While Barack Obama proclaims White House support to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities to which India is a signatory, the Indian Supreme Court has delivered a landmark judgment in a unique case of young woman in India. My apologies, but the subject necessitates a lengthy post.
Background
Born in 1991, this woman was abandoned by her family in ‘98, when she was just seven years old. After a few years with the Missionaries of Charity, she went to her new home: the state-run Nari Niketan in Chandigarh, India. Though she is 18 years old today, she is said to have the IQ equivalent of a 9 year old. In this state-run institution, she was repeatedly raped by the staff, four of whom have been arrested. All this came to light only when she was shifted from there to another state-run institution Ashreya. The latest unsubstantiated evidence casts further doubt on where exactly she was raped, and on the entire police investigation so far.
When medical investigation revealed that the woman was pregnant, the Chandigarh Administration decided that it was in her best interests to abort the pregnancy. The girl expressed an unambiguous and unequivocal desire to keep the child. Responding to the state’s petition, the state High Court ordered an immediate termination of pregnancy.
A Delhi based lawyer Suchita Srivastava challenged the order, filing a petition in the Supreme Court. After several days of intense debate in the media as well as the public, the Supreme Court refused to allow termination of pregnancy, and stayed the High Court order.
Advocate Tanu Bedi who had earlier assisted the High Court as amicus curiae, argued for the woman, against Administration counsel Anupam Gupta. The highlights of the debate in court as reported in the press offer the gist of the arguments and the court’s judgment.
The State
- “Consent of the victim cannot be decisive. The so-called consent of the girl is no assent either in law or fact.”
- Reacting to the statement that mild mentally challenged people have the capability to take a decision for themselves, Gupta said: “This is a myth, which is completely belied by present scientific knowledge. It is a structural edifice of myth built on a foundation of highly wishful postulates of mental retardation. The argument is underlied by sincerity and overload of commitment, yet it is mere euphoria.”
- Dismissing the emphasis that the girl’s desire to give birth was ultimate, Gupta said: “If this expression of desire is taken as consent, it will be a complete travesty of consent in moral, philosophical and legal category. How can one question her regarding termination of pregnancy when she does not even understand what pregnancy is? She is blissfully oblivious of her pregnancy and unaware of the sexual act.”
- Reacting to the argument that children of mentally challenged rape victims can be taken care by institutes like Nari Niketan and Ashreya, Gupta said: “It’s easier said than done. We seem to be living in a realm of imagination. I am not trying to run down the argument by calling it a fantasy but such change, although welcome, is yet an illusion in our society.”
- Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for a social worker in favor of abortion, cited medical reports and said the continuation of pregnancy could result in complications, considering the girl’s age, mental status, and previous surgery. He said she was not aware that there was a child inside her, and hence could not mother a child.
The Woman
- “It would be a travesty of justice if a mother has to come to the highest court of the land to seek permission to give birth to her own child”.
- Consent of the victim matters most. “She is not mentally incompetent to give consent. Despite her communication problems, she has expressed her desire to give birth to the child. She has immense strength and resilience. We don’t even know our destiny, how can we script the future of someone else?” concluded Bedi.
- Ms. Bedi argued that doctors did not form the opinion that termination of pregnancy was in the best interests of the girl, and that the medical report suggested that she required support and supervision to help her raise the child.
- Counsel argued that termination of pregnancy against the mother’s wish was against the provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, and the Rights of the Disabled.
- If her mental age is a consideration for the judiciary to think that she cannot take care of her baby, why should poor women, who are found lacking in bringing up their children, be allowed to become mothers?
- Ms. Bedi said India was a party to international conventions that uphold and preserve the rights of the disabled, which had been given the go-by in the impugned order. “We have to respect the girl’s right to life”, she said.
- Ms. Bedi argued that the victim had a right to give birth to her child. She said the National Trust constituted under the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999, had agreed to provide her social and financial support and take care of the child after delivery. Counsel for the Trust said it was funding several institutions and would support the girl.
The Court
- Before the judgment: “What you say is right if she is not a mentally retarded person,” Chief Justice Balakrishnan told Ms. Bedi. “We are worried about her future also because she is an orphan. No NGO is going to look after her. It is a difficult decision for us.”
