forces out of their control, like large public and political powers and units. To prove her point, she gives the examples of the Unnao rape survivor, and the nun who complained against a harassing bishop in a church in Wayanad. The former was involved in an accident that almost killed her and her lawyer after her father already died in jail. The latter was expelled summarily from her post. Both the offenders in these cases were men with influence, in the former case a BJP MLA, and in the latter the bishop, a superior to the complaining body of nuns. This practice is abysmal and toxic, and it stems from deep-rooted societal factors more than political, says the author. The Indian culture likes its women to take up less space and silently endure, and this translates to giving her no rights to protest even when her physical body is violated, let alone ensuring her safety. Forces larger than the oppressors’ need to start operating if we want Indian women to live, and the catalyst required is society functioning in an exact opposite manner to the domineering culture that exists currently.