Development Studies student, Anushna Jha, shares a few lines in response to the horrific news of the brutal death of an 8 year old girl in her home country of India:
An 8-year-old was raped, tortured, killed
Because we let this happen
Because we have reduced cases of sexual violence to breaking news and primetime debates
Because we have normalised sexism and misogyny and harboured an ethos of victim-shaming
Because we have equated domination and violence with being male
Because we have let our ‘representatives’ subvert the voice of our collective conscience
Because we have silenced our souls to allow falsities of ‘honour’ and ‘pride’ to reverberate
Because we continue to bring up boys teaching them fake notions of masculinity
Because we continue to allow humanity to be violated and shamed
Because we continue to protect the perpetrators, alienate the parents, communalise the crime, and destroy humanity
And we continue to let all of this happen
Anushna Jha (@anushnajha), MSc. in Development Studies, The London School of Economics and Political Science. She blogs at anushnajha.blogspot.com.
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