- “We are not in favor of termination of pregnancy. If there are no further complications to the woman in continuation of her pregnancy, then why abort a life?”
- “We are sure that somebody will be in a position to give protection to the child. Our anxiety is the fetus is already 19 weeks. The second medical opinion says her physical condition is good to bear the child. The child is not suffering from any deformity. Nature will give her biological protection. If somebody is ready to take care of the child, should we even then order medical termination of pregnancy? Nature will take care on its own.”
- Justice Sathasivam told Gupta: “Is it not possible for the Chandigarh administration to take care of the child? Is it not your responsibility to protect her?”
- “We know as a natural mother she will not be able to take care of the child. But if somebody is ready to look after the child, then there would not be any problem.”
- After being satisfied that several national-level NGOs had come forward to take responsibility of the child, the 3-member bench was reluctant to accept any other arguments supporting her abortion.
- Acknowledging that if a baby is aborted against her wishes, it would cause further trauma to the woman, the court ordered that the baby should be born with “mother under constant care and supervision”.
I have no way of assessing general public opinion, but in my experience, the opinion regarding the court’s judgment has been largely negative. See this blog post by Aditi Ray on Sulekha. Prerna’s post has a slew of comments criticizing the judgment.
The Bioethics Discussion Blog asks readers’ opinion regarding permanent sterilization of mentally disabled women, and asks if disability rights groups should ever sacrifice the disabled individual to the group’s agenda. I also found an interesting student paper at the University of Kentucky’s Dept. of Philosophy, Health Care Ethics on mentally retarded women and forced contraceptives. Finally, the UN’s Women with Disabilities page is a gateway to much more information and links.
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How do religions treat women? How do emancipated women treat religion? A sequence of events recently has made my mind unquiet over this subject. Nita asked if Hinduism was coming of age, with people performing the sacred ‘thread ceremony’ on their daughters. The BJP found itself trapped in the maze of confusion surrounding Hindutva. And Sarkozy said that women wearing burqas were not welcome in France, as it was more a sign of women’s subservience rather than religion. The Rational Fool hailed Sarkozy’s statement, while I and Etlamatey pondered about individual women’s rights in the comments.
Like I always do, I responded to my unquiet mind by thinking, scouring the net, and thinking some more. Here is a sampling of what I found:
- An American convert to Islam urges Muslims to fight against brutality of woman to preserve Islam’s image in the eyes of others
- A Hindu woman converted to Islam says Islam is not oppressive, unlike Hinduism
- A Hindu perspective explains how Abortion is Bad Karma
- Genocide of Women in Hinduism by Sita Agarwal
- Did the burqa bring about the ghunghat or the other way around? Read this.
- Did women have ‘fewer’ rights than men or ‘different’ in the context of Hinduism’s history? A heated debate ensued after Hindus started a campaign to change the content of sixth-grade school history textbooks in California.
- A Globe and Mail opinion piece discusses the reduction in church attendance among Canadian women and whether oppression of women by religious institutions is the main cause, while Tina disagrees in her blog post.
- How does Canadian society achieve gender equality rights enshrined in their Charter, which also protects the right to freedom of religion? The Star looks at the conflict of interests.
- Muslim-dominated Indonesia is a religious country where atheism is banned by law. Alarmed at the extent of oppression of women in their country, a group of Islamic and Christian leaders have released new manuscripts in an effort to use religion to achieve gender equality.
- BBC had an open debate on air on whether religion is an obstacle to gender equality. The extensive comments represent myriad opinions and differing perspectives on this issue. One example of a response to this debate is by Sally, who says that faith is an integral part of her, and suggests women work within their faiths for change.
In the above list, I have not listed any pro-atheist source, and strived to include Hinduism related articles. Referencing articles on Hinduism and gender equality or feminism is difficult for three reasons. One, the global discussion has centered on Islam, and the English-speaking Internet population is largely Christian.
