Long Live The Mob!

There are times when I am ashamed of being a Indian.
And then, there are times when I am embarrassed to be a woman.
But both at the same time?
That happens only once in an azure blue moon....Like this morning, when I chanced to read the story of young Saba Najam.
Saba Najam, a 20-something Pakistani student was roughed up in a Mumbai mall last week, only because she dared sport a tattoo in Urdu which thanked the Good Lord above.
Before you ask....No, this was not the handiwork of Raj Thackarey's goons. Nor was it a mob of rabid men using religion to crush a woman. This, believe it or not people, was a case of women using religion to break the spirit of one of their own.
And why?
Not because religious sentiments were actually wounded. I suspect it had everything to do with an over-possessive mommy who needed to vent her blind fury at the object her dearest sonny boy desired!!!
How else can we explain the alacrity with which Shabana Talukdar responded to her son's complaints about a brazen hussy in the mall who, heaven forbid, actually dared to have ‘Shukr Alham Du Lillah’[Thank you, God’] inscribed on her back?
Now, did mommy stop to ask her darling boy just what he was doing hanging around in the mall, scrutinising the figures of strange women?
No, she did not.
Did she try educating her son about living and letting others live?
Again, the answer is a resounding no.
But instead, the lady and her cronies marched over to the mall and proceeded to beat up a girl who was young enough to be her daughter!!!
Did anyone object? NO!!!
The mall authorities passed the matter over to a local police station where, despite her profuse apologies, young Saba was forced to submit a statement promising to have the tattoo removed within 3 days!!!
Ironic isn't it?
All the more so, when one considers the admission of the police inspector that" “There was nothing objectionable about the tattoo and there are no legal provisions under which we could have booked her. But since the group of people were agitated we asked Saba to give her statement in writing.”
The news report shamed me...As did some of the reader comments which showed no sympathy for the victim!!!!
What was Saba being penalised for?
Her nationality? That she dared assume ownership of her own body and embellished it as she deemed fit? Or was it because she had inadvertently attracted lust from a vicious mall rat?
All three, I suspect....Going by the responses of the people concerned.
Everyone - the whining pansy, his rabid mother & her cohorts, the by-standers, the authorities & even the media - has conveniently turned a blind eye to the real truth...The truth that this is not a legitimate case of religious impropriety or hurt sentiments, but one of assault on an innocent girl.
Saba Najam has returned to Lahore...
Riyaz Ahmed Talukdar says he is happy she is gone...
His mother must be gloating in glee...
Viva La Mob Power!!!