Heena often dreamt of a chaotic crowd, where she was pushed around, roughly, with hands maligned and lecherous! Each time she seems implicated in some kind of on-going circumstance. She wakes up with a start; she’s but a feature of the world that is her existence! That evening, Heena was in two minds, in spite of being assured by her friend, who has been in the UAE for years — that she was in a safe place, she had her doubts! She dropped her son to his cricket coaching centre and thought of taking a walk down the quiet lanes nearby. Her horrid experience in the past, when she was in one of the metropolitan cities of India, seemed to come back to her. The lewd sniggering, the lecherous staring that seemed to shred her clothes into pieces laying bare the shamed soul of a woman. Later, she was condemned, blamed and rebuked for provoking such behaviour from men just because she had worn a track suit!
However, the walk down the lanes that night, in Dubai, led Heena to think highly of the nation that UAE is, where women are not only safe but respected. Within a span of 40 minutes, two police patrol cars did their rounds. There was something calm and peaceful about the darkness that evening. She felt liberated in mind and spirit.
A complaint registered by a woman wronged is addressed immediately, without the authorities judging or ridiculing the victim. A recent visit to a car registration centre was such a pleasant one. There was a separate enclosure for women to ensure her comfort and safety as she waited. The officers were hands on ... helpful and respectful. It really feels that the nation has been sanitised, cleansed and devoid of leering and indecent gestures and action.
I also marvel at the little girls learning to ride at the horse riding club near my house, so fearless and happy as they trot and canter, knowing very well that they have the right to dream and live their dreams too.
A true indicator of a progressive nation and its leaders is how it empowers and safeguards the woman. The respect bestowed on her and the freedom given to her to take on the world with gusto. This country has had this magical effect on me to live my dreams ... the unwritten, encaged stories that lay imprisoned somewhere within seemed to surface.
However, the past few days have been heinously ugly for me as screams of helplessness reverberate within me — the screams of an eight-year-old as she was torn apart by wolves within the confines of a house of prayer, in Kathua, India. What could be more ironical than this? It has sent an eerie chill through the heart of every parent who probably has a daughter. The knot in my stomach refuses to disentangle.
It all took me back to a time when I was a seven-year-old. My mother and aunt had gone out shopping, with me in tow. The sun had just set and the two ladies were frantic as we could not see any conveyance in sight. As we waited for a rickshaw desperately, there were some young men, emitting raucous cat calls. Promptly my aunt covered me with a shawl and held me tight, in her arms. Fortunately we sighted a rickshaw, we hurriedly got into it and the two ladies heaved a sigh of relief, vowing never to come out this late for shopping. I reckon that was my first brush with the harsh reality of this lewd world, the world that makes you squirm and wonder, is it really safe to be a woman? Through the dusty window light, this malicious morning — I’d rather you make it “indifferent morning” — I recalled my school friend whom I had lost to a gruesome case of monstrosity in Kolkata, on a road that was known to be so safe once upon a time. She fought till the end, standing up stolidly against the perpetrators, the law and the derision cast against her. Things have not changed, unluckily. We have prodded into a realm that’s worse.
Mita, a friend quipped: “We need neighbourhood patrols in every locality [in India] manned by volunteers to keep our children safe. It’s too much to hope for a mindset change to deter the creepy crawlies!”
Far away from that world, I am now blessed to be in a country where I may walk out of the house anytime, without the slightest fear of being even looked at in a disrespectful manner. Here’s a nation where a woman can rely on the safe hands of the law, shorn of the worry and shame that is so often sewn into her being. I salute the nation and its leaders to encourage women to flap their wings and fly fearlessly.
Navanita Varadpande is a writer based in Dubai.
