IT sounds stranger than fiction, but the police in Stavropol, a city in southwestern Russia, are currently handling the case of two depraved women who murdered a man for refusing to have tryst with them. The two suspects were detained after they tortured and killed a 63-year-old man simply identified as Alexander after he refused their request for a threesome in a cemetery. According to reports, the women, Rosa, 29 and Martha, 37, were drinking with the 63-year-old in a churchyard when things took a terrible turn. Miffed by the victim’s “uncooperative” attitude, the women beat him to stupor. A report citing local police stated that the suspects dragged the body into the forest and hid it in a hole. But then the bubble burst. The body was discovered and the women detained on charges of murder. Footage showed one of the women being escorted to the alleged forest crime scene by officers from Russia’s Investigative Committee, who were seen carrying a dummy before laying it in a patch of grass on the forest floor.
In a statement, the committee said the victim