NOT A GIRL

[Kate Thomas]

The Telegraph
Calcutta, India


http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061226/asp/opinion/story_7182696.asp

The daughter, whose real name is not Tapati, is nineteen. She has studied up to class XII and now refuses to behave like a girl. She has cut her hair short, wears pants, hangs around in tea-stalls and speeds on her bicycle. Her best friend from school, Parvati, is now a housewife in another village. Tapati, when she insisted on visiting Parvati, first got beaten up by the latter's husband and father-in-law, who then threatened Parvati's father, Mr Ramkrishna Maitra, with dire consequences if he did not manage to stop his daughter's 'mannish' friend from visiting her. Mr Maitra confronted Tapati, who was defiant about her transgressions. So he dragged her to the village square, and in front of the passive lookers-on, stripped Tapati, tonsured her, beat her up for two hours, and then photographed her naked to prove her girlhood. The police, the local party office and the panchayat could do nothing while all this was going on.

[ssindysmith]

OMG just another reason why we should be thankful we live where we do. A woman trying to transition to a man in a country that considers woman second class does not have a chance. 

[ChildOfTheLight]

The police, the local party office and the panchayat could do nothing while all this was going on.

Would do nothing.