Girls, bring it on!

EVE-TEASING is perhaps the only term that implies the victim is at fault for the wrong being done. A palliative for despicable offenses, each of which amounts to a "little rape," eve-teasing refers to the temptress nature of Eve. It puts the blame on women as tease, as if it's their provocation that draws aggressive response from men.
If young girls have been taking their lives, it must be because every time men teased them, they must have teased themselves many times more. In their minds these girls must have failed to understand the contradiction in terms. They must have wondered in their bewildered minds what they had done to deserve the humiliation they suffered in inconsiderate hands.
What led those girls to their premature death must have been some kind of existential despair. There is something terribly sad about the whole thing. If we look at it, eve- teasing is a kind of courtship, a bizarre and deadly kind of it for that matter. Lewd stares, rude remarks, winking eyes, and groping hands formulate the ecology of an obsessive impulse straying in sexual advance.
For some reason, this obsessive obsession is more common in this sub-continent than anywhere else. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the hypermarkets of histrionics where roadside Romeos mistake risqué for romance. These Romeos don't believe in winning of hearts. For them sidewalk dalliance is full-blown affair.
Time magazine reported in 1960 that eve-teasing was "a new kind of problem" for the post-independence India. Sampurnanand, the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, wailed, "The minds of today's young men are a madhouse." His words are still as good half-a-century later. In India a woman is molested every 26 minutes and a woman is raped every 34 minutes. New Delhi is now known as the "rape capital" of South Asia.
One speaker at the Indian Youth Association seminar held in 1960 described a survey he had made which indicated 36.9% of Indian people suffered from boredom, 49.7% from blighted hopes, 26.7% from emotional depression, 6.4% from sexual frustration, and 49.9% from "a polluted and unwholesome atmosphere." The point he was trying to make is that there is a connection between social discontent and unbecoming conduct.
Whether or not it's an expression of an upset society, eve-teasing is a kind of sickness, a personality disorder that is symptomatic not only of disturbing youth but also of upbringing. Why don't young men do it in more civilised countries? Yes, there are rapes in those countries. Yes, women are abused in those countries as well. Yes, men in those countries often fail to show respect to women. Perhaps it has to do with social values and strict laws.
But eve-teasing is a category under itself. It's definitely lack of respect for women. The way it's even worse is that it makes a public spectacle out of that disrespect. It reduces woman from an object of desire to an object of ridicule. And, there is something stupid about it. Men in their prime of youth want to attract girls by being repulsive to them.
What is the reason behind this stupidity then? Is it because the young men are going through a testosterone surge? While it may be partially true, there must be a more convincing cause. The entire country is floating on a wanton tide where everybody does what he likes. Elections are rigged, and it's called democracy. Nothing gets done, and it's called bureaucracy. They don't protect us but we call them police. So, what is wrong if young minds take the liberty of playing their own game of contradiction? They are hurting girls and calling it seduction.
Grim statistics. The Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) reported couple of years back that almost 90% of girls aged 10-18 in this country underwent eve-teasing at some point of life. What does it exactly mean? When a man feels attracted to a woman, it's supposed to be healthy. It's also healthy when he feels aroused. But this country has lots of desperate men who overexert themselves under the false notion that sniffing around the kitchen is half of eating.
It appears that the problem is creating its own solution, or, should we say, its own aberration. We hear stories of young girls calling males at random, and if wives answer, these Adam-teasers hang up with a shocked cry that the men they were calling never told them they were married. What that can do to a conjugal life is anybody's guess.
Caution for the eve-teasers of today! If they aren't caught for their crimes, the crime might catch up with them. The victims may not forgive. When married, the victimisers could get the taste of their own medicine. Girls, bring it on. Please don't take your lives. Fight back.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a columnist for The Daily Star.
Email: [email protected].