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  • THURSDAY JULY 5 2007 2:00 PM

Sometimes You Need to March Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Submitted by Bitch_PhD

Edited by Bitch_PhD

Tags: india, dowry harassment, political protest



I love this woman.

Rajkot went into convulsions on Wednesday when alleged mental and physical abuse by her husband's family drove a 22-year-old woman to strip to her underwear and walk through the city in protest.

Pooja Chauhan said she had taken to this unique protest after being constantly harassed for not bringing dowry and bearing a girl-child.

Apparently she'd gone to the police station a couple days earlier and poured kerosene on herself (immolation being a sadly not-uncommon way for men or their families to kill wives who don't pony up with enough dowry, as well as a not-uncommon form of suicide by women--though obviously a number of those "suicides" might actually be murders). When the cops didn't do anything, she decided to make her anger just a wee bit more public.

But it's the baseball bat that really gets it. That and the "fuck you" video attached to this news story. Though the still captured here shows you how young and desperate she really is, poor thing.

It's tempting to bitch about the additional news that apparently the authorities are going to have her examined to find out if she's "mentally unsound"--after all, her actions seem entirely rational to me--but one has to admit that, in context, it's not unlikely that she's pretty depressed. On the other hand, I am more inclined to believe initial reports (see video link above) that she was initially arrested for public indecency than I am later statements (see first link) that such rumors are untrue. In any case, kudos to her for refusing to suffer in silence.

In any case, I hope that her shithead husband and inlaws (who *have* been arrested, thank god) are prosecuted for harassing her and that, if she is depressed, the story doesn't turn into "crazy woman makes unfounded accusations against her poor, put-upon husband."

Bitch_PhD thinks that if more women should march through the streets semi-nude carrying baseball bats we'd probably have a more civil society, and thanks Feministe for the story.

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Comments
Osaka

Osaka

SUICIDEGIRL

Poland

JUL 05, 2007 02:21 PM

gah!
its awesome that she did that and is being heard.
but totally depressing that she had to in the first place frown

mingol

mingol

Singapore
July 2005

JUL 05, 2007 02:39 PM

Good for her.

Untimely

Untimely

Chicago, IL
January 2007

JUL 05, 2007 02:51 PM


Sometimes, at night, I stare at the ceiling and wonder why this doesn't happen a whole lot more often.

Unfortunately, I imagine she'll soon just be dismissed as crazy, and business will go on as usual.

Weird that you posted this --- I had just been struggling to cope with this story.

TheFuckOffKid

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

JUL 05, 2007 03:06 PM

mingol said:
Good for her.



+1.

SockPuppet

SockPuppet

I'm lost
July 2006

JUL 05, 2007 03:14 PM

TheFuckOffKid said:

mingol said:
Good for her.



+1.



+1

Untimely

Untimely

Chicago, IL
January 2007

JUL 05, 2007 03:19 PM

I think what she did was great, but now I'm going to have to add her name to my Google News page, because I've started to become really worried about her future well-being at the hands of the police, etc.

Bitch_PhD

Bitch_PhD

I'm lost
February 2007

JUL 05, 2007 03:26 PM

Untimely said:
Weird that you posted this --- I had just been struggling to cope with this story.



"My son tells me: 'You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,'"

There's a boy whose father (since we're talking a sexist family structure, here) should have smacked him a lot more often when he was growing up.

ZenTrixter

ZenTrixter

Portland, OR
October 2002

JUL 05, 2007 03:43 PM

Bitch_PhD said:

There's a boy whose father (since we're talking a sexist family structure, here) should have smacked him a lot more often when he was growing up.



Yeah... violence would have prevented that wrong. Good thinking.

Maybe it's a bit deeper an issue than that, you think?

mingol

mingol

Singapore
July 2005

JUL 05, 2007 03:44 PM

Untimely said:
I think what she did was great, but now I'm going to have to add her name to my Google News page, because I've started to become really worried about her future well-being at the hands of the police, etc.


I'm not so worried about that. The police are more likely indifferent than actually hostile, and women who stand up to dowry-related pressures sometimes become public heroes. What bothers me more is something else you've observed:

Untimely said:
Unfortunately, I imagine she'll soon just be dismissed as crazy, and business will go on as usual.


Sadly, I suspect you may be right about this. The fact that she got attention by stripping in public might end up overshadowing the actual reason she did. If you read the comments posted in response to the stories Bitch_PhD linked to, you'll notice that many of the Indian posters are more disgusted by Pooja Chauhan's "indecent" and "un-Indian" behavior than they are by her in-laws' extortion or the police department's refusal to act.

I'd like to be proven wrong, of course. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

JunkyardAngel

JunkyardAngel

San Gabriel, CA
February 2006

JUL 05, 2007 03:58 PM

I would think that being depressed to live this way IS mentally sound.

GenghisKhan

GenghisKhan

Detroit, MI
January 2004

JUL 05, 2007 04:14 PM

Untimely

Untimely

Chicago, IL
January 2007

JUL 05, 2007 04:28 PM

I'm avoiding the temptation to take up a collection for some of these ...because...um...it would be...uh...wrong. Right?

DownNeck

DownNeck

Jersey City, NJ
March 2006

JUL 05, 2007 04:36 PM

chimehouse said:

Bitch_PhD said:

There's a boy whose father (since we're talking a sexist family structure, here) should have smacked him a lot more often when he was growing up.



Yeah... violence would have prevented that wrong. Good thinking.

Maybe it's a bit deeper an issue than that, you think?



+1

i have trouble believing that a large sexist pig smacking a smaller sexist pig is going to have any impact on their collective sexism

halfjack

halfjack

Allston, MA
June 2005

JUL 05, 2007 04:40 PM

fuck. yes. and reading this after watching born into brothels again tonight, well, yeah.

Jennifer_

Jennifer_

Venezuela
November 2006

JUL 05, 2007 04:47 PM

What a kick ass person, I hope her case turns out well.

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