Two, Hinduism is unique in its flexible and diverse interpretations. While all religions are intentionally scripted so as to offer multiple contradictory interpretations, Hinduism wins this ambiguity race by claiming to be ‘all-inclusive’. Devout religious folks from other religions do argue (as seen in the above examples) that the oppression of women is a misinterpretation and misuse of their ‘true’ religion. But Hindus can’t be surpassed in this respect: not only are there multiple contradictory interpretations of Hinduism, even these contradictions can be claimed to be embraced by it. I think it would be a safe bet to say that for every principle supposedly propounded by Hinduism, a contradictory principle can be found within Hinduism. People would not call me a mathematician if I did not follow mathematics, but they will call me a Hindu even if I did not follow it.
Third, for a religion that has existed for centuries, and is said to be flexible and evolving, it is impossible to differentiate religious practices from social customs and traditions. Do Hindu women wear the mangalsutra or bangles because of religion or tradition? Widow burning or sati is widely described in the world as a Hindu practice, but naturally, there are arguments and differing opinions about it.
For atheists like me, the issue is very simple. Religion has been used as an instrument of gender inequality, specifically, in the oppression of women. Removing religion from the picture removes religious and theological justifications for patriarchy, as Austin argues. Sally says that in the absence of religion, men will find other ways to oppress women, hence religion as such is not an obstacle. Indeed, many factors contribute to gender inequality, one of them being economic prosperity, as this chart shows.
However, there still exists a strong correlation between the extent of ‘organic atheism’ (as opposed to ‘coerced atheism’ like in communist countries) in a country and its overall gender equation. Both the 2004 and 2006 rankings of the Gender Empowerment Measure, which is part of the the UNDP’s Human Development Report, show that the top ten nations with the highest gender equality are all strongly organic atheistic nations, while the bottom ten are all highly religious countries with insignificant number of atheists. But, as Phil Zuckerman points out in the The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, the causal relationship is in reverse: overall societal health causes widespread atheism, not the other way around.
It is impossible to argue against faith and belief, so I do not venture much into such debates. I prefer not challenging other people’s beliefs as long as they do not interfere with my life. What I find perplexing is how even emancipated women prefer to remain within their religious faiths and struggle against oppression, rather than choosing to discard religion? If faith and belief are important, and hence atheism and agnosticism are rejected, why are other forms of theism not popular?
In the end, I think I differ from Sarkozy: if women choose to be subservient, let them be. It is their right. Men should not trample over that right, though they can trample over such women, if they wish.
Update 30th June: A few significant articles I found since writing this post:
- Few public figures have taken this topic head on. Cherie Booth, wife of ex-PM Tony Blair, gave a speech almost two years ago: Religion no excuse for gender inequality. Like many other ‘feminists’ I mentioned, she however suggests using religion as a weapon in the fight for women’s rights.
- God is merciful, but only if you’re a man. An excellent piece in The Observer that asks the exact same questions I did, and offers the exact same answer Rational Fool did in the comments – Stockholm Syndrome.
- Wherever religion and its patriarchs rule, women’s lives are in danger, an Opinion piece.
- Why Women Need Freedom From Religion, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
(All cartoons are from www.atheistcartoons.com)
The most commonly uttered line in English films is “Let’s get outta here” (or its variants). The most commonly uttered sentence in Indian Hindi films is “Driver, us gaadi ka peecha karo!” (“Driver, follow that car!”).
M
Mirch Masala
What is the price of a woman’s honor?
In colonial India, Tax Collectors tyrannized villages with soldiers, collecting much more than just taxes. One such Collector lusts after one woman (Sonbai) in the village. She refuses to bow and even slaps him. He holds the entire village to ransom. What follows is a social drama that is both agonizing and inspiring.
Sonbai rushes to safety in the confines of a spice factory, where several village women work. The entire men folk in this patriarchal society are cowards, and the showdown between Sonbai and the Collector brings the village to its knees. The only support Sonbai gets is from the gatekeeper of the factory, the town’s Gandhian teacher, and a few women led by the mayor’s wife. Needless to say, whatever the moral conviction of all the supporters, the physical and cultural power is sufficient to subdue them.
The drama progresses to the horrendous possibility of a village-approved rape and the inevitable final face-to-face confrontation. The varied reactions of the villagers to the unfolding events provide the perfect social backdrop to the drama. The climax is cathartic without letting the viewer free of the weight of the story.
