Assam Assault Video Case: Has India Left North Eastern Women To Fend For Themselves?

Being a girl from North East this Assam girl assault video is both heartbreaking and scary: After a horrifying video of the brutal sexual molestation in Assam went viral on social media, North Eastern women have spoken about their experiences and expressed their pain over the assault.

Trigger warning: This article has content that includes sexual assault, violence, molestation, and graphic details which can be disturbing.

While the video of the Assamese girl being assaulted and molested has been making its rounds all over my social media channels, I have not watched the video and I don’t plan to do so. Personally, I have also recently chosen to log off from my Instagram account because the burden and the pain of being a woman in the social media sphere coupled with being a North-Eastern, it was too much negativity for me to feed into.

Apart from the existing xenophobia and the racism that is directed towards North-eastern people in India, a time like this is when I am again clearly reminded of my designated place in the deeply biased and patriarchal Indian society. This place was assigned to me long before I even learned what patriarchy and rape mean, and before I entered the classroom to educate myself on marginalised communities and scheduled tribes.

“I literally came back home after getting catcalled ‘wearing PJs’ and having to see this video is just plain heartbreaking” shared one of my friends on her WhatsApp updates. We live in a country where we build shame and vulnerability around our lives and seal them into our culture. But do we ever stop to introspect and ask ourselves what builds up from the language we choose to use? What happens to our imagination when we use our very own language to celebrate violence and shame?

The recent viral video does raise a lot of opinions and questions in the media, all remaining in the air without answers. “Before scrutinising the girl’s character, stop assuming only promiscuous women get raped. It can happen to any gender, any day, any time. It could be you or anyone close to you” wrote Jemimah Khaling from Manipur. But even a member from the National Commission of Women has pinned the blame in the past on the timing women go out at night which further proves to us women that we can’t really do anything to change the big egos and the mindset of victim blamers.

According to the North Eastern Chronicle, studies have suggested that North-eastern girls and women face more catcalls and abuses from men from mainland India as they are often assumed to be ‘easy women’. But what is the definition of an ‘easy woman’? How do you look at a woman and judge if she’s an “easy catch” or a “hard catch”, much like a prey? Do you judge that from her features or from her body? Or is it her dress and the way she talks? Unless the experience of any kind of pleasure with women stops being marked as a sign of conquest or achievement by men, we won’t get far even if we argue till our last breaths.

It’s truly easier to say “Boys will be boys” or “This is the world we live in. We just have to be careful and look out for ourselves now,” and clearly, we have been doing this for years and years. But no amount of careful actions can save us from being taped and assaulted. Today, it is probably safe to say that the collective nonchalance and useless charade of society that has persisted for so many years have led us to this tragic crime.

Do I still have faith in humanity, compassion, and benevolence after all of this? Maybe. But where exactly is India headed? Although the alleged rapists have been arrested, what do you do when you go on social media, and the only thing you can identify yourself to is a woman who is being stripped, assaulted, and taped in a video that has gone viral? What do you do when you watch the news and you’re automatically filled with fear and pain? And where exactly should this rage and grief be directed to?

Image Credit: PTI