SlutWalk To Femicide: Making The Connection

September 2, 2011
SlutWalk To Femicide: Making The Connection
Rita Banerji

by Rita Banerji
-India-


In January, a Toronto police constable told a group of students at a school safety forum that to prevent being sexually assaulted they should “avoid dressing like sluts.” This victim-blaming message sparked a global grassroots protest movement called ‘SlutWalks.’ –Ed.

India wrote off the SlutWalk organized in Delhi as a terribly insignificant event. According to a police report, there were about 700 attendees in all, including 400 police personnel and 200 media people. That means the actual number of participants was probably not more than a 100 – a ridiculously miniscule number in a country with a population of a billion plus.

• Poster for SlutWalk Delhi posted to one of several SlutWalk communities on Facebook. •
However, this was no big surprise. Even as the event was being planned, the organizers came under fire from all sides: from women’s groups, feminists, media people, liberals, and conservatives. They were unanimous in that this was a highly inappropriate event to be held on Indian soils. As one female journalist in an opinion column in a major, left-leaning newspaper in India put it, “[By] taking off [their] clothes and adopting the 'slut' word as signifying their right to dress as they please…[these women] have ironically proved the veracity of the Canadian cop's statement.” In an attempt to ease tensions and woo more supporters, the SlutWalk Delhi organizers announced that they had decided to drop the term ‘slut’ and don regular clothes. Instead they would carry placards emphasizing the original message of the global SlutWalks, i.e. that all women have the right to safety, to not be harassed or sexually attacked regardless of how they are dressed.

But the fact of the matter is that millions of women, as they go about their mundane tasks of living and working, face sexual persecution on the streets and public spaces in India, on a daily basis. And they do so fully clothed. It matters little if they are low-income or middle class, educated or illiterate, housewives or professionals. Most girls and women step out onto the streets warily, always with their defenses up, always anticipating some form of sexual aggression: a rough groping of the breast, a pinch on the bottom, a lewd remark, or a sexual expletive.