Rukya is Kashmir’s daughter.  She is  a victim  of acid attack  by some frenzied youth, who thought that throwing acid on an innocent woman would make him hero. He might have congratulated himself that he has taken his revenge  on  an unprotected woman.
A far greater self introspection is needed than just condemning the incident or observing two-hour  shutdown.  Kashmiri women are brave that they have shown time and again. There were many  occasions, when they threw a human wall to protect their men  from  the men with guns, be they militants or  security forces.
But what the men are doing to the women in Kashmir, forcing them to commit suicide.  Often there is  a sad tale of a girl committing suicide. Believe it or not, there are men behind  this. They commit atrocities or spoil  the life of a woman by not owning them after making merry. There is a consistent deterioration in the moral values  in  Kashmir, like many other parts of the world. This culture of a  perverted lover turning into an attacker is not something unheard of. These things used to happen in the past, but that kind of culture was restricted to some  parts of the country, and Kashmir had only heard of it  on  its soil when some organizations would issue threats of disfiguring the faces of those who  would not wear “ burqa”. That was more of a threat, in reality that kind of moral policing, hardly translated into action.
Here, it is important to pose a question: what was the fault of Rukya? That she spurned the  offer of someone who was stalking   her for long. When  the society asks for freedom, didn’t Rukya have her freedom to choose the person, whom she would have liked to marry. This personal freedom, which of course, she exercised with the consent of her family should not have been  curtailed. But, now as  she is   struggling to regain her original  self,  there is a great deal of politics being played over her. Consequently the real issue has been lost somewhere: Why such incidents should take place in the Valley, which is known for best  of its traditions and where men and women are  an emancipated lot.
The government  has  decided to bear all the expenses  for her specialized treatment outside of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and also promised to take stern action against the guilty. This  has to be seen that, whether Government  would remain committed to the  pledge that  it has made  at the moment. Its seriousness would be judged in  the days to come.
Civil society of Kashmir is very active, and aggressive  when it comes to  criticizing the  non-Kashmiris for doing anything wrong. That should be the approach because the wrong doings committed by anyone should be governed by zero – tolerance attitude. It is not to suggest that there should be some barbaric response  to such incidents. That will not help any one, and least of all Kashmiris. There is a need for reawakening, and all points of  view should converge and there should be  a consensus that how this problem can be dealt with in a firm manner, so that there is no recurrence of such  type  of attacks, and also ensure that  no one should ever think of committing such a crime, whether it is rare or rarest of the rare one, the one which happened in New Delhi and the victim after having suffered the trauma  of gang rape, died.
Social awakening is a must. It should  take into account the fact that the rich and influential people commit crime and get away with it. This should start with the  road accidents too. No one should be spared who by his reckless driving causes physical infirmities on women.  There is a lot of money around with such people who exercise their influence, purchase witnesses and the cases are  buried.
Media should  play a role. It cannot do its duty just by showing some anchor pounding on a panel  at TV shows, nor can this menace be  curbed  with one odd editorial or opinion  pieces. That there is an urgent need to protect women and the media should be alert to all this. There is no harm in  launching a campaign against such evils in society. But, that is missing.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST