While River Jhelum continues to flow above the danger mark and the government has officially declared floods, some people have already decided that the girls wearing jeans, riding Scotties, and following other “immoral ways” are responsible for the natural calamity.
Rather than finding ways to deal with the floods, these people are busy discussing how girls should behave and how they shouldn’t because of course, this will tame the overflowing river! From offices to marketplaces the dress code of girls and their moral waywardness have become a topic of discussion as one wades through the waterlogged roads.
While a few girls are obviously annoyed, some of them took to the social media to vent out their feelings. “Oh you Girls riding scooties, wearing Denims, playing instruments, using mobile phones, look what you have done to this weather again? #KashmiriThings #NotFeelingPowerfulYet?,” posted a student, Zaiema Bint Kashmir, on her Facebook account.
The girls say that it’s disgusting to listen to such ridiculous pleas. “How are we to be blamed?” asks a girl Aaliya who studies at Women’s College MA Road.
Many say that at a time when people should realise that hyper urbanization particularly by encroaching the water bodies is a possible cause of the floods, blaming girls for the calamity is downright ridiculous.
“People who have encroached waterbodies- raised huge shopping complexes, houses, Madarsas, and mosques on them – are blaming moral waywardness in the society, girls wearing jeans, mobile phones, and internet for the frequent floods in Kashmir. Soon you will see some of them portraying themselves as Messiahs by uploading their pictures on social networking sites while carrying relief and rescue work,” says Khalid, a native of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Even last time during the devastating floods during September 2014, some people blamed moral waywardness for the natural calamity.
