Night school on patriarchy and violence against women.

Bengalaru – another woman molested caught on CCTV camera, silenced by male mob! The latest in a black series of violence targeting women across the country. What’s wrong with this Pan-Indian abuse of Indian women?

Dr. Fatima Shahnaz, Professor, author, journalist and international human rights activist will talk on, and read excerpts from, her two upcoming books to be published called “The Bride Burning” and its sequel, “Girl, Reconstructed”. These two autobiographical narratives tell of her own experience as a battered wife and mother, and how she reconstructed a shattered life as a single parent after the trauma of violence. The books explore the dark side of the toxic legacy of warped cultural conventions and systemic abuse of women. The Bride Burning focuses on psychic and physical abuse; Girl, Reconstructed on the need for reform from obsolete patriarchal systems of male-dominance. Dr. Shahnaz, who grew up in the West but returned to her native Indian culture examines the relativist values and discrimination of women in both West and East.

First Talk (12th Jan): The root-causes of violence: family abuse and discrimination against the girl-child; cultural indoctrination and brainwashing; the fear psychosis instilled in women. Gender selection and female feticide. Societal judgmentalism.

Second Talk(18th Jan): Socio-political cynicism; police and political apparatus. Institutional male chauvinism : Blame-the-Victim attitudes; Sexual objectification of women; role of the media in projecting demeaning stereotypes of gender; pornography of violence.

Third Talk (19th Jan):Dangerous era of public inured to violence and gender discrimination. Corruption and delinquency in male youth. The psychic scars of trauma on victims and need for holistic healing and solutions; time for reform and attitudinal change.