Talking about empowerment is odd, because when we talk about empowerment, what affects us most are the stories. So I want to begin with an everyday story. What is it really like to be a young woman in India?
談女性「充權」蠻奇特的, 因為講到這個議題時, 故事最能引發共鳴。 所以我想從日常故事開始。 在印度當年輕女生是什麼感覺?
Now, I've spent the last 27 years of my life in India, lived in three small towns, two major cities, and I've had several experiences. When I was seven, a private tutor who used to come home to teach me mathematics molested me. He would put his hand up my skirt. He put his hand up my skirt and told me he knew how to make me feel good. At 17, a boy from my high school circulated an email detailing all the sexually aggressive things he could do to me because I didn't pay attention to him. At 19, I helped a friend whose parents had forcefully married her to an older man escape an abusive marriage. At 21, when my friend and I were walking down the road one afternoon, a man pulled down his pants and masturbated in front of us. We called people for help, and nobody came. At 25, when I was walking home one evening, two men on a motorcycle attacked me. I spent two nights in the hospital recovering from trauma and injuries.
在過去的 27 年人生, 我住過印度的 3 個小鎮、 2 座主要城市, 所以我有蠻多經驗可以分享。 我 7 歲的時候, 家裡有請家教, 他來教數學,順便騷擾我。 他把手伸進我的裙子... 他的手伸進我的裙子說, 他知道怎麼讓我「舒服」。 17 歲時,同校一個男生, 狂寄電子郵件給我, 細數能在我身上施加的性暴力, 就因為我不搭理他。 19 歲,我幫一個朋友, 她被父母硬嫁給老男人, 逃離家暴。 21 歲, 某天下午我和朋友走在街上, 一個男人脫下褲子, 在我們面前打手槍。 我們大聲呼救,但沒人理我們。 25 歲,某天晚上在回家路上, 兩個騎機車的男子攻擊我, 我為此住院兩天, 好不容易才恢復。 所以我至此的人生,
So throughout my life, I've seen women — family, friends, colleagues — live through these experiences, and they seldom talk about it. So in simple words, life in India is not easy. But today I'm not going to talk to you about this fear. I'm going to talk to you about an interesting path of learning that this fear took me on.
我看到女人、家人、朋友、同事, 遭遇這些經歷 卻鮮少談論。 簡而言之,印度居大不易。 但我今天沒有要談住印度多恐怖, 我想要分享, 我從恐懼中領悟到的出路。 2012 年 12 月某晚的事件
So, what happened one night in December 2012 changed my life. So a young girl, a 23-year-old student, boarded a bus in Delhi with her male friend. There were six men on the bus, young men who you might encounter every day in India, and the chilling account of what followed was played over and over again in the Indian and international media. This girl was raped repeatedly, forcefully penetrated with a blunt rod, beaten, bitten, and left to die. Her friend was gagged, attacked, and knocked unconscious. She died on the 29th of December. And at a time when most of us here were preparing to welcome the new year, India plunged into darkness. For the first time in our history, men and women in Indian cities woke up to the horrific truth about the true state of women in the country. Now, like many other young women, I was absolutely terrified. I couldn't believe that something like this could happen in a national capital. I was angry and I was frustrated, but most of all, I felt utterly, completely helpless. But really, what do you do, right? Some write blogs, some ignore it, some join protests. I did all of it. In fact, that was what everyone was doing two years ago. So the media was filled with stories about all the horrific deeds that Indian men are capable of. They were compared to animals, sexually repressed beasts. In fact, so alien and unthinkable was this event in an Indian mind that the response from the Indian media, public and politicians proved one point: No one knew what to do. And no one wanted to be responsible for it. In fact, these were a few insensitive comments which were made in the media by prominent people in response to sexual violence against women in general. So the first one is made by a member of parliament, the second one is made by a spiritual leader, and the third one was actually the defendants' lawyer when the girl was fighting for her life and she passed away.
