STOP RAPE CULTURE

In the early mornings of Varanasi, the holy river flew passionately making a glorious sound; the birds flew high in the sky starting their day in the reflection of sunrise with the shades of yellow and slight orange. The folks were standing in their balconies and admiring the city before they saw a dead body being taken to the ghats. 

There walked a woman in between the group of men, she looked about thirty and was oddly dressed. Her dress was torn and there were patches of blood all over it. There were strange marks of palms all over her body, especially at the hands and near the breasts, she seemed unconscious, scared and burnt out and was crying intensely. But no one paid attention to her, she was too weird to be a creature on earth, her leg was broken and feet was covered with bright red blood, strands of hair were covering her face and the kohl was spread around the eyes. It looked as if the woman had serious injuries, her neck was not able to move up. 

People murmured thinking who must have died this early in the morning, or who is going to be burnt into ashes at this time, the ghats aren't even ready yet. They paid their respects by chanting the mantra and went to the backward varandas of the house to see if the ghats were ready.

The natives who arranged the woods were shockingly reacting to the news of a young girl dying. It was a tragic view, as the body was kept on the woods, the man was about to set up the fire. All of them had tears in their eyes and the father put the fire to the piles of wood with guilt and numbness in his eyes. 

The woman's voice broke as she shouted "No" loudly and fell on her knees with her head touching the ground. The woman was miserable  to see the view of her daughter dying for his father raped her. She cried even more loudly, slightly trying to move her neck upwards to see a glimpse of her daughter ascending to heaven. She tried standing up but failed and fell again. She said "Women are not supposed to come to the ghats where they burn bodies, maybe, because they are emotionally fragile. It will hurt their sentiments to see a body burning brutally but what about the women who were burnt after getting raped? What about them who themselves burnt every single day because they have to live with tag of being raped? I died several times when my husband, whom I thought I loved, pushed me down the wall every night to satisfy his male ego. And then when he brought his friends home and each one of them raped me turn by turn, caused me physical harm, choked me and broke my neck, I died with the fear of leaving my young daughter into the hands of a criminal and as my worst fear came true, he raped and killed her too. Benaras, as they say, is a holy city. The ancient and beautiful city but what about the women here? Are they safe? No city in this world is holy if the women are unsafe. I thought that this would be over when I finally leave the world as my body was shedding off blood because of them but I live up to this day, to see my daughter getting raped and today is when my soul dies and finally reunites with my daughter and other women who are waiting up there for this culture to stop. And one day, when this happens, even the dead will live, the world will be a place to live for the ones who actually create it."