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Facebook debate over Goa official’s remarks on girl’s rape

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senior Goa tourism official’s remarks to a Delhi-based newspaper over the rape of a nine-year-old Russian girl on Republic Day has triggered a debate on popular social networking website Facebook.

‘The Blank Noise project’ (TBNP), a popular community-public art project which seeks to confront street harassment, has written an open letter to Pamela Mascarenhas, a deputy director in the state tourism department, on its home page on Facebook criticising her for comments to the Mail Today, a tabloid, last week.

“You can’t blame the locals; they have never seen such women. Foreign tourists must maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing. Walking on the beaches half-naked is bound to titillate the senses,” Mascarenhas had reportedly told the tabloid.

TBNP’s letter, which is signed by “an Indian girl who loves her saris and her hot pants”, argues that dress sense was not a factor when it comes to sexual assault.

“For your information, women from across age groups, be it three-month-old babies or 90-year-olds have been raped. They have been raped in saris, burkhas, salwar kameez, school uniforms, bikinis, jeans, skirts, shirts, lungis. Women have been molested, assaulted, raped at all times of the day, and in public places,” theletter, which has been subsequently doing the rounds on nearly all Goa-related mailing lists, states.

The stinging letter also accused Mascarenhas of exonerating the perpetrators of sexual crimes and instead heaping the blame on the victim.

“By making the statement above, you are blaming women instead of taking responsibility of the issue. We hope this will direct you towards taking responsibility of these incidents by actually addressing male behaviour and men in Goa, for which you will first have to address yourself by accepting this truth,” it states, adding that cultural inappropriateness was no excuse for sexual assaults.

‘The Letter to deputy director of tourism’ project, which was posted Feb 3 and will be open for comments until March 31, has already attracted several comments from internet surfers.

“I can’t believe that they can blame a nine-year old girl for being ‘too sexy’. I mean, it is horrible enough to blame a women for ‘asking for it’ by dress, which is already totally bull-crap, but to blame a nine-year-old girl?” Lindsey Rieder, from Syracuse, US has commented.

Mascarenhas, when contacted, said she was not willing to comment on the controversy, adding that she was misquoted by the newspaper.

State tourism minister Mickky Pacheco said it was impossible to insist that foreigners not wear bikinis on Goan beaches. “Goa is a popular tourist destination and is a window to the West. We cannot ask tourists not to wear bikinis here,” Pacheco said.

The state tourism department has announced that it would withdraw photographs of women in bikinis from Goa’s tourism promotion campaign.

Courtesy:IAN

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This entry was written by Goa Blog and posted on February 7, 2010 at 12:57 pm and filed under Eminent Journalists' Articles, Goa News, Goa Tourism, In Goa. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

2 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Goa Tourism officer Pamela Mascarenhas put the blame squarely on tourists, saying they brought such assaults “upon themselves”.

“You can’t blame the locals; they have never seen such women”, Mascarenhas said, basically endorsing sexual assault. “Foreign tourists must maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing. Walking on the beaches half-naked is bound to titillate the senses,” she said.

Well, Pamela, you are a total and utter fuckwit. If the locals cannot control their lust and have to resort to raping tourists I don’t think you can blame the tourist.

Your comments are appalling. You are a fukwit scum

1. ad on February 12th, 2010 at 5:01 am
From Vijaya Pereira, Australia.

We have been reading in the news statements attributed to the Deputy Director of Goa Tourism Pamela Mascarenhas that women on Goan beach would be forbid from wearing bikinis in Goa on the hugely popular beaches.
Goa as a tourists destination receive wide spread coverage off late for the wrong reasons rapes, murders and assault on foreign women, the negative publicity that Goa has been receiving began mainly after the alleged rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett keeling and there after every case pertaining to foreigners have been well reported by the media print and television.
But what appalling are the statements that people who hold government posts make without any reasoning be it the politicians, tourism officials or the police.
Goa’s MP in the Rajya Sabha Shantaram Naik in December created a furore and made a fool of himself, now it’s this senior tourism official who seems to have put her foot in her mouth making statements about what tourists should wear on the beaches and suggesting tourists to maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing while lazing on the beaches or bathing in the water.
I am sure all the promotional tours that Ms Mascarenhas has made to foreign countries at the cost of poor tax payers she had not learnt any lessons. Does she have bath with clothes on?
Wearing a bikini on a beach is supposed to be a beach wear, one cannot wear a bikini and go for a party or a wedding, bikinis are designed to be worn on a beach, and this is basis knowledge that Ms Mascarenhas should have been aware as a senior tourism official.
In Geography half of India has a long peninsula, but sadly not much Indian domestic tourists understand the dress code on beach especially while venturing out into the sea, and as a result of which one finds Indian women venturing out into the water with Sarees or even churidars and the men in long trousers.
Whatever the tourism department plans to do now with this issue on banning bikinis this move will only diminish the image of Goa as tourist destination with white sandy beaches.
Ms Mascarenhas knowledge about her job seems to be shocking and one really should doubt the credibility of such an officer in the tourism industry which is brings in revenue to the state and country.
Tourism has been in Goa since the early 1970’s and it’s sad that the State fails to safeguard the interests of visiting tourists. I seriously doubt what fresh guidelines the tourism department would issue in the coming months of years, when they have no guidelines at all.
Should there have been tourism guidelines poor shack owners would not have been running every year from pillar to post at the start of the tourist season checking if they would get or not licences to have shacks on the beaches.
If there were tourism guidelines there would not have been sun beds on the beaches everywhere and anywhere. The beaches would have been clean with proper toilets and a clean water shower to have bath after a swim.
Over the years the tourism department can only boost of having some trained life guard to save precious lives on the beaches but sadly they have engaged a private firm to do this task and have ignored life guards who served the department for years.
Ms Mascarenhas is not a new official in the tourism department she has been there since many tourism minister have held the portfolio and one only feels that she should be more careful in making silly statements and make efforts to study her subject well before attending such conferences where every other state in the country is trying to score a point over the other.
Every country around the globe that has a beach to boost have women tourists wearing a bikini and I see nothing wrong in women wearing bikinis on the Goan beaches atleast they are not nude.
In the present case tourism in Goa is just a thing of the past, other then the beaches, churches and temples, I would be happy of the Goa tourism department list down just two or three achievements to promote tourism in this once upon a time paradise.
Its only individuals like Mahendra Alvares and Victor Hugo Gomes who have made some contribution to Goa’s tourism industry with their own resources.
Sadly when Goa has a chief Minister who claims that women tourist should not move out alone past 10 pm, a tourism minister who claims that Goa is a sex capital, a Member of Parliament Shantaram Naik blaming the tourists women and this insane tourism official making efforts to do away with bikinis on the beaches Goa does not need anyone to bring disrepute to its name only these people who hold high public position.
Nudism is prohibited on the Goan beaches, but how many cases have the police booked so far? Not only is it against the law but also it hurts religions sensibilities. I sincerely feel that the police do not book cases of nudism because they them self love to watch nudist on the beaches of Goa.
Many of the beaches around Goa have notices been erected with messages asking tourists not to move around without clothes but it also has led to the strange phenomenon of “beach staring”. Many a times one would observe domestic tourists arriving in buses only to watch bikini clad women and our desi tourists certainly cherish photographs with these bikini clad women. (END)

2. Vijaya Indira on February 9th, 2010 at 5:23 am