Fact-finding
by
a Women's Panel
Syeda Hameed, Muslim Women?s Forum, Delhi
Ruth Manorama, National Alliance of Women, Bangalore
Malini Ghose, Nirantar, Delhi
Sheba George, Sahrwaru, Ahmedabad
Farah Naqvi, Independent Journalist, Delhi
Mari Thekaekara, Accord, Tamil Nadu

Sponsored by
Citizen?s Initiative, Ahmedabad [India]

April 16, 2002  

     In many ways women have been the central characters in the Gujarat carnage, and their
     bodies the battleground. The Gujarati vernacular press has been the agent provocateur.
     The story starts with Godhra, where out of the 58 Hindus burnt, 26 were women and
     14 children. But to really arouse the passions of the Hindu mob, death is not enough.
     Far worse than death is the rape of Hindu women - for it is in and on the bodies of
     these women that the izzat (honour) of the community is vested. So on February 28th,
     Sandesh, a leading Gujarati Daily, in addition to reporting the Godhra tragedy in
     provocative language, also ran a story on Page 1 saying the following: "10-15 Hindu
     women were dragged away by a fanatic mob from the railway compartment". The
     same story was repeated on Page 16 with the heading "Mob dragged away 8-10
     women into the slums". The story was entirely false. The Police denied the incident, and
     other newspapers, including the Times of India could not find confirmation of this news.
     A day later, on March 1, 2002 Sandesh carried a follow-up to this false story on Page
     16 with the heading - "Out of kidnapped young ladies from Sabarmati Express, dead
     bodies of two women recovered - breasts of women were cut off." [8][8] Violation of
     Hindu honour was now compounded by extreme sexual violence and bestiality. Both
     the abduction and the cutting of breasts were lies - totally baseless stories, which were
     denied by the Police. The fact-finding team was told that later Sandesh did publish a
     small retraction, buried in some corner of its pages. But the damage had been done.
     The murder and rape of Hindu women, emblazoned in banner headlines across the
     vernacular press became the excuse, the emotional rallying point, the justification for
     brutalizing Muslim women and children in ways not ever seen in earlier communal
     carnages. Unhonne hamari auraton aur bachchon par hamla kiya hai. Badla to lena tha
     (they have attacked our women and children we had to take revenge) - goes the
     sentiment of the angry Hindu. The newspaper literally became a weapon of war.
     According to a series of eyewitness accounts from Naroda Patia, the worst affected
     area in Ahmedabad, the mobs who attacked Muslim shops, homes, and brutalized
     Muslim women and children, were brandishing in their hands not only swords and
     stones, but copies of the Sandesh with the Godhra attack as the banner headline,
     shouting "khoon ka badla khoon" (blood for blood).
 

     This one false story about the rape and brutalizing of Hindu women has spread like
     wildfire across Gujarat, almost assuming proportions of folklore. It now rests easily in
     the annals of undisputed common knowledge, and cannot be dislodged. Where ever
     the fact-finding team went, we heard some version of this story, spreading through
     word of mouth, through the channels of overworked rumour mills - sometimes it was
     10 Hindu women raped, sometimes it was 6 Hindu women - but the essential contours
     remained the same. In one place we heard details like "The Muslims took the Hindu
     women to their madrasa and gang-raped them there." Because the madrasa is the site
     of learning, raping women there projects the perpetrators as truly bestial men to whom
     nothing is sacred. In another village, "Hindu women" had been replaced by "Adivasi
     women" and this was given as the justification for Adivasi participation in the attacks on
     Muslims.
 

     When the fact-finding team met Aziz Tankarvi, editor of Gujarat Today, known to
     represent the Muslim voice? He said clearly. " Murder ho jata hai, chot lagti hai, to
     aadmi chup sahan kar leta hai, lekin agar maa, behen, beti ke saath ziyadti hoti hai to
     voh jawaab dega, badla lega." (When someone is murdered you are hurt. But man can
     bear it quietly; it is when your mothers and daughters are violated, then he definitely
     responds, takes revenge). The fact that rape is perceived in this manner (as violating the
     honour of men, and not the integrity of women) is problematic in and of itself. What is
     particularly heinous is the fact that the Sandesh newspaper should fabricate stories of
     sexual violence, and use images of brutalized women?s bodies as a weapon of war; in
     terrible ways deliberately designed to provoke real violence against women from the
     Muslim community. What provocative lies a la Sandesh do, is to provide justification
     for the carnage - both in the minds of the mobs who carry out the violence, and in the
     minds of the general "Hindu" public which may be far removed from the site of the
     violence.
 

