Cry my nation...

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A communication from a friend requesting for prayer this week. I have cut and pasted as it is….

 

“Please pray for a 12-year-old girl R who was admitted with us a week back with alleged hanging. She was very sick, and she almost died. Now she is better by God's grace. Yesterday she told us that she has been forcefully tied down and sexually abused multiple times by someone in the village. Later that man told her to hang herself. We are trying to file a POSCO case, but the parents are not at all interested. They just want to take her home.”

 

“The police came and interviewed the girl. The parents are refusing to stand by her. Her mother even told the police that the girl is a fool, and she keeps saying things like this. As these things happened 2 weeks ago there are no marks of abuse on her body. So, we don't know how the police will take it forward without any evidence.”

 

“This is apparently a common occurrence in B. Parents of the abused girl rarely support the girl. They would even go to the extremes of killing the girl, but they will rarely file a case against the man who abused her. And without the parents support the police can't do much.”

 

A friend of mine did some research few years back, on such incidences to understand the “world views” behind such unacceptable behaviours of parents and communities. He identified that higher the familism (allegiance to family and need to protect honour of the family) more such behaviours emerge. That is why our nation was the capital of honour killings a few years back. 

 

Protecting the family honour than life of a girl! What others think about the family is more important than life of a girl. Any story or person that challenges others' perceptions about the family or tribe is not worth having around.

 

In one sense, is this not the larger narrative that we see around too? The perception management and silencing any voices that challenge the image we want to promote? As nations, communities and tribes too? 


 

And at times even in our own lives the challenge is to hold these circles together and, in that struggle, end up focusing on what we want others to see, than accepting truth and standing for the truth.

 

Cry my nation, heal me and my nation…From a making life all about "point d'honneur" (Honour and shame) vs living for truth and righteousness.

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