The following article is a winning entry in the CREA contest on “Violence And Women: What Remains Unseen “

By  Trippayar Sahasranaman Priyaa:

“Dear diary,
The whole country might stand as one against the crime, yet the eyes of my relatives said it all. I hear people whisper in each other’s ears when they see me walk across the street. The government may hang them or castrate them but what they plucked out of my life can never be restored.”

– From the diary of a rape victim who survived the storm yet struggles in its aftermath.

“I make my living by selling myself, and if I report that I was raped, the society would rather laugh at me. But today I feel dominated, subdued and humiliated, which I never felt when I did what my job needed me to do. It’s about the life long suffering that my mind will undergo, after those horrible eleven minutes.”

– From the heart of a newly made tongue tied slave, whom the world calls ‘prostitute.’

“Who said that girls alone can be victims? Today I learnt that men should be scared of other men too. If my father or mother had taken the care to explain everything to me explicitly as they did with my sister, today I wouldn’t have fallen a prey to the senior boys who left the lower half of mine bleeding and my mental peace shattered forever.”

-The words of a school boy in a world where ignorance is no longer bliss.

“Only three years of sentence for a juvenile? That is sure to promote juvenile crimes. What he learnt in 16 years cannot be unlearnt in three years.”

– A country that is petrified after the judge’s decision for Nirbhaya’s case.

“Dear diary,
It only took me five minutes to shatter the relationship that I built for the last three years. I respect my parents and the bonds that I forged with them are the only reason for me allowing him to tie the knot- It is ‘He’ who I respected as God from the day I married Him until five minutes ago. All that I needed was a little bit of time, to get accustomed to the fact that I am his wife. Yet, He couldn’t wait.
I wonder if I can consider myself on par with Nirbhaya, yet the rapist is my husband. I cannot report this to anybody, not even tell my parents, as they wouldn’t agree with my views on life. I don’t know if I can be called a rape-victim, but all my life my heart will tell me that I am one.”

– From the diary of a lady married to someone else at heart, and raped by her so called husband.

“I filed a rape case on him today, but actually we had consensual sex after he promised to marry me. Today he is behind the bars as he refused to marry me. Am I really a rape victim? My parents told me so.”

– A girl from the society that is confused about culture and morality.