ABOUT POST
A journalist takes stock of their women and ours and the ghastly overlap of the hate-driven politics and patriarchy that never lets half of humanity come into its own.
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Two nights ago, coming out of a ‘no connectivity’ zone in a remote part of Ladakh, what my phone feed flashed was a video already viral – two terrified Kuki women, paraded naked and sexually abused by a mob of Meitei men in Manipur.
On WhatsApp, I found several groups from across the Northeast where the video was already the major point of discussion. What stood out as a common strain in all of those chats was: How could our men do this to our women? Is this our Northeast? Are these our men?
On Instagram, a prominent Assamese who organises a Northeast festival in New Delhi and elsewhere commented: “Disgusting. Manipur, you have let all of us (read Northeasterner) down.”
On Twitter, the first post that popped up on my screen was from a young politician and former student leader of Assam, Luringjyoti Gogoi. “Always used to take pride in the level of respect for women in the Northeast. Yesterday’s video from Manipur has shattered and devastated me…Are we allowing ourselves to become animals?” he tweeted.