Comparison

In Conflict-Ridden Kulgam, Increasing Crimes Against Women Concern Residents

The recent brutal rape and subsequent death of a 20-year-old has restarted the conversation on why Kashmiri society is unable to ensure safety of women.

Kulgam: For 50 days, Khatija Begum* had her eyes glued to the main entrance of her home. With every knock on the door, she expected her daughter to be standing outside. Her home in Poniwah village is around six kilometres from the main town of Kulgam in South Kashmir. Every morning Khatija would sit at the verandah, every dusk would bring heartache.

Khatija’s 20-year old daughter, Suraiya* was so brutally raped by two men that she was left battling for her life for 27 days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar. Suraiya finally succumbed to her injuries on November 27, 2020, at 6.15 pm.

“Our mother had no idea that Suraiya was brutally raped. She had not seen her bruised body, her sliced earlobes, the condition of her neck or her injured face,” Suraiya sister says.

The victim’s belongings that were returned to her family.

On November 27, Khatija had fallen ill with abdominal cramps. Her elder son, fearing that Khatija would be worried, told her that Suraiya would return soon.

However, that did not happen. Today, Khatija has just one wish – to ensure that Suraiya’s rapists are punished. She wants no compensation, only justice.

On October 25, Suraiya had left home to attend a relative’s wedding in the nearby village of Ashmuji. On the morning of October 31, she was allegedly abducted by two men when she had gone to a nearby market. She was found severely injured and had been robbed of all her belongings.

Suraiya is not the only girl in Kulgam who has been a victim of sexual assault. In fact, over the last five months of 2020, there have been several such instances. In July 2020, a 20-year-old girl from the Chachmulla area of Devsar town was raped by her teacher when she was working in the fields.

A few days after Suraiya’s death, a minor girl who lived within the jurisdiction of the same police station was raped. A video of that attack was later circulated by the rapist himself.

‘Related crimes’

Devsar is a remote town located in Qazigund-Kulgam and despite the huge presence of security forces there, it is often in the news for cases of rape and assault of women. The area is also near the headquarters of the 9th Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles.

According to official police records, 26 rape cases were registered in nine police stations of Kulgam district in 2017; 25 in 2018 and 16 in 2020. Although these figures would seem to indicate that there has been a decline in such cases, the ground reality is that many incidents that occur in remote corners of the region do not get reported.

A senior police official from Kulgam, who did not want to be identified, explains, “If we talk in terms of absolute figures, rape cases are actually rising. Most of these cases are not reported even by the victim herself. We approach them only after news circulates and reaches us.” While he agrees that it is the duty of police to provide a safe environment for women and children, he says police often are unable to stop such crimes.

Suraiya’s case sent shock waves across Kashmir and raised serious concerns about the safety of women in the region, especially in south Kashmir. Kulgam, incidentally, is an area which has become the hot bed of political resistance in Kashmir. So the fact that it is also witnessing a high number of crimes against women raises many questions.

Do crimes against women in a region like Kashmir, where conflict dominates every sphere of life, go unreported or under-reported? Do such crimes fail to evoke the same outrage among the public as deaths of civilians in the hands of security forces do? Why are there no protests when women are sexually assaulted, raped and murdered?

Also read: Average 87 Rape Cases Daily, Over 7% Rise in Crimes Against Women in 2019: NCRB Data

Observers feel that the rise in crimes against women in south Kashmir is related to the fact that the region has been transforming into a hub of drug trade over the past two years.

Dr Tariq Ahmad Bhat, a neuro-psychiatrist working at the District Hospital in Kulgam, says consumption of alcohol and drugs impedes people’s abilities to differentiate between right and wrong. But even more than the danger of perpetrators being under the influence, alcohol and drugs become vehicles with which women are rendered defenceless.

A 2014 paper titled, ‘Date rape: A study on drug-facilitated sexual assaults in Imphal’, carried in the journal of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, showed that in 59.2% of a total of 210 cases of alleged rape cases studied, the victims had consumed alcohol or drugs offered by the perpetrator.

The question of stigma

A group of teenage girls waiting outside their coaching class cited various reasons for the silence over rising incidents of rape in Kashmir. They agree, however, that the prevailing stigma associated with assault and rape in Kashmiri society is the prime reason why women prefer to keep silent.

