A Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 23
A monograph on rape and sexual violence, which enlists testimonies from three women victims in Dimapur, entitled “Life and Dignity”, was released here today at Sisterhood Network office, Burma Camp. The book, 84-pages long, has been written by the social anthropologist, Dolly Kikon and published by the North Eastern Social Research Center (NESRC), Guwahati.
In the author’s own words, she has placed the infamous lynching of an alleged rapist on March 5 last year as “an opening vignette of this monograph” to explore three points. “First, I describe the everyday lives of survivors of sexual violence, and highlight how their experiences and trauma cut across ethnic community, class and religion in the city of Dimapur.
“Secondly, I explain how testimonies of survivors and the existing culture of impunity need to be understood within a context of power relations, inequality and poverty in a militarized society. Finally, recognizing the ongoing advocacy work to rehabilitate survivors in Nagaland, this monograph traces the cultural debates on domestic and sexual violence and highlights how women’s rights and gender justice is often perceived as a threat to the existing social order in Naga society.”
Also speaking at the book launch, publisher (and director of NESRC) Dr Melvil Pereira stressed on the need to publicize, not the book, but the theme of the book. “This book will be disturbing. And that disturbance should make us act (against sexual crimes),” he shared.
He also identified three central messages of the book: context, culture and call. According to him, the author identifies sexual violence within the “larger context of Nagaland as a militarized society” as well as in the “Naga context” of a “patriarchal society.”
It also brings forth the culture of impunity and acquiescence which, according to him, took roots under the protection of the inhuman Arm Forces (Special Powers) Act. This “culture of impunity”, Pereira said, has been gradually passed on from the armed forces to the “Naga civil society”.
The other message of the book is the call to “wake up” and fight against sexual violence in its multiple dispositions, according to Dr Pereira. He shared that the Naga society’s tendency to tolerate sexual violence was quite disturbing.
Alongla Aier, the director of Sisterhood Network, also described the author’s work as a “courageous step” to confront social evils “in simple story telling.”
