Women around the world suffer horrendous crimes mostly done by men, but it's not always the big crimes that can have a mental toll on you. Sometimes a stranger staring dead at you from across the road or an unidentified man following you to college is enough to give shivers down your spine. Most of you might have encountered such an inappropriate act at least once in your life. Worst, this is fun for them. They find nothing wrong in making obscene gestures casually.
It is hard to comprehend what really goes into the mind of men while committing such acts. Are men unaware of the amount of fear and trauma they induce in a woman? Don't they get, it is terrifying for a woman to move around with such experiences? I recently went through a similar incident and it was disgusting.
Men Make Casual Obscene Gestures
Let me narrate this, Yesterday, I was walking around my balcony talking to a friend on call. The two middle-aged men may be in their 30s. They stared at me constantly from the terrace of a house from the lane across mine. At this point, I didn't pay much attention to them and kept chattering with my friend.
Suddenly I noticed that these men started to wave at me with both of their hands up in the air to catch my attention, as soon as I tilted my face towards them, they began making obscene gestures towards me which made me so uncomfortable that I went inside my room quickly. They started to laugh loudly enough for me to hear. This really made me uncomfortable and terrified to the core. Soon I informed about it to our hostel authorities, who held the men accountable for their actions.
At that one moment, my head started wrapping around too many dangerous thoughts. For instance- What if they follow me on my way to college? What if they take revenge on me for making a complaint? That's when I realised that speaking up against something like this is not just everyone's cup of tea. But as most women give up on taking action against such men, all these cases keep rising. This was me, a little woke woman, think of women who do not have voice. They endure it, tolerate, think how days for them look like. The mobility is hindered because women are constantly forced to think what if something goes wrong.
Recently female cops from Ahmedabad were subjected to lewd gestures by two men while they were patrolling near the Sabarmati riverfront in plain clothes. Not only this but a taxi driver was arrested in Mumbai a few days back for making inappropriate gestures towards school girls near a school. These acts are enough to show that these shameless men don't even think about the person or the impact their actions can cause on their minds.
It feels really traumatic to go through something like this but to make sure these men don't repeat this with anyone else because it's better to take action instead of feeling guilty later after finding out that someone else became the accused's victim, we need to break through the barrier of fear and hesitation and should always make sure they are held accountable for their lewd acts, to create a safe environment for all the women around us.
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