Dear Rape Apologists,

A girl in Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar was abducted and repeatedly sexually molested for a period of 48 hours by her neighbour. The neighbour had cut open her throat and mutilated her genitals. He also tried to strangle her. She is currently battling for her life at Swami Dayanad Hosiptal. Along with wounds on her lips, cheeks, chest, the doctors also found a candle and a bottle of oil inside her. Nobody knows if she will live.

She is five years old.

The nation is in shock, again. We are looking for solutions, again. But I see some of you have already started with your rants of “legalize prostitution to prevent rape”. You seem to hold the view that if men have more sex, they will commit less rape.

I don’t see how legalizing prostitution is going to help reduce cases of sexual assault because rape is NOT about sex. It is about power and dominance over another (smaller, weaker) human being.

Legalising prostitution to prevent rape is like saying that it is a women’s ‘duty’ to provide men with sex or men will try to get it by hook or by crook. In other news, we are currently in the year 2013.

Please change your calender.

The most common apology for sexual assault is that women provoke it. Pray tell how this little girl, provoked it. Oh, I’m sorry, was she wearing a frock that was a really small size? Well, maybe it is because she’s FIVE YEARS OLD! And no, I won’t ask what kind of a mentally sick person sexually abuses a five year old because I refuse to make excuses for him. He is not sick. He is sound of mind.

Abduction and rape do not occur in the heat of the moment. They are planned attacks; and this man obviously had the mental capabilities to turn his plan into action successfully.

When Jyoti Singh Pandey was murdered after a being brutalised with an iron rod and one of her attackers pulled out her intestines with his bare hands, you said that she should not have been out alone with a male friend at night. Then what is the fault five year old? Did she violate ‘maryada’ by playing hopscotch with other five year old boys past sun down? No, no, you’re right. She should’ve played in a girls’ only park; because, obviously, segregation is the solution.

Several of you have demanded separate banks, women-only buses/trains/taxis. The same set of you are often found complaining that women get the privilege of having seats reserved for them in public transport.

Don’t be fooled. Reserved seats are no privilege. They’re a necessity for women to avoid situations where men can grope their behinds or rather rub against them. Do you want us to stand or do you want us to sit and avoid ‘getting molested’? Please make up your mind, you’re starting to sound like an ever-dissatisfied mother-in-law from one of those Hindi daily soaps.

However, your ingenious solutions to ending sexual assault do not end there.

The more sophisticated ones of your kind have given so many women ‘polite’ suggestions that  girls should stay home after dark, girls shouldn’t be too friendly with men they don’t know, girls should compulsorily learn martial arts, etc.

That’s cute, Rape Apologists. No really, nice way of showing your concern and putting the responsibility of not ‘getting raped’ back on women.

Now don’t get me wrong: self defence is a good bragging skill and can help in several situations. However, do you honestly believe that had Jyoti Singh Pandey, Soni Sori or Priyadarshini Mattoo studied martial arts, they could have saved themselves? Do you think this five year old child could have karate chop-ed her way to safety?

When will you stop spreading these myths about sexual assault, Rape Apologists? Why do you reinforce rape culture every time you open your mouth? Why do you not utilize the energy you waste on schooling women, to school boys and men and teach them their responsibility in society, for once? Why is it, with a majority of you being male, that you do not feel enraged when men are portrayed as senseless beasts who cannot control their libidos?

Two days ago a five year old girl was forced to experience something that she shouldn’t even have had the slightest clue about. Her world was supposed to be filled with rainbows and butterflies; not this.

Do you still think, at the heart of your disgusting ideology, that women and girls are the one who instigate or even want rape?

If you do, which I hope you don’t, then I think most members of civil society would excuse me if I took off my four inch stilettos (yes, I’m an immoral woman) and stuck the heel deep into some place soft and important; because this time, YOU are the one asking for it.

Sincerely,

18 Year Old Feminist.