改變了我的人生。 一名年輕的 23 歲女學生, 和男生朋友搭上德里的一班公車。 車上還有另外六名年輕男子, 就是印度一般的路人。 但接下來發生的事情令人髮指, 在當地和國際媒體上 不斷被報導、重播: 這名女生被輪暴, 下體被鐵棒插入, 被揍、被咬、被丟下自生自滅。 她的朋友被堵住嘴、毆打, 然後被敲昏。 她在 12 月 29 日過世。 就在大部分的我們, 滿心歡喜準備迎接新年時, 印度陷入黑暗。 有史以來第一次, 印度市區的男男女女, 被印度女性地位 如此低落的事實給驚醒。 就像其他女性同胞, 我感同身受地恐懼。 我不敢相信這種惡行 會發生在一國的首都。 我生氣又無奈, 但更多的是完全的無力感。 但你又能做些什麼呢? 有人寫部落格、有人事不關己、 有人去抗議。 我全都做了, 事實上,2 年前大家都只做到這樣。 所以媒體上充斥著各種 關於印度男人 還可以做出什麼惡行的報導。 他們被說成禽獸、 性壓抑的猛獸。 但離奇、難以想像的是, 在印度思維中, 從媒體、大眾、政治人物的反應, 都只證明了一件事: 沒人知道怎麼辦。 也沒人想承擔這個責任。 甚至還有一些誇張的評論 出現在媒體版面, 出自一些「名人」, 反過頭來指責女性。 第一個是國會議員, [強暴成年女性可以理解,戀童才難以想像] 第二個是宗教領袖, [女性該和強暴犯稱兄道弟] 第三則是該案的辯護律師, [被害女生自己不檢點] 被害人當時在和死神搏鬥, 最後不幸過世。
Now, as a woman watching this day after day, I was tired. So as a writer and gender activist, I have written extensively on women, but this time, I realized it was different, because a part of me realized I was a part of that young woman too, and I decided I wanted to change this. So I did something spontaneous, hasty. I logged on to a citizen journalism platform called iReport, and I recorded a video talking about what the scene was like in Bangalore. I talked about how I felt, I talked about the ground realities, and I talked about the frustrations of living in India. In a few hours, the blog was shared widely, and comments and thoughts poured in from across the world. In that moment, a few things occurred to me. One, technology was always at hand for many young women like me. Two, like me, most young women hardly use it to express their views. Three, I realized for the first time that my voice mattered.
身為女人, 每天看到這些言論, 我覺得好累。 身為作家和性權運動者, 我寫過很多女性相關題材, 但這次有所不同, 我開始了解到 我跟那名女孩之間的連結, 而且我想要去改變。 所以我匆匆展開計畫。 我上公民新聞論壇, 它叫「iReport」。 然後錄了一支影片講述 班加羅爾的現況。 我說出我的感受, 說出現實情況, 說出生活在印度多令人挫折。 幾個小時內影片被廣為流傳, 從世界各地湧入評論和分享。 在那一刻,我突然領悟幾件事。 第一,對我們年輕女性來說, 科技觸手可及。 第二,但大部分女性包括我, 不太運用科技表達自己。 第三,我第一次發現到, 原來我的發言是重要的。 所以接下來幾個月,
So in the months that followed, I covered a trail of events in Bangalore which had no space in the mainstream news. In Cubbon Park, which is a big park in Bangalore, I gathered with over 100 others when groups of young men came forward to wear skirts to prove that clothing does not invite rape. When I reported about these events, I felt I had charge, I felt like I had a channel to release all the emotions I had inside me. I attended the town hall march when students held up signs saying "Kill them, hang them." "You wouldn't do this to your mothers or sisters." I went to a candlelight vigil where citizens gathered together to talk about the issue of sexual violence openly, and I recorded a lot of blogs in response to how worrying the situation was in India at that point. ["I am born with sisters and cousin who now live in cities and abroad but they never talk to me or complain about their daily difficulties like you say"]
我報導班加羅爾 其他被主流媒體忽視的事件。 在班加羅爾的大公園「庫本公園」, 有 100 多人聚會, 一群年輕男生站出來, 穿著裙子表態 「衣著不是強暴的藉口」。 當我報導這些新聞, 我覺得我在主導,有一個管道 讓我釋放內心所有情緒。 我也參加市區的遊行, 學生們舉著標語說: 「判他們死、絞刑!」 「你會對媽媽、姊妹做出這種事嗎?」 我還去了燭光晚會。 大家聚在一起, 打開天窗討論性別暴力。 我記錄了很多部落格, 顯示當時印度的的情況 有多令人擔憂。 我對有些留言感到不解。
Now, the reactions confused me. While supportive comments poured in from across the world, as did vicious ones. So some called me a hypocrite. Some called me a victim, a rape apologist. Some even said I had a political motive. But this one comment kind of describes what we are discussing here today.
