Syeda also highlights the stories of fighting women, those who speak out against exploitation - file FIRs; refuse to succumb to brutal backlash; and refuse to succumb to the pressure. Thus, one elderly trustee of DPS, testified that the principal "used his power and position to extract sexual favors from women teachers...." Sheila Rani, a sweeper in DPS, has a street-smart strategy. When the principal tried to molest her, she fought back.

We often read about activists fighting for women's rights encountering apathy and inefficiency within the government system. However, when a woman, who is an integral part of the very system, also fails to get justice for victims, the gravity of the issue becomes all the more glaring. I experienced this while revisiting the book 'They Hang - Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery'. This English book, written by Syeda Saiyidain Hameed (a former member of India’s Planning Commission and National Commission for Women), shares the heart-wrenching stories of twelve victims based on the cases she encountered during her tenure at the National Commission for Women (1997–2000).

The title ‘They Hang - Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery’ is both – creatively unique and painfully apt. The pun on ‘hang’ captures the tragic duality — portraits are meant to honor people’s personalities, but these stories expose injustice, frustration, and agony faced by them. The victims' lives remain suspended in a system that fails them, while the perpetrators walk free.

The book provides a detailed account of the atrocities suffered by these twelve women. The most upsetting part is that even the country’s top institution for women’s rights could not help them get justice. Syeda shares her frustration and anger about how the system bends to protect the personal or political interests of powerful men, ignoring the rights of the victims and women in general. The disappointment and disillusionment have fueled her desire to write this deeply personal, poignant and honest book.

The injustices described in the book, unfortunately, feel all too familiar. Some of the women were victims of rape, including gang rape; some were killed for dowry; others were victims of ‘honor killing’ to preserve the honor of their caste. Some endured extreme sexual, physical, or mental abuse; some were exploited as children; and one was even accused of witchcraft and beaten. Through these twelve harrowing accounts, the book starkly reveals how a patriarchal society systematically exploits women in countless ways, victim-shames them for the injustices they have to endure, and punishes them for the same.

Maimun from Haryana, Gudiya from Haria ki Garhi in Mathura, Sajoni from Jamtara in Jharkhand, Jahanara from Reshampura in Gwalior, Bela from Karvi in Banda…and countless others. Each of them cries out for justice, yet justice is elusive. Read their lives in this extraordinary document, which is also an indictment of a society that claims to worship its women.

Syeda provides information from her role as investigator in these cases: she took testimonies of hundreds of people and wrote detailed reports. For instance, Ila Pandey's case against her husband Rajneesh Pandey, who was repeatedly raping their 10-year-old daughter in Karvi, Uttar Pradesh. Syeda’s report, titled `Case of Child Sexual Abuse and Targeting of Women's Rights Groups', proves that Rajneesh was guilty. It shows that his supporters had retaliated by starting a harsh campaign against local women's groups who spoke up about the case. The report received media coverage and "momentarily shook the establishment". Years later, however, Rajneesh remarried, while the case filed by Ila still drags on.

Syeda wrote a report titled `The Alleged Exploitation and Abuse of Lalita Oraon in Paris, France'. It told the story of Lalita Oraon, who was raped by Amrit Lugan, India's First Secretary of Economic Affairs in Paris. She used to work in his house in Paris as a maid and nanny. Syeda agonizes over the fact, that Lalita’s case was slipped under the rug by the system. She could not even publish her report. To quote Syeda, ‘It miraculously disappeared through the cracks within the system.’ 

Another report, `Come In, but One by One: Sexual Harassment at Delhi Public School' – is about the alleged harassment of women by the DPS NOIDA principal Varma. The case got temporary media attention. The school protected its principal, despite concrete evidence of sexual harassment of at least three women teachers. These three teachers had to lose their jobs when they refused to comply with his wishes. Varma faced nothing but a temporary media lash-out. 

In Haryana's Sudaka village, 15-year old Maimun's family forced her to marry Aijaz. This was to protect their `izzat' (honour) that was compromised by Maimun's affair with Idris, a man from her own village. Aijaz and his cronies gang-raped Maimun, slashed her with a knife from neck to midriff, and left her to die. Strangers found and nursed Maimun, and then Idris located her. Her parents filed a case against Idris, and the police arrested Idris's old parents. When Maimun and Idris came to NCW, Syeda and her colleagues were moved and angry, and immediately drove to Sudaka village. There they faced an extremely hostile mob of villagers, who dragged Maimun out of the vehicle. The Haryana police did not move a muscle to prevent this. The NCW team returned empty-handed - no justice delivered. Instead, they had actually handed over the lamb for slaughter.

In the same book, Syeda also highlights the stories of fighting women, those who speak out against exploitation - file FIRs; refuse to succumb to brutal backlash; and refuse to succumb to the pressure. Thus, one elderly trustee of DPS, testified that the principal "used his power and position to extract sexual favors from women teachers...." Sheila Rani, a sweeper in DPS, has a street-smart strategy. When the principal tried to molest her, she fought back, and later told a teacher of the school, "We can fight our battles in our own way. We can kick and bite and scratch. Your court-kacheri will never get us a scrap of justice." She asked for a transfer saying, "There is no dearth of toilets to clean. If not here, I will find them in other schools… I am going where, if I clean hard enough, the dirt will come off!"

Sometimes, Syeda `imagines in' a woman who fights back - Rajneesh Pandey's second wife perhaps; or Chaddo, who becomes a lawyer after her elder sister Shaddo was killed by in-laws. She imagines Sajoni - a tribal woman from Bagjori village, Bihar, branded a witch, thrashed by villagers after she ploughed her fields - leaving the village with her five children to find a better place to survive in.

Syeda wanted to highlight that NCW is unable to achieve justice in these cases because it is toothless: "The Commission's reports are not binding on anyone, and its jurisdictions stops at its front door." All the 12 stories indicate that NCW lacks infrastructure, back-up, and ‘power’. Although it is the apex body for women in India, it is powerless to make the administration, police and judiciary take appropriate action. Everybody knows that the guilty are seldom punished. 

And that is the reason Syeda wrote this book, because she doesn't want these stories of terrible violence to disappear from public memory. 

They Hang - Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery 
Author : Syeda S. Hameed, 
Publisher : Women Unlimited, New Delhi
Pages : 183
Price: ₹ 275.
 

- Rucha Mulay
kartavyasadhana@gmail.com

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