WOMEN AND COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

The study of community violence includes examining both destructive violence (usually a stranger trying to take something of value using physical threats or direct violence) and violence arising from nonfamily interpersonal conflicts (this usually concerns acquaintances involved in an quarrel). Both types of violence may include brutal acts such as shootings, rapes, stabbings, and beatings. Women were always considered “second-class” citizens by the society. Mostly they were the victims of communal violence which seemingly, degraded their social status and made them simple physical “objects”, to be oppressed by the their own/other community, which of course is dominated by patriarchal system. This article is a birds-eye-view on the communal violence and which had taken place against women. I consider it as my personal endeavor into such an enlightening topic which has to be discussed by the today’s youth, who in turn are the future of every country.

For instance let us consider this issue in the context of India, which nourished and also was birthplace place for many religions.  One of the first major communal riots took place in 1893 in Mumbai in which about 100 people were killed and 800 injured. India witnessed its worst communal riots in 1948 after the partition. Noakhali in Bengal and several villages of Bihar were the worst hit. The first major riot between Hindus and Muslims after the blood-shed of partition in 1947 occurred in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh in 1962. Communal riot between Hindus and Muslim erupted in Ahmedabad in 1969. At least 1000 people had died during this riot. The assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 sparked riots that lasted 15 days, over 2700 dead and many thousand injured. Killing and beating the innocent people are reported almost every day’s newspaper. Raping and killing of innocent women and children during caste feuds and gang wars get reported almost every day from some corner of the nation. Violence has always been present in society, in law enforcement and in war, and may always be so until all humankind share identical intellectual convictions.

 A long-tied history is associated with the communal violence against women.  In every communal riots or other communal violence, women were the one who suffered lot more than men as they were viewed just as “property” or due to a submissive gender role provided to them. The incident which takes place between two or more communities or within a single community is where the basic rights of a woman are found to be violated ‘beyond limits’. When two communities engage in a conflict, each community counts it as their best way of taking revenge by killing, raping, stabbing, or brutally harassing women of opposite community in front of their near and dear ones. These kinds of cases are not only found in west-Asian countries, but also in the recent issues of Kandhamal religious riot, Gujarat riot (India) etc…

Some of the communal violence against women can be briefly provided as below:

1. Rape: Mostly, group rapes where single women are sexually abused by many men of opposite community. News has been reported more on the group rape of a Christian nun during communal violence in Orissa (India). Also the raping of Hindu and Muslim women by opposite communities during Gujarat riot sparked great chaos all over India. Each community considered the weakest part of other community as its women or girls and they were brutally raped and then murdered during communal violence. Thus, the basic right of women to uphold her dignity was in turn violated by the communities.

2. Slavery: During warfare the women are often taken as slaves and are just treated merely with even less dignity than that of any domestic animal. They are taken for hard labor and for the sexual enjoyment of men. The cases have been reported of such incidents taking place even in this 21^st century modern urban communities.

3. Genocide: still many of the communities preferably go for a male child than a female and this is a shadow of women’s value in this modern era. When it is found that a girl-child is born, certain communities go up to the extent of killing them or are killed within the womb itself as they consider girl-child as a burden. Thus it is found that the ratio of female to male in most of the Indian communities is low.

4. Trafficking and Prostitution: News has been reported on women sold out to brothels, which is found to be more in number during any riots or communal violence. The sexually exploited woman then finds no way to escape from the strong-clutches of brothel-owners or local criminals and thus is subjected to live as prostitutes throughout their entire life.

Some of the necessary measures which can be taken are:

1. Necessary steps should be taken by the government to uphold the dignity of woman in every streams of society.

2. Image of women-status as a “sub-category” has to be removed basically from the mentality of modern students and they should be taught to give equal status to woman.

3. Medical aids as well as necessary mental treatments should be given to the women those who are victims of community violence.

4.  Communally violent elements must be subjected to judicial authority and must be sentenced to proper treatments.

5. Women-groups must actively come forward to safe-guard the rights and esteem of every victims.

6. Essential strategies must be adopted to stop any community violence against women to be occurred in future.

The major flaw any system of governance occurs when the members of its community are not equally treated. This happens in all most all civilizations. Taking the case of any secular, democratic country, they has not been exempted from the age-old traditional thinking that woman is a “sub-category”. Even in United States, there are cases against considering women, lower in status at work places, especially at Silicon Valley. Any action or laws supporting the women has not been possibly implemented for status-upliftment in relation with men in many countries. Constitution may guarantee every woman an equal position and status with that of man but how far it has been made into practice is still a desolating question which each harassed or abused women of any country thinks every day. Almost every area a women is abused. In relation with communal violence it is even more. She even may curse her birth into this very world, when she finds herself sexually assaulted beyond her thinking, destruction of her family before own eyes and her predictable-future that, she is going to be butchered in the cruel hands of opponents.

Violence against women is a most discussed issue but less-actions are taken to irradiate it. A communally violated woman is more psychological, physical, and sexual assaulted than a normally abused woman. She requires more care and concern and also adequate measures are to be taken by the government to bring them back into normal life. Every communal violence and its women-victim should be an eye-opener for the authorities, so as to take measures to stop such incidents to be occurred in the future. Indeed every community is responsible for safe-guarding and saving the women belonging to them.