     Ironically while false stories about the rape of Hindu women have done the rounds,
     there has been virtual silence in the media, including in the English language papers,
     about the real stories of sexual violence against Muslim women. Barring Gujarat Today,
     none of the Gujarati vernacular papers has carried stories about the brutal, bestial ways
     in which Muslim women were raped and burnt. Even Gujarat Today, despite being
     sympathetic to the Muslim experience, could only supply us with one clipping where the
     brutal experience of rape has been written about. The Times of India, since the
     beginning of the carnage, until April 1,2002, carried only one story about rape. The
     excuse was March 8th, International Women?s Day (TOI, 9/3/02, "Women?s Day
     Means Nothing for Rape Riot Victims"). When members of the fact-finding team spoke
     to senior journalists in Ahmedabad, their explanation was that rape stories are
     provocative, and that in the early days of the violence, they had to play a socially
     responsible role, and not incite more violence. But in the weeks that followed, the Press
     has continued to do self-censorship about rape stories.[9][9]
 

     We find that, yet again Muslim women are being victimized twice over. They have
     suffered the most unimaginable forms of sexual abuse during the Gujarat carnage. And
     yet, there is no one willing to tell their stories to the world. Women?s bodies have been
     employed as weapons in this war - either through grotesque image-making or as the
     site through which to dishonour men, and yet women are being asked to bear all this
     silently. Women do not want more communal violence. But peace cannot be bought at
     the expense of the truth, or at the expense of women?s right to tell the world what they
     have suffered in Gujarat.
 

     SCARS ON THE MIND
 
     Saira age 12, Afsana, age 11, Naina, age 12, Anju, age 12, Rukhsat, age 9, Nilofer,
     age 10, Nilofer, age 9, Hena, age 11
 
 
     They're all survivors from the horrors of Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad where more than
     80 people were burnt alive and many women raped and maimed in what is probably
     the worst carnage in the current spiral of violence. The girls are young and making
     sense of what they have seen and heard seems impossible. But they have been scarred
     for life, their trust in Hindus shattered. They speak of ?evil Hindus?. The Hindu who
     burnt our home. The Hindu who didn?t let us escape.
 

     Some of them have seen with their eyes things no child should see. Others have only
     heard things. But they are still things no child should hear. "Hinduon ne bura kaam
     kiya"(Hindus have done ?bad things? - a euphemism for rape), they tell us, as their eyes
     shift uneasily. They look at each other as if seeking silent affirmation of what none of
     them really comprehended.

     Or, did they?

     "Balatkaar" (Rape) - they know this word. "Mein bataoon Didi" (Shall I tell you?),
     volunteers a nine year old, "Balatkaar ka matlab jab aurat ko nanga karte hain aur phir
     use jala deta hain." (Rape is when a woman is stripped naked and then burnt) And then
     looks fixedly at the floor. Only a child can tell it like it is. For this is what happened
     again and again in Naroda Patia - women were stripped, raped and burnt. Burning has
     now become an essential part of the meaning of rape.

     Hindus hate us, they say.
 

     Why?
 

     Because we celebrate all their festivals - we play Holi, we love patakas at Diwali, but
     the Hindus can?t celebrate our festivals. That?s why they?re jealous. So jealous that
     this year they did not even let us take out Tazia processions (in fact the decision to not
     allow tazia processions on the 10th of Moharram was taken by the Muslim community
     itself, for fear of violence).
 
 

     These girls became friends only in the camp, although they all grew up and lived in
     Naroda Patia. Now they will probably share a life-long unspoken bond of victim-hood.
     But they are children still. Resilient. Survivors. Their eyes still bright and curious. They
     even giggle occasionally, as they follow us around Shah-e-Alam, scampering easily
     over human beings scattered like debris around the relief camp. But will they ever
     forget? Will Naina, who once had scores of Hindu friends, have them again? Will she
     trust again?

     Venue: Shah-e-Alam Relief Camp, Ahmedabad
 

     Date: March 27, 2002