儘管世界各地湧入支持的評論, 還是有不少負評。 有人說我虛偽, 有人說我被強暴過, 有人還說我只是想參選。 但螢幕上這個留言恰好說出了 今天我們要討論的點。 [我的女性親友都沒有妳這些抱怨欸]
But I was soon to learn that this was not all. As empowered as I felt with the new liberty that this citizen journalism channel gave me, I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. So sometime last August, I logged onto Facebook and I was looking through my news feed, and I noticed there was a link that was being shared by my friends. I clicked on the link; it led me back to a report uploaded by an American girl called Michaela Cross. The report was titled, "India: The story you never wanted to hear." And in this report, she recounted her firsthand account of facing sexual harassment in India. She wrote, "There is no way to prepare for the eyes, the eyes that every day stared with such entitlement at my body, with no change of expression whether I met their gaze or not. Walking to the fruit seller's or the tailor's, I got stares so sharp that they sliced away bits of me piece by piece." She called India a traveler's heaven and a woman's hell. She said she was stalked, groped, and masturbated at.
我很快了解到這還沒完。 當我越感覺到 身為公民記者的自由 帶給我的力量, 越感覺到自己在陌生的處境。 去年 8 月當我登入臉書, 然後在看新聞轉貼的時候, 我發現一個連結, 是我朋友分享的。 我點進去看, 是一名美國女孩寫的報導, 她叫米奇菈‧克羅斯。 新聞的標題是 「印度:你絕不會想聽的故事」。 在報導中,她回憶親身 在印度被性騷擾的經驗。 寫道,「完全防不勝防, 那些每天盯著我, 透露著佔有慾的眼神, 就算跟我對到眼, 也絲毫不收斂。 去買水果或買衣服, 那些貪婪的眼光 好像要把我生吞活剝。 她稱印度為「觀光勝地,女性地獄」。 她說她被跟蹤、吃豆腐、猥褻。 報導在那天晚上被瘋狂轉貼。
Now, late that evening, the report went viral. It was on news channels across the world. Everyone was discussing it. It had over a million views, a thousand comments and shares, and I found myself witnessing a very similar thing. The media was caught in this vicious cycle of opinion and outburst and no outcome whatsoever. So that night, as I sat wondering how I should respond, I found myself filled with doubt. You see, as a writer, I approached this issue as an observer, as an Indian, I felt embarrassment and disbelief, and as an activist, I looked at it as a defender of rights, but as a citizen journalist, I suddenly felt very vulnerable. I mean, here she was, a young woman who was using a channel to talk about her experience just as I was, and yet I felt unsettled. You see, no one ever tells you that true empowerment comes from giving yourself the permission to think and act. Empowerment is often made to sound as if it's an ideal, it's a wonderful outcome. When we talk about empowerment, we often talk about giving people access to materials, giving them access to tools. But the thing is, empowerment is an emotion. It's a feeling. The first step to empowerment is to give yourself the authority, the key to independent will, and for women everywhere, no matter who we are or where we come from, that is the most difficult step. We fear the sound of our own voice, for it means admission, but it is this that gives us the power to change our environment. Now in this situation where I was faced with so many different kinds of realities, I was unsure how to judge, because I didn't know what it would mean for me. I feared to judge because I didn't know what it would be if I didn't support the same view as this girl. I didn't know what it would mean for me if I was challenging someone else's truth. But yet, it was simple. I had to make a decision: Should I speak up or should I stay quiet? So after a lot of thought, I recorded a video blog in response, and I told Michaela, well, there are different sides to India, and I also tried to explain that things would be okay and I expressed my regret for what she had faced. And a few days later, I was invited to talk on air with her, and for the first time, I reached out to this girl who I had never met, who was so far away, but yet I felt so close to.
