“At his best, man is the noblest of all animal; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

The above line has been said by the famous ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle. It is important
to have a system of law in a society to regulate a good relationship with each other, even for
those with conflicting interest. This is the only procedure that could ensure that the human rights
are respected. If we won’t have laws, our society would not be able to function effectively.
Crimes will become everyday occurrences that children will grow up and will then find it
normal, which is not desirable to happen in our future generations. This is the reason why law is
very important as it ensures the safety of our future generations.

Similarly, justice is justified in this movie as in the end, the jury convicts the three defendants.
As the trial provides testimony and evidence that the men raped Sarah, the three men already
serving prison time for reckless endangerment are unlikely to be granted parole. After all,
injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If we do not maintain justice, justice will not
maintain us. Practicing law is not about winning. It is about justice. Simple, naked justice. It is
about finding the truth.

This movie makes a persuasive case for the proposition that witnesses who encourage a crime
are as guilty as the perpetrators. In this case, the crime is a gang rape, committed in the back
room of a crowded bar late on a boozy night. The victim is a sexily dressed young woman, not
entirely sober and a little high on marijuana, who, as everybody says, ''asked for it.'' In a
departure from most films about rape, ''The Accused'' has the gumption to suggest that even
though a victim might, rather carelessly, have put herself into the situation that leads to the
crime, the crime remains a crime. The victim's behavior is not the issue. There are no extenuating
circumstances.

This movie demonstrates the prevalent “male chauvinism” that results in rape victims becoming
suspects in their own case. Surely they must have been somehow to blame. How were they
behaving at the time of the crime? How were they dressed? Had they been drinking? Is their
personal life clean and tidy? Or are they sluts who were just asking for it? I am aware of the
brutal impact of the previous sentence. But the words were carefully chosen, because sometimes
they reflect the unspoken suspicions of officials in the largely male judicial system.
Regarding male chauvinism, the apex body of the Indian judiciary that is the Supreme Court says
that, “Male chauvinism has no room in a civilized society and the obnoxious act of eve-teasing
affected justice and the rights of a woman.” The apex court made this observation while
dismissing a plea filed by a man who was sentenced to seven years in jail by the Himachal
Pradesh High Court for teasing and compelling a girl to take the extreme step of committing
suicide. Observing that “egoism must succumb to law”, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra
asked why women in this country cannot be allowed to live in peace and lead a dignified life
with freedom. It has to be kept in mind that she has a right to life and is entitled to love according
to her choice. She has an individual choice which has been legally recognised. It has to be
socially respected. No one can compel a woman to love. She has the absolute right to reject.

Also, the movie takes into account the responsibility of bystanders in a rape case. The drunken
fraternity boys and townies that climb on the furniture and chant and cheer are accessories to
rape, although our society sometimes has difficulty in understanding that. Rape happens
everywhere. It happens inside homes, in families, in neighbourhoods, in police stations, in towns
and cities, in villages, and its incidence increases, as society goes through change, as women’s
roles begin to change, as economies slow down and the slice of the pie becomes smaller- and it is
connected to all these things. Just as it is integrally and fundamentally connected to the
disregard, and indeed the hatred, for females that is so evident in the killing of female feotuses.
For so widespread a crime, band aid solutions are not the answer. It is important to raise our
collective voice against rape. But rape is not something that occurs by itself. It is part of the
continuing and embedded violence in society that targets women on a daily basis. Let us raise
our voices against such violence and let us ask ourselves how we, in our daily actions, in our
thoughts, contribute to this, rather than assume that the solution lies with someone else. Let us
ask ourselves how we, our society, we as people, create and sustain the mindset that leads to
rape, how we make our men so violent, how we insult our women so regularly, let us ask
ourselves how privilege creates violence.

I wonder who will find the film more uncomfortable - men or women. Both will recoil from the
brutality of the scenes of the assault. But for some men, the movie will reveal a truth that most
women already know. It is that verbal sexual harassment, whether crudely in a saloon back room
or subtly in an everyday situation, is a form of violence - one that leaves no visible marks but can
make its victims feel unable to move freely and casually in society. It is a form of imprisonment.

Law and justice are not always the same. When they are not, destroying the law may be the first
step toward changing it. Justice can never be served until those who are unaffected are as
outraged as those who are. Justice is doing for others what we would want done for ourselves.
Law is not law if it violates the principles of justice and truth.

Mahatma Gandhi has once said:

“TRUTH NEVER DAMAGES A CAUSE THAT IS JUST.”