Adda sees lively exchange on violence against women

kolkata: several rounds of steaming tea, brownies and cookies were passed around as the adda session at the oxford bookstore hotted up. theatre personalities, journalists, professors, women's rights activists and volunteers of sanlaap, the organisers of the fortnight long programme organised to protest against violence on women, were present discussing issues relating to sexual abuse of women and children, gender variants and violence.bold questions from the audience were thrown up and discussed at length relating to the sense of intimacy of a woman which keeps her from opening up in public to being conscious when the four letter word is used by a woman in front of her male colleagues at work place. experiences were shared at the same platform and the vulnerability of a woman was talked about openly. "there have been times when i was refused night shifts simply because i am a woman. when i was finally given the opportunity i was physically assaulted. it is strange how your sexuality is turned against you," said a woman from the audience. some agreed that the way a girl child is brought up is to a great extent responsible for her attitude and her insecurity in the society. "we are often asked not to make an issue of our needs and wants," voiced one of the volunteers from sanlaap. the audience became even more vocal when a research made by sakshi, a delhi based ngo dealing with legal issues in 1995 was read out by theatre personality mehmood alam. according to the research which was based on the interview of 109 judges across the country 74 per cent of them believed it was the primary concern of a women to look after her family's needs inspite of being subjected to domestic violence. the study also revealed that 55 per cent believed that the moral character of a woman is to a great extent responsible for sexual harassment, a shocking 45 per cent justified that it was normal for a husband to slap his wife occasionally, 50 per cent agreed that child sexual abuse is not uncommon, a staggering 68 per cent believed that provocative clothes is responsible for the cause of sexual harassment, 34 per cent believed that dowry is an inherent cultural value and a mere 9 per cent of them believed that woman who refuse to have sex often mean yes. the hindi version of the play, the rape, was also enacted by sancheta bhattacharya and directed by mehmood alam. the soul stirring performance by bhattacharya reflected what a woman goes through when she is raped. "i was enacting the play so it was easier for me. but it has been very difficult for me to enact it. after a number of workshops i was able to do this role," she said.