Change Is Slow But...
Worth fighting for
Today, I was invited to a virtual screening of an amazing documentary called To Kill A Tiger, by the director, Nisha Pahuj (thanks to Ted Hope here on Substack for his interview with her, which led to me talking with her on IG!) . I highly recommend it.
I have traveled to India, have many Indian-American friends; the country is close to my heart. This film addresses rapes in India, which is an enormous problem. It follows the story of a 13 year-old girl who was gang-raped in her small village and the journey to a trial in the city. The young woman’s amazing strength is inspiring, and we are shown her father’s quiet dedication to get justice in the face of threats of violence from members of their village due to entrenched cultural traditions and beliefs. Even the film crew was threatened with violence.
In 2012, I read the story of horrendous gang rape and murder in India. I then drew this drawing below. It was a time in my work where I was seeking answers at to what I have in common with other women around the world. This is one thing I came up with.
It’s easy for us in the West to feel we are not like other countries. But we are, it’s simply a matter of degree. Violence against women is everywhere. Change is slow, particularly when cultural attitudes go unchallenged. In the case of the young girl in the documentary, she and her father challenged the village beliefs and went to the courts outside of their village. They won, and the young men who gang-raped her are each serving 25 year prison sentences.
Keep shining a light on things that need change. Ms. Pahuj did just that with her film crew.
Such a painful cartoon, and so true. Everywhere in the world women are subject to sexual harassment and rape in all its forms. Getting justice is almost as painful as the assaults themselves. My heart aches.
During my former work as a Board member of the Life Planning Network, I met a man from India who worked to purchase freedom for girls there who had been sold BY THEIR PARENTS into prostitution. I think mostly it meant buying them from the criminals who controlled them, and then getting them rehabilitated and settled somewhere safe. This man, and his daughter who worked with him, were real heroes in my book, and I contributed to their organization for a number of years, then lost track of them -- not, I feel certain, because they had succeeded in wiping out the problem.