Invitation to support Besharmi Morcha

Dear Friends, On a daily basis, a woman on the road does more than just walk to a destination in mind. She does that in an almost ready-for-battle state of avoiding the stares, hoots, haws, comments, gropes, grabs, and more advanced combinations from elements on the streets. All the while, being on a defensive best, because if she does run into any of these, she will have to explain why she’s been “inviting trouble”. Built on this everyday experience, sexual harassment and rape is at an all time high in our country. It has become instant nature for our authorities and our public to develop a very false perception that the victim puts herself in a place of trouble by dressing provocatively, maintaining a promiscuous lifestyle, alluding to “western” norms of living, etc. As a result, not only are we culturing wrong ideas about sexual abuse, we’re also allowing it to become a deeper part of our social fabric. And all along, we’re using wrong methods to combat this growing disease. SlutWalk as a movement started in Toronto, when a police officer as part of a lecture said that “women should stop dressing like sluts” if they don’t want to get raped. It is part of a worldwide grassroots movement challenging rape culture, victim-blaming, social judgment and working to end sexual and domestic violence. This movement has spread rapidly spread across the world . Recently the first slutwalk in India happened in New Delhi popularly known as “Besharmi March”. We felt, that the movement would be extremely relevant in a place like Bangalore, where sexual abuse takes place on so many levels on a daily basis. And of course, the fact that victims are blamed for “bringing it upon themselves” ever-so-often here in India added to our drive and belief in the legitimacy of the movement here in Bangalore. Supporters may wish to claim “slut” as a positive label of sexual freedom, ridicule the arbitrary nature of the insult, or do away with the violence of such language altogether, but ultimately we need to strategize as a group to end sexual violence. We believe that no matter who you are, where you work, what you wear, whom you choose to love, or what you said before: NO ONE has the right to touch you without your consent. We need to COME TOGETHER. As people from all gender expressions and orientations, all walks of life, levels of employment and education, all races, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, from all points of this city and elsewhere. We are asking you to join hands to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights and to demand respect for all. However, we want to do much more than just a symbolic “walk”. Many of the events we had in mind would need the experience and expertise of people involved in fields ranging from gender study to child sexual abuse. Hence, we want to call for an open meeting, to seek your opinions and involvement in the endeavours we have planned out. Please check the attached event brief (both in kannada and english) for a list of the activities we had in mind, and do let us know a time that is most convenient. Time: 5 PM, Date: 3rd Oct, 2011 Venue: Alternative Law Forum, 122/4, Infantry Road (Opposite Wedding House) Bangalore 560001 (Nearest bus stop – Shivajinagar Depot) Contact no- 96860 18042 Warm regards,