If thinking, according to René Descartes, is what makes us exist, I would cease to exist in the coming days. The daily reports of sexual abuse, domestic violence, acid attacks, and abductions of girls, irrespective of their age, make me unable to comprehend the real driving force behind the surge in the number of such cases. Every day, a new scenario emerges that proves to be an exception to every possible reason or cause we have predicted so far.

This culmination and diversity of violence make me stumble in my thoughts, urging me to stop this quest to find a specific reason. This would ultimately declare me, and anyone who can relate to me, non-existent. This non-existence turns into normalization, rendering it not only dangerous at a personal level but at a societal level too. Being unable to think eventually leaves us distant and aloof from the victims, turning society into a selfish aggregation of people.

Beyond the State: The Unspoken Role of Individual and Family Responsibility

We are always focusing on the state’s responsibility, the courts’ obligations, civil society’s duties, and the media’s role in preventing such incidents, but we rarely take individual or personal responsibility into consideration. We never dare to call out the wrong, entrenched cultural practices that reinforce the occurrence of such incidents. We never dare to look at the situation from the perspective of the victim.

This does not mean that we are trying to evade the culprit from all his responsibility or shift the blame towards the victim. Rather, for the sake of enlightenment, we need to read and criticize the other supporting acts and circumstances in the same way that we question the state’s........

© Paradigm Shift