Farooq Abdullah: #India’s #Feminist Revolution Begins! You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet!
Farooq Abdullah extreme R at the inauguration of an all-women bank!
India’s Union minister Farooq Abdullah while entering the Parliament, said “I am afraid of talking to women. In fact I don’t even want to keep a woman secretary, God forbid, if there’s a complaint against me and I end up in jail. Such is the state of affairs today. I agree that incidents of rape have increased…but this has to stop somewhere.”
He was responding to two cases recently where a woman journalist working for the magazine Tehelka, and a law intern working for a Supreme Court Judge filed complaints about sexual harassment and sexual assault by their bosses in their work place, which raised a huge public and media outcry. Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal has now been jailed on rape charges. And a Supreme Court Committee decided that the Judge in question, Justice Ganguly was responsible for “unwelcome verbal/non-verbal conduct of sexual nature” in a hotel room in December last year. There is increasing public demand for criminal action against him.
Though the sexual harassment law [The Vishakha Law] in India is 15 years old most institutions including the Supreme Court did not have the mandatory mechanisms / guidelines to deal with sexual harassment complaints in place.
These two cases of women coming forward are rare in India! Yet they seem to unsettle men in top positions. Already there is talk of magazines not wanting to hire women journalists and law offices whispering that they’ll avoid women interns!
The message that these men seem to be sending out is: Sexual predation on women is a perk of the workplace for men! Either women submit, or we cut you out of the workplace altogether!
The women of India must band together and push forward. These two women have shown the way! And more women must come forward.
We must settle for nothing less than equality of work opportunities and equality of human dignity and human rights in our work places and in our homes.
LET’S TAKE THIS REVOLUTION FORWARD!
Trackbacks
- Farooq Abdullah: Indiens #feministische #Revolution beginnt! Dies ist erst der Anfang! | The 50 Million Missing Campaign: "50 Millionen verschwunden"
- Farooq Abdullah: La Révolution #Féministe de l’#Inde Commence ! Vous N’avez Encore Rien Vu ! | The 50 Million Missing Campaign: Les 50 Millions Manquantes
THE 50 MILLION MISSING CAMPAIGN BLOG ON INDIA'S FEMALE GENDERCIDE 
can’t believe this. and coming from a man who has been the chief minister of J&KL for so many years also he has been married to a European woman for so many years. does not seem to have had any pro women impact on him, as European women -one assumes – have better working conditions. anyway it is all the more reason for us Indian feminists to not to settle for anything less than equal rights and humanly dignified working conditions for women.
Reblogged this on REVOLUTIONS IN MY SPACE: A BLOG BY RITA BANERJI.
If you can’t tolerate sexual harassment scandals, then prosecute & punish the assaulters and rapists.
If you can’t tolerate women speaking up against violence at work, then it is high time you retired (Farooq Abdullah is almost 80). Maybe a woman will take your place and will better face these urgent challenges.
These two cases of sexual harassment (actually sexual assault — which is beyond the purview of sexual harassment) is so rare in India. But obviously men in power see this as a threat, only if they think it is a something they can no longer get away with.
@ dike…these are personal comments of a person irrespective of his position..if he doesnt want to keep women in his office it is his personal way and attitude. this doesnt mean he has to retire and a women to fill his seat but a capable person irrespective of his/her gender to fulfill the seat.
@Response — Abdullah is a man holding a political office commenting on women bringing sexual harassment complaints in the work place in the Supreme Court. He is not a fish-monger sitting in the market passing a random remark. As citizens of India we are all obliged to hold our public officials accountable for every public comment they make. Thank you @Dike — we all must keep up the effort to clean up our government and work places!
Sums up the attitude of men in India, many men if not all. When a woman cries for help/speaks out against sexual assault, they think she is lying. What is Farooq afraid of by hiring women in his office? That they are going to lie and drag him into a scandal? Shame on you for thinking that Farooq!
Equal rights? In that case, all laws have to be gender neutral and gender should not be a criteria for punishing a person for any action. Remove all he gender biased laws where a man’s gender is considered as a crime. Let feminists practice what they preach.
