Mahmood Farooqui, co-director of the film Peepli Live, was sentenced to seven years in jail by a trial court for the rape of a US researcher. The Delhi High Court on Monday set aside that judgement and acquitted him providing him with ‘the benefit of doubt’. The thing with this ‘doubt’ though, is that it existed in people’s minds ever since Farooqui was accused of rape — a result of his top notch credentials.
With the acquittal we have once again pandered to the idea that a man so qualified could not be a rapist even if the victim insists she was raped.
Rape culture perpetuates the notion that a ‘cultured’ man is well above the act of rape, and the judgement therefore is only a means of clearing the doubt that a person like him is even capable of committing rape. This case shows us how we as a people have bought into rape culture, even how we respond to it — no blood and gore, no death, no photo evidence equals no outrage. Hence, no one is demanding Farooqui be hanged or castrated.
It is not so surprising then that these toxic ideas seep into the judiciary. “In such cases , it would be really difficult to decipher whether little or no resistance and a feeble ‘no’ was actually a denial of consent,” the judge said in his order for this case. This makes me wonder if we need Amitabh Bachchan once again playing a role and saying, “No means no. Even a feeble ‘no’ means no.”
Though the ‘no means no, yes means yes’ sloganeering has popularly defined the subject of consent for a while, we could do better than reducing consent to a yes or no binary. Rape is rape no matter when, where, or who. But In intimate relationships, the yes or no could translate to several meanings and what is said is always not intended. As with love and sex itself, consent too is complicated. How then are we to pull up the judiciary for its judgements and people for their judgements, when we are all confused about consent?
By starting with conversations obviously, among people, and among adults, and young adults and all of us in the midst of whom are potential rapists, law makers and judges.
To quote Pallavi Rao whose Facebook post on the subject I most agree with: “What the language of the Farooqui rape judgment tells us, what the “feeble” no means, is that in our rape culture, many heterosexual acts, married or otherwise, WILL have elements of coercion or pressure involved. Because women will always fear being shamed or gaslighted in their most intimate moments, they may never actually say no, or submit sexually even when their ‘no’ is not heard or is dismissed.”
She goes on to add several valid arguments, and asks: “And before we start demanding the law catch up, maybe we can all start by asking what dialogue is possible between consenting adults? What conversations have men initiated with women before becoming sexually involved? What conversations have men initiated before and after sex? How can men be educated into setting better physical boundaries about comfort/discomfort? How do we begin discussing power in the bedroom?”
(The writer is a city-based activist, in-your-face feminist and a media glutton)
Archanaa Seker
seker.archanaa@gmail.com