Anu Bhagwati Visit

Anu Bhagwati’s visit to our class was very interesting. Although I had a little knowledge about sexual harassment in the military, I was still extremely shocked to hear some of the stories. Her visit to our class made me decide to attend The Invisible War screening during the Human Rights Film Festival. It was so interesting to hear of her own personal experience in the military. How men and women were treated separately, even down to physical appearance i.e. through uniform choices and haircuts, as well as what women were forced to endure simply for being a woman. I found it quite interesting when she commented that sometimes the judgement from other women exceeded the judgement from male counterparts. I was shocked to hear of the way rape and sexual harassment cases were handled in the military, and how women were forced to go to their commander (who sometimes was the offender). I loved when someone mentioned our “Don’t Rape” campaign previously discussed in our class, and she agreed and said that she has herself thought of how significant it would be to teach the consequences of rape, instead of the prevention. Although, we had already heard the statement during class, I was so disturbed to hear that the statistics of rape in the military was equivalent to the statistics of rape on college campuses!