Yes sexual harassment and rape are gender neutral laws.
The comment was fair. The feminists laws have become so idiotic that it is impossible for genders to interact without breaking gender biased laws. When Men’s Activists says avoid talking to women, they are referring to those idiotic laws. When Indian Cabinet Minister said men are fearful to talk to women, he was referring to those laws. Now UK university wants gender segregation. In the face of idiotic laws, gender segregation is the only way out?? We ask men to avoid women, for their own safety. Why to take unnecessary chances, better safe than sorry.
Sounds like you are saying Farooq Abdullah is a “men’s activist” lobbying for men’s rights to continue harassing and abusing women? Yes, we’ve got plenty of men’s activists in India!
if this is what Mens Rights Movement is all about i feel sorry for them. i thought the men’s movement would be -similar to women’s movement- reflecting about the impacts of socialisation on their own role as men, how to improve that and how to undo the negativities of being a man as the dominant system demands from them and all that. but if segregation is their goal, they are again evading a change in their . mentality and behaviour.
i totally agree with what sahitha has said. it is a shame that a guy like FA wih all his exposure and even a european woman as wife thinks like that. i am sorry to say this that many men in valley today are as anti woman as he has openly expressed it. they do not want their women to work outside homes because they know themselves, their own behaviours towards other women and so they dont trust other men either and keep their women confined to their households. it is a shame that they call this protection of their women. i can only say “women arise!”
How can you blame Farooq Abdullah,for expressing his concerns.We all know he is a well respected personality and a very successful politician.The heights he had acheived has not come over nigh.It is a result of his relentless hard work over a long period of time.Being a successful politician is not an easy job as opposition (or even people in the same party)will always try to spoil your image in order to get political mileage.Imagine if Farooq Abdullah has appointed a woman as his private secretary.We all know how dirty is our politics these days.What if someone offer his female private secretary a large amount of money for accusing sexual assault or even rape.She can easily make evidence for rape by having sex with him(with consent).You may say that farooq can deny her advances and it is his fault.But it is near to impossible for a man to say no to the sexual advances of a woman,unless the man have some problems regarding his sexual urges..It is the way nature made almost all male animals and human male is no different.As the facts are such why would a successful politician in his prime want to spoil his career or even his life, by making such a decision….?Although even a male private secretary or sub ordinate can also be influenced by money,atleast sexual accusation can be prevented.I have a question for you,Mrs Rita.What is your observation on the recent increase in number of people in high position being accused of rape ..?Do you believe that it is a result of the good work done by feminist groups… ?My observation is that although there is some influence by women’s group and their work in upbringing this issue but the larger roles are played by men who want to put dirt on their opponents face.This is not a problem for feminist or women as they are not affected in any means .But it is a big problem for men especially in power as any one can use a woman to accuse sex abuse against them and spoil their entire carier and good work they had done in all their life time(by saying this, once again i am admitting that men are highly sexual and can be easily driven into sexual intercourse by any woman and it is the way nature design us).It is a matter of choice for those men in power to appoint women as their subordinates (like women in power has their choice) and why would any one interfere in personal choices…..?
This is the problem..shoot the messenger.The arrogance of feminism…not tolerant to any other point of view…even if you do not agree with it….
What Mr Abdullah said is what Many Men fear in India…why…the reasons are…
1) Feminist dictated..Gender bias laws…which say Men are second class citizens…have less rights than Woman.laws assume that ..Males are born criminals..and women are always right….what ever a woman says is correct..
2) The fear is…whenever there is an allegation..MEN ARE NOT PERMITTED TO PRESENT HIS CASE EVEN…media tears him apart…arrest & torture follows…without hearing the man…
3) The accused has to submit the proof that he is not guilty…asking proof from the accuser is ridiculed and opposed by media and feminists….
4) Even if the accused is lucky to prove his innocence after years of torture….he looses everything…
so the fear is MERE ALLEGATION is enough to hang the person…
if the feminist and lynch mob do not want to see this and promote the shoot and run culture..and hang the men…well go ahead & carry on please…