Naseeruddin Shah proves his mettle as one of India’s finest actors with the devilish Collector. I have heard that he enacted this brutal role while at the same time performing in another film Pestonjee as a meek Parsi, which is remarkable. Smita Patil epitomizes the beautiful, strong-willed Sonbai. Her passionate performance is the backbone of the film. Om Puri as the gatekeeper and Deepti Naval as the mayor’s wife are solid as are the rest of the supporting cast.
If I were asked to select 5 Indian films to be shown to a foreign film critic who is a newcomer to Indian cinema, Mirch Masala (Spices) will be one of them. This is one of the most powerful films made in India, with a compelling script, gripping drama, magnificent performances, brilliant cinematography, great direction, and an overall uplifting experience.
If the cinematic production seems primitive (as I saw in some international reviews), one should realize that the film was made in a remote village of India, the cast and crew surviving a 15-day shooting schedule in the desert miles away from anywhere, and in a budget of just $100,000.
Washington Post’s review compares the ruthlessness of the drama, the vibrancy of character, and its moral obstinacy to Kurosawa’s samurai movies – an interesting viewpoint that had not occurred to me.
Also read Ketan Mehta’s interview with the New York Times to get inside the mind of the director.
Runner Up
There are so many contenders (see below) that I cannot select one of them.
Noteworthy Mentions
Mephisto, Istvan Szabo’s film adaptation of Klaus Mann’s novel on Goethe’s Mephistopheles/Faust theme. Klaus Maria Brandauer’s performance is one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen in cinema.
My Neighbor Totoro, Miyazaki’s fantasy animation creation, rated one of the best family films of all time. No villains, no fights, no darkness, no scary monsters, yet full of awe and adventure!
The Manchurian Candidate, a chilling classic, a timeless political and social thriller with Frank Sinatra’s best performance.
The Marriage of Maria Brown, Fassbinder’s most commercially successful film, a landmark in German cinema for its personal view at post-war Germany. Amazing that he could direct with this precision under the influence of drugs.
"Not to have seen the cinema of Satyajit Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon."
- Akira Kurosawa
C
Charulata
No points for guessing this one, my dear readers! Ray at his sublime best. The camera speaking more eloquently than the dialogue. Structurally perfect. Emotionally subtle and complex. Vividly chromatic cinema in monochrome. Immaculate art direction. Profound characterization ably supported by sterling performances. A haunting reflection on the nature of human relationships. Ray makes every shot and edit work in the film – there is not a single second of unnecessary footage, every scene from the beginning to the end, is just perfect.
For those who haven’t already, do read my earlier post Light Rays on Charulata.
Runner Up
The Color Purple
A Bengali housewife in 1897 enraptures me – a 30-something male of more than a century later – in Charulata. A young black girl growing up in the early 1900s in America endears me in The Color Purple, Spielberg’s masterpiece. This is the power of cinema, of film-making at its best.
We meet Celie when she is 14 and pregnant by her father. We live her life along with her for the next 30 years, despairing at her misfortune, and exulting at her triumph. This is Whoopi Goldberg in her first and finest performance, before being closeted by Hollywood into stereotypical roles. Danny Glover is terrific in portraying the physical brutality and outward strength masquerading as masculinity while betraying a weakness of character and inner strength. Oprah Winfrey, a first-timer like Goldberg, is superb as the indomitable black woman who will not bow down to males or whites. The evocative Sister song! This is not a tale of a woman’s suffering, but of her enduring struggle and ultimate victory. The movie is not without flaws, but the story and performances are uniquely heart-rending.
When I first saw the film on the big screen in the mid-80s, I was young and impressionable. I cried and cried and wept in joy. When seeing it a few years ago, I did not break down emotionally, but was equally moved.
Noteworthy Mentions
Citizen Kane, the legendary Welles masterpiece, that I’m still learning to appreciate
Casablanca, the legendary, most-cited, most-beloved film of all time
A Clockwork Orange, cited by some as a great film-making, but did not go down well with me at all. I felt like having been food-poisoned after watching the film. Not recommended by me.
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An Unquiet Mind by Mahendra Palsule is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