Also read: Collective Silence on Violence Against Women Rings Loud in the Kashmir Valley

“We know what rape is. We know how to protest. But it’s the stigma attached to rape that we are afraid of. I have heard people blaming the woman for getting raped. I am distressed to see how women receive no support in our community,” says Salma Nisar, a student of Standard 9 in Kulgam.

Another young girl added, “Our society is still living in a bubble of ignorance. They blame the girl for a crime done to her, accusing her of dressing inappropriately, and the like. The fact is that no woman is safe as long as perpetrators are allowed to roam free. It has nothing to do with how we women choose to dress.”

Many point out that these crimes invariably get covered up because girls are too afraid to share incidents of molestation with their family members.

A college mate of Suraiya’s, Mehreena Mehrab, who is in the third semester of her second year of college, believes the problem is that parents in Kashmiri society are very conservative and lack empathy towards their children. “We lack a sense of mutual understanding with our parents. When girls face molestation, eve-teasing or any such offence, they choose to be silent and not inform their parents because of this wide communication gap. This only strengthens the sense of impunity in the culprit,” says Mehreena.

Taboo

It is not just young women who are worried about rising violence against women. Several young men are also concerned. Tajamul Nazir, a lawyer from South Kashmir, points to how, within a patriarchal society such as Kashmir’s, as woman’s virginity is a major consideration when it comes to marriage. A raped woman could fall victim to this age-old taboo.

Tajamul says, “The main reason why a woman chooses silence to fighting for justice is the damage that speaking out could cause to herself and her family. In spite of her trauma, a raped woman is treated almost like an untouchable in our society.” He believes that if men take the lead in supporting the cause of women, it could have a significant impact on how a rape survivor is treated.

Mantasha Rashid, who is pursuing her PhD in women and violence at University of Westminster, London has started a volunteers’ group, The Kashmir Women’s Collective, to try and address the problem. Mantasha realised even as a young student, that women were discriminated against at every level.

Also read: Caging Women Is Violence – Not ‘Safety’ or ‘Protection’

“Being a woman I have my own experiences to draw upon. Women are not allowed to exercise choices by their relatives and neither do they have any role in decision making – whether within families or in society as a whole. Instead of being treated as human beings with equal rights, they are discriminated against along the lines of gender. That is why they are inhibited and prefer not to express their feelings and desires,” says Rashid.

Rising cases of assault and rapes in south Kashmir have not only affected girls and young adults at a psychological level, they have disturbed the mental peace of their parents as well.

Nighat, a mother of three young daughters from south Kashmir, says she now makes sure that she is with her daughters all the time. “My day seems longer than usual when they go to school. I am not at ease until they return home. I constantly worry about their safety,” she reveals.

A consultant neuro-psychiatrist from the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital (JLNM) Rainawari, Sheikh Shoib, points out how the psyche of parents in Kulgam has been affected by the recent incidents of rape.

“Research has shown that sexual assault is associated with multiple post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), involving various disorders like anxiety, depression, eating and sleep disorders, and could include deliberate attempts at self-harm. There is also a sense of mistrust which affects their interpersonal relationships,” says Shoib, adding that nearly one-third to 50% of all rape survivors develop rape-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (RR PTSD).

“Kashmir does witness fewer gender crimes than the rest of India, they are the result of inequality in society.” Photo: Reuters/Danish Ismail.

Justice delivery

Lawyer and social activist, Muzamil Ahmad Bhat, a senior Kulgam-based advocate, says that while Kashmir does witness fewer gender crimes than the rest of India, they are the result of inequality in society.

“In many situations, accusations of rape arise in cases of runaway marriages or after false promises of marriage are made by boys to trap girls into believing them,” he says.

According to him, the need of the hour is to strengthen the “moral education system” and to teach children to respect each other.

Bhat added, “Women are easy targets in any society which is dominated by a fragile male ego. Not just Kashmir, but in many parts of the world, women are treated worse than men. Girls do not receive the same support, trust and encouragement as their male counterparts do. So naturally they develop a sense of insecurity and come to believe that nobody will trust them if they speak up against any sort of violence.”

Also read: Rape of Minor in Kashmir: State Forensic Lab Rubbishes SKIMS Report, Confirms Assault

Apart from psychological barriers, Bhat also points two significant factors that discourage women from seeking justice: the lack of an adequate number of women police personnel in the region and obsolete practices of the criminal justice system still being followed in Kashmir, like the hymen test.

