We are not fighting rape, we’re too busy fighting culture wars

If you are active on social media, you know about a “documentary” called “" target="_blank">United Kingdom’s Daughters.” A man called Harvider Singh posted this 28 minute-long video on YouTube four days ago, in response to the Leslee Udwin documentary called ‘India’s Daughter’ that was banned in India. While some praised the effort for highlighting that gender-based violence is not just prevalent in India; others thought this “getting back at BBC and England” –attitude was not in good taste.

“United Kingdom’s Daughter” starts with facts stating the percentage of convicted rapists and the percentage of women who have faced sexual assault in UK and then it moves on to the percentage of divorce cases and the people living below the poverty line and percentage of people living in old age homes. How this is about UK’s daughters, you ask? Well, we’re still not very sure.

The short film has facts similar to the ones I mentioned above, followed by two clips from the BBC. Commenting on the film, Harvinder Singh said: “Dear Friends, there is nothing new in my Documentary. I have just shown them the mirror by showing their own films because the films shown in my documentary are belongs to BBC, which showing the condition of their own society.”

“When they made film on rape in UK, they named "I never said yes" but when they made film in India, they named “India’s Daughter" as everybody in India is a rapist & teach us moral lesson. They clearly tried to Tarnish the image of India,” wrote Singh.

In one of the BBC clips, a rape victim talks about her assault. The film then goes on to talk about how only one in four reported rape cases are taken to court. Then there is some footage from a discussion where one of the men in the panel says “there is no rape culture” and believes most men know that “no means no,” only to be verbally attacked by almost everyone else in the panel and the audience.

What we should be taking away from this film is the fact that gender-based violence is prevalent throughout the world and we should all join hands in condemning such acts. Instead, many of us are treating it like a culture war, which is completely missing the point. All these BBC clips were clearly out in the world for everyone to see. So what exactly are we trying to prove by pointing fingers?

With the exception of Harvinder putting the country down (and mentioning the problems of old people in UK); the documentary is about rape and the mentality that supports it, almost like Udwin’s ‘India’s Daughter.’ Bottom line: these are two short films about sexual assault. That is it. It is not a national issue, why make it one?

And as far is ‘tarnishing India’s’ image is concerned, that ship sailed long ago. The only way we can now ‘save’ India’s image is by working towards preventing sexual crimes in the country and not by preventing people from talking about it.

Featured Picture Courtesy: Storypick.com

Article by Shubhangini Arora