The meaning of the word ‘witch hunt’ has been applied to so many rich powerful men finally being caught out doing something disgusting and criminal that it’s become really diluted.
So let’s backtrack a bit: from the 14th to the 17th century, in Europe and consequently America, women who were a bit different somehow would be accused of being witches. They would then be forced to undergo tests such as ‘we’re going use a purpose-built machine to dunk you in the water until you can barely breathe and guess what, if you survive, you’re a witch, and if you die? You’re innocent.’
This damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t approach still exists today. And we don’t mean someone or other bleating about how Jeremy Clarkson totally deserved to keep his job at the BBC. We mean in India, right now where a woman’s being forced to do a test to prove her purity after being raped.
The woman in question was raped and became pregnant as a result. But as well as being denied an abortion by the Gujarat High Court, she has been ordered to undergo a ritual called Agnipariksha (which means ‘test of fire’) to ‘prove her purity’ so she can return to the home she shares with her husband.
This test? Oh, just balancing a 40kg rock on her head, reports India Today.
40kg. That’s 88 pounds. That’s six stone and four pounds. That’s not something a pregnant woman should be carrying in a wheelalong suitcase, let alone balancing on her head. The only way she could actually balance it is if this ‘purity’ that women somehow hold until they’re set upon by men who think it’s their right to take them as if they’re property, is actual magic. Like sexual purity is a superpower that women can either have or not have, and their life depends on having it.
She said she’s living in fear and that her attacker has threatened to kill her when he’s released from prison. But with challenges like this ahead, it looks as if she might not even have to worry about that.
Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, five women were publicly humiliated for hours and then killed because the death of a boy had, according to their drunk assailants, been down to their ‘witchcraft’.
So when you see people using the phrase ‘witch hunt’, just remember what it really means…
Like this? You might also be interested in:
YouTube Raps, Bamboo Stick Vigilantes And Girl Gangs – India’s Got A Feminist Movement And It’s Big
India Bans Documentary About Delhi Bus Rape Because MPs Say It’s ‘Derogatory’ To Women
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.