Address femicide crisis urgently to secure our women

It is getting harder to hide from the fact that we have a national femicide crisis. Of course, every murder, regardless of the identity of the victim, is one too many. However, it is also worth noting when violence acquires a distinct pattern. In our case, the last several months have revealed a rise in homicides with female victims - specifically young women. The response so far has ranged from reactionary victim blaming (the women were not careful enough) to total silence. The government is silent. Our community organisations are silent. Religious authorities are silent. The only prominent voices out there are young women, many of whom continue to be dismissed. A closer look at why they are being dismissed is instructive. Many of the vocal women are high-educated, employed and have lives that epitomise women empowerment. To be blunt, they do not fit standard gendered roles as preferred by the traditionalists in our communities and the reactionary charlatans who lead many of our religious institutions. Many of them are also critics of the government, which reinforces politicians' incentives to ignore them. Unfortunately for us all, silence will not work. The more these targeted crimes are reported and seemingly downplayed by the state and community leaders, the more we shall see copycat murders throughout the country. The net effect will be a generalised tolerance of violence against women. More gendered crimes will then follow. Those who think this is alarmist should look to a country like India, where tolerance of crimes against women led to women being sexually assaulted in public places. It is time to make it very clear - especially to men in this country - that violence against women will not be tolerated by society at large, and will be severely punished by the state. It is also time that our community and religious leaders woke up to the realities of our time. Women have every right to live the lives they want. It is not up to men or social and cultural institutions to police them. And when they are harmed, the entire society is harmed. Those choosing to blame victims of crime are misanthropic ghouls. Femicides are not an opportunity to reassert retrogressive tropes about women propriety. Instead, we should collectively condemn those who engage in gendered violence, and insist that the government severely punishes those found guilty. -The writer is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University

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