全球的新聞頻道都在報導。 每個人都在討論。 超過 100 萬次的點閱, 1000 則評論和分享。 我發現自己觀察到了 非常相似的情況。 媒體是惡性循環的其中一環, 充斥意見、輿論、不了了之等等。 那天晚上我就在想, 我要怎麼回應? 我充滿疑惑。 身為作家, 我以觀察者的身分接觸這個議題; 身為印度人,我感到羞愧和質疑; 身為活躍份子,我將其視為「維權」; 但身為公民記者, 我覺得很受傷。 我的意思是,眼前的年輕女子, 用某個管道說出 和我差不多的經驗, 但受到的注目天差地別。 你看,不曾有人告訴你 真正的「充權」來自於 讓自己開始思考和行動。 「充權」好像被單純塑造成 一個理想或一顆甜美的果實。 當我們說到「充權」, 通常會說給弱勢管道 去接觸資源或工具。 但事實是,「充權」是一種情緒、 是一種感覺。 「充權」的第一步 是讓自己做主、 培養獨立思考的意願, 對所有女人來說, 無論身在何方或來自何處, 這是最困難的一步。 我們害怕自己的聲音, 因為這意味著尋求認同,但這就是 讓我們改變周遭的力量。 我現在面臨的處境, 充斥著各種現實。 我沒辦法妄下定論, 因為不知道這會對我造成什麼影響。 我不敢評斷因為我不知道 不支持這個女孩的後果。 我不知道對我會造成什麼影響, 如果我去挑戰別人的價值。 但無論如何, 我必須做決定: 我要大聲說還是裝聾作啞? 經過一陣思索, 我上傳了一段錄影作為回應。 我跟米奇菈說, 印度有很多面向, 我試著解釋 其實情況沒那麼遭, 也表達我對她的遭遇感到遺憾。 幾天後,我受邀和她 一起上節目訪談。 我第一次有機會見到她, 一個沒有機會遇見、如此遙遠, 卻又如此相近的女孩。
Since this report came to light, more young people than ever were discussing sexual harassment on the campus, and the university that Michaela belonged to gave her the assistance she needed. The university even took measures to train its students to equip them with the skills that they need to confront challenges such as harassment, and for the first the time, I felt I wasn't alone. You see, if there's anything that I've learned as an active citizen journalist over the past few years, it is our dire lack as a society to actively find avenues where our voices can be heard. We don't realize that when we are standing up, we are not just standing up as individuals, we are standing up for our communities, our friends, our peers. Most of us say that women are denied their rights, but the truth is, oftentimes, women deny themselves these rights. In a recent survey in India, 95 percent of the women who work in I.T., aviation, hospitality and call centers, said they didn't feel safe returning home alone after work in the late hours or in the evening. In Bangalore, where I come from, this number is 85 percent. In rural areas in India, if anything is to go by the recent gang rapes in Badaun and acid attacks in Odisha and Aligarh are supposed to go by, we need to act really soon.
因為她的報導, 有更多的年輕人 討論校園中的性騷擾。 米奇菈的大學, 也給了她需要的協助。 學校甚至想辦法 訓練他們的學生 學習必備技能, 以面對騷擾的情況。 我第一次感覺到我不孤獨。 如果在過去數年, 身為活躍的公民記者, 有讓我學到什麼, 就是這個社會上,讓我們的聲音 能被聽見的管道有多貧瘠。 我們沒有察覺當我們挺身而出, 我們不只是作為一個個體, 也是為我們的社群、朋友、同儕發聲。 很多人說女人被剝奪權利, 但事實上絕大部分, 是女人自己放棄權利。 最近印度有一項調查, 95% 在資訊業、航空業、 醫院和客服中心上班的女性, 表示對於在夜晚或深夜 下班後獨自回家感到不安全。 在我的家鄉班加羅爾, 比例是 85% 。 在印度的鄉村地區, 最近就有一些比如說 步道恩縣的輪暴、 奧里薩邦和阿格里爾的潑酸事件, 我們要快點行動。
Don't get me wrong, the challenges that women will face in telling their stories is real, but we need to start pursuing and trying to identify mediums to participate in our system and not just pursue the media blindly. Today, more women than ever are standing up and questioning the government in India, and this is a result of that courage. There is a sixfold increase in women reporting harassment, and the government passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act in 2013 to protect women against sexual assault.
但別會錯意, 女性要說出自己的故事, 還是會碰到困難。 我們要開始鼓勵她們, 試著分辨能運用的媒體管道, 而不是盲目地依靠媒體。 今日有更多的女性 挺身而出並且質疑 印度政府, 這就是勇敢的表現。 檢舉性騷擾的女性多了 6 倍, 政府也在 2013 年通過了 刑法增修法案, 保障婦女遠離性侵。
As I end this talk, I just want to say that I know a lot of us in this room have our secrets, but let us speak up. Let us fight the shame and talk about it. It could be a platform, a community, your loved one, whoever or whatever you choose, but let us speak up. The truth is, the end to this problem begins with us.
這場演講的最後, 我只是想說, 我知道在座的各位都有秘密, 但讓我們大聲說出來。 不要怕丟臉、勇敢說出來, 無論是在有形的平台、社群, 或是跟你所愛的人分享, 讓我們開始發聲。 事實上, 這個問題的解答就在我們身上。
Thank you.
謝謝!
(Applause)
(掌聲)