‘Legalise Rape Without Violence’: Filmmaker Daniel Shravan’s Remarks Invite Outrage Online

The gruesome details of the gang rape and murder of veterinarian Dr. Priyanka Reddy have shaken the nation to its core. Women’s safety has become the most immediate social concern and #JusticeForPriyankaReddy is what the country is demanding.

There are thousands of tweets doing the rounds, suggesting there’s only one solution to rape – a death sentence. But there’s a man who thinks the solution is for women to carry condoms because “only then these type of things will not happen.”

Twitter

Filmmaker Daniel Shravan has given solutions to stop ‘rape-related murders’ in a series of Facebook posts. He calls it “simple logic”, which is — “when the sexual desire is fulfilled men wouldn’t kill women.” So, according to him, “girls should not deny sexual desires of men” and hence, bring an end to such brutal incidents. He says it is women who are responsible for such cruelty because they are “adamant”.

Is your blood boiling yet? Following the intense backlash his post (rightfully) got, he deleted all his social media accounts. Here’s a screenshot of his complete statement, titled “Rape is not [a] serious thing but murder is inexcusable“:

Facebook

Basically, he is urging the government to legalise rape as long as it’s without violence. He thinks that if women simply agree to get raped, thereby satisfying men’s sexual desires, rapists won’t get thoughts of murder. Say what, now? “Rape is better than murder,” he says. His line “Murder is a sin and crime (offensive) rape is corrective punishment,” is making my skin crawl.

Furthermore, he elaborates:

Facebook

Yet another post by him reads, ‘Instead of dialling 100, carry condoms with you. Save yourself using condoms’, along with the hashtag “ThePerfectFlirtTips”.

Naturally, this led to the self-proclaimed filmmaker trending on Twitter and Facebook with people suggesting medical help for Daniel. First of all, it is not just women above 18 who are being raped. Newspapers are full of reports of infants, little school-going girls, teenagers and senior citizens getting sexually assaulted every day. Not that it should matter, because sexual assault is a crime, regardless of the age of the victim – a sentence we never thought we’d ever have to write. 

Several people, including celebrities, took to Twitter to give him a piece of their mind and wonder how he could say such senseless things. 

According to reports, Daniel took down the posts and issued an apology claiming these were some dialogues that he was writing for a negative movie character. Now that’s a new one!

Every time a woman is brutalised in India, many people like Daniel come up with ingenious solutions to stop rapes, or rather we think to cash in on a ‘trending topic’ by saying something outstandingly ridiculous they know will get everyone’s attention. But the problem is that these things invariably divert everyone’s attentions from the real problems and real solutions. And they are yet another speech based on ‘what women should do’ rather than what men should be doing. They bring the public discussion back to putting the onus of not getting raped on survivors! Don’t tell us not to get raped; tell them not to rape!

Featured Image: Instagram

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