Ilyas Laway, a lawyer by profession and a noted political analyst, feels that delay in justice delivery is also an important factor to consider. He says that a fast track court needs be designated by the J&K high court for Kulgam district to ensure that such unconscionable delays come to an end. Says Laway, “Timely justice will encourage girls and women to speak up against any sexual assault or misconduct they experience. A fair and fast investigation is urgently required.”

Sherfun Nisa is an independent journalist living in Kulgam, Kashmir. This story was reported under NFI Fellowships for Independent Journalists.

*Names changed to protect identity.

Average 87 Rape Cases Daily, Over 7% Rise in Crimes Against Women in 2019: NCRB Data

The findings come amidst widespread outrage over the gangrape and brutalisation of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.

New Delhi: India recorded an average of 87 rape cases daily in 2019 and overall 4,05,861 cases of crime against women during the year, a rise of over 7% from 2018, the latest government data released on September 29, 2020.

The findings come amidst widespread outrage over the gangrape and brutalisation of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras. The woman passed away on Tuesday.

The country recorded 3,78,236 cases of crimes against women in 2018, the data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed.

A total of 32,033 cases of rape were lodged in 2019, which was 7.3% of all crimes against women during the year, the data showed.

Also read: India’s Lockdown Is Blind to the Woes of Its Women

In 2018, 33,356 rapes were recorded across the country, up from 32,559 in 2017, according to the data from corresponding years.

Majority of these cases under Indian Penal Code were registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ (30.9 per cent) followed by ‘Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (21.8 per cent), ‘kidnapping and abduction of women’ (17.9 per cent), the NCRB data for 2019 showed.

The crime rate registered per lakh women population stood at 62.4 in 2019 in comparison with 58.8 in 2018, it showed.

The NCRB, which functions under the Union Home Ministry, is tasked with collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.

Our Brains Seem to Love Instagram. Why?

While some Insta-influencers try to keep it real, others set impossible standards that can leave us feeling dissatisfied and inadequate.

More than 200,000 people follow the Instagram account of Victoria van Violence from Berlin. They see picture-perfect photos of her on the beach, at festivals or at home with her dog.

But the captions on her photos with the most likes (upwards of 10,000) might surprise you. They don’t seem to fit into the highly-curated, seemingly perfect world of Instagram: “Everyone has a crappy time sometimes, we just don’t talk about it,” she writes on one photo. “Negative feelings, failures, break-ups, job losses, etc. are stigmas in our society. They don’t fit the perfect picture, neither in real life, nor here. But it’s completely normal.”

The Instagram-influencer, whose real name is Victoria Müller, is open about regularly seeing a psychologist and her experience with depression. “A constant high stress level, not being able to switch off, always having to deliver — burnout happens in many professions,” she told DW.

Constant comparison

On Instagram, there’s a constant opportunity to directly compare yourself with others. And it’s not only in the sense of numbers of followers and likes. “Others have a cooler or a more exciting life — you can do worse in all kinds of areas,” says van Violence.

“I used to do more modelling jobs and share the professional pictures, but I realised I didn’t want this perfect world anymore,” she says. “I don’t want to go to events and wonder whether people think: ‘Oh, she doesn’t look like she does in her photos.'”

For some time now, she has been addressing more and more serious topics in her posts, such as climate change, online trolling and mental health. Now, she says, that’s what people talk to her about at events.

While talking about these things seems to be appreciated by van Violence’s followers most of Instagram remains a perfect world.

But the images posted can sometimes be far from reality. Faked scenes, a decent dose of Photoshop and even plastic surgery are common in the world of influencers and users.

Images on Instagram can sometimes be far from reality. Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

When the brain’s reward system is activated

More than 500 million people use Instagram every day — that’s equal to the entire population of the EU. Why are we so enamoured by Instagram? What happens in our brain when we use it?

Dar Meshi, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University, was the first person to examine people who use social media using an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan. The brain scan showed which brain regions are active when we post or like something or when someone likes our posts.

When the like notification appeared, the brain’s reward system was active. This region is called the ventral stratum. It’s also active when we’re presented with food, drinks, sex and money — and during drug consumption.

The anticipation of success

A messenger substance in the brain that is often associated with social media is dopamine. Experiments with money have shown that it’s released when we anticipate success. This is how researchers explain why you keep hanging on to the slot machine — or why you keep looking at your phone.

Researcher Meshi cannot confirm that dopamine and social media use are connected. But he suspects that the anticipation of activating the reward system is what makes social media so attractive.

Our reward system is not only activated when we receive likes. It’s also active when we like others’ images or just check out what our friends are doing. Meshi explains this by saying that our status in the group is very important to us and that we want to be liked by others.

Where is the line?

Social networks can easily activate these small social rewards. At any time, can we connect to hundreds or thousands of people and we don’t even have to go outside.

Users who post more on social media were found to be happier. Photo: Pixabay

Meshi doesn’t want to call this an addiction; the implications are too strong, he says. He says that there has never been anyone who has lost custody of their children because they’re too dependent on social media, for example.

But he quotes studies and cases where people have trouble sleeping, concentrating and have even lost their jobs because they couldn’t get away from social media for long enough. One study Meshi was involved in found that people who are more likely to take risks are more likely to both be addicted to drugs and more likely to be addicted to social media.

Active users happier than passive users

In two other studies, researchers asked their subjects several times a day via text message if they had used Facebook in the last five minutes and how they felt. If they had used Facebook, they felt worse. The researchers couldn’t say whether this was just because the participants had to reflect on their behaviour in front of researchers.

But what they found out was that the users who were more active, who posted more and got more likes, were generally happier than the passive users, who were just scrolling.

The researchers suspected that the passive users would constantly compare their real lives with the seemingly perfect lives of others without getting any likes themselves because they were not posting anything. But it could also be that people who are already in a bad mood are generally posting less.

A healthy habit?

Media ethics professor Petra Grimm wonders whether the urge to compare ourselves is innate or culturally conditioned. “It becomes problematic when the comparison leads to devaluation or when superiority is established,” she told DW.

Constant comparison can also prevent young people from finding out who they actually are, Grimm said. “If I follow influencers in their way of life, e.g. what clothes I wear, what I consume and how I live, while at the same time trying to portray myself as unique, I can hardly concentrate on my own wishes.”

A new vision of social media

But who should be responsible for the mental health of users on the platforms? The platforms themselves are interested in keeping users on their smartphones for as long as possible and they are experimenting with how to keep users’ attention the longest.

For Grimm, this means the social media organisations themselves are responsible. But, she says, it would be naïve to expect them to make changes that pose a risk to their business model.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi clicks a selfie. Photo: Reuters

That’s why she has a different vision. “There should be a kind of publicly funded model, preferably in a European network,” she says. “A platform that ensures data protection, privacy and considers mental health.”

“We can’t let these American players dictate the rules,” Grimm told DW, suggesting that a new platform could work with current Instagram influencers that are interested in using a different app with clear rules set out.

And the influencers?

Influencer Victoria van Violence says that Instagram’s unreliable algorithms are irritating for her and others. “It’s frustrating when another new algorithm prevents people from seeing my images,” she told DW.

The 30-year-old is also sure that the platform will change again, as will the influencer job itself. On Facebook, almost no influencer is now as active as on they are Instagram, she says.

If you ask van Violence about responsibility, she points to the influencers themselves. “People who create content in a professional setting need to be more transparent,” she says, speaking again about how unrealistic a lot of the content is on Instagram. Media ethicist Grimm would also like to see more influencers who advocate a conscious approach to social media.

What’s good for us?

Grimm sees a big gap in school education: “There is a huge need for prevention work in schools,” she says. She thinks teachers should explain the business strategies of the corporations behind social media platforms, and young students should be given more information and opportunity to reflect on the consequences of social media use.

Van Violence, who spends two to six hours a day on Instagram for work, deliberately spends less time on the platform when she’s not feeling well and spends time with her friends and family instead. “I am aware that this Internet world is not real. Today, a thousand people tell you how great you are, tomorrow it could be quite different. If you don’t have a stable network in the real world then you don’t have anything anymore,” she says. The influencer actually finds her part-time job as a radio presenter more sustainable.

But neither Victoria van Violence, Petra Grimm, nor Dar Meshi demonise social media. They say it’s a unique opportunity to connect with other people. “I can get information in an unconventional way and exchange and learn from very different people,” says van Violence.

We can shape the way we use social media, she says: “If the people I follow give me a bad feeling, for example, I should really stop following them.”

This article was originally published on DW.