Do you Remember Kunan Poshpora - Essar et.al

Non-Fiction
Verdict: Read it

I couldn't remember why I chose this book when I picked it up recently from my to-read pile. I know, I know, you must be thinking this silly woman doesn't remember why she picks ANY book. You are partly right. The problem is that it's been a very very long time since I went to buy books at my favorite store and my to-read pile is epic. I promise you, I am very selective in what I read, and I do not chose books at random.

I thought perhaps Kunan Poshpora was a person, hence the book was a biography, when I picked up this book to read it. Unfortunately that was incorrect. Kunan and Poshpora are small villages in Kashmir that went through an atrocity when the army came in and beat the men and gang raped quite a few women. This tragedy occurred in 1991. The authors of this book are a group of women who have come together to lodge a public complaint against the army and the judiciary for non action on their behalf over what happened.

As with other books on atrocities that have happened, this is a difficult read. The words are simple to understand, but the cruelty of the act and inaction afterwards really stick with you. I personally feel it is important to read about terrible things that have happened, if for no other reason than validating that they did happen and should not happen again.

Rape is a horrendous crime no matter what the circumstances are. The authors' assertion that the Indian army uses rape as a tool to subjugate and demoralize Kashmir is truly disturbing, especially when you consider that Kashmir is a very unstable, unhappy place due to many other factors.

I also was very unsettled reading about how the army has the ASPA act protecting them from ever being held accountable for acts such as these. This is unacceptable; there is never a case where rape is sanctioned as a tool of the armed forces for any reason. As with other countries, the army in India enjoys a massive amount of support, and very little accountability. The army's snide answers to the accusations and efforts to delay the case and stonewall justice were disheartening when holding the culprits accountable could have prevented this from happening again. People, even army men, learn quickly what they can get away with.

I was also horrified by the uninterested response of the police and government. I live in India and I understand how things work here, but a judge being on vacation when many court hearings were supposed to take place just made me angry. The sheer lack of interest in anyone but the victims made me lean toward justice squads, rather than this farce of a court system.

Overall it's a tough read, especially because the reader knows that this won't be resolved any time soon and could very easily happen again. Changing India is like changing the direction of a continent rolling down a hill. It very often feels impossible.

~Becky~

Against Our Will - Men, Women, and Rape - Susan Brownmiller

As I've mentioned in my other blogs, I live in India. India has a rape problem - a big, ugly one. Understandably, assaulted females have been on my mind as of late, which is why I picked up this book.

I found it to be a very interesting read. Susan Brownmiller brought up many historical contexts and proposed rationale for rape (both in U.S. culture and other countries) and how man's historical, archaic superiority complex and property ownership has led to a current culture of rape. I cautiously agree with some of her precepts and found myself often stopping to consider things I hadn't thought of before. This is the mark of a good book for me, whether I find myself agreeing in the end or not. I found the identified motivation for rape to be refreshingly accurate in a world where the motivation is still thought to be sexual.

Susan Brownmiller is the archetypal old school feminist in my mind. This should not surprise anyone, and if you are of the younger generation and not well versed in the previous generations feminists, you need to read up on that. The old schools are the reason women live a reasonable free and equal existence in the western world. Of course it's not perfect, but it's not terrible compared to some places in the world, like India where I live.

With this outlook in mind, I find myself wondering as to Brownmiller's assumptions and assertions that men are responsible for all of women's misery, which definitely makes an appearance in historical examples. The man who commits a rape is definitely to blame for that rape, but men in general are not necessarily to blame for societal constructs, especially when it sounds like women are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I also found Susan Brownmiller's belittling of men's fear of being falsely accused of rape a bit much. I would never advocate ignoring/guilting a woman who says she has been raped, but Pottiphar's wife cannot possibly be the first/only/last woman who has ever claimed something falsely. Police, courts, and justice are not infallible and for a man who was truly innocent, the prospect of being thrown in jail for something he didn't do, have his reputation trashed, and have restrictions placed on him even after prison would be enough to make him fight back.

Brownmiller comes from a generation when anger and blame was effective for feminism. New age feminists no longer look at men with anger and blame, even if current ideas (both recognized and subliminal) are not acceptable. This makes it hard for me to swallow the feminist agenda that shines through loud and strong in this 400 page treatise on bodily invasion.

I was also puzzled by Brownmiller's angry ending tirade against pornography. Any pornography at all is seen as a "chic" diversionary enjoyment that people are now tolerant of but is actually a huge debasement to women both acting in porn or who are watching it. Sorry, no. Being aroused by seeing sexuality and sexual acts is as old as time and has never been confined to men. Nor is the act of sex ever degrading to women in a consensual relationship. This is where I start to have huge problems with old school feminism. By blaming men, some women actually participate in placing additional/unnecessary limits on women. It was an ineffective and puzzling end to an otherwise insightful book on the motivations and act of rape.

New school feminism focuses (or should, in my humble opinion) on a woman doing what she wants to, regardless of what men or other women think of her. This is where real freedom and equality lies.

Verdict: Every woman should read books of this sort. Even though I couldn't put it down in a morbidly curious way (which I'm actually ashamed of for some reason), feminism and the subject of rape are something every woman, no matter how young or old, should spend time contemplating. After all, it's when you don't have your own opinions that others step in for you and give you opinions to have, which is unhealthy. I think it would be beneficial in general for men to read. If the problem of entitlement comes out into the open, perhaps we can reduce it, if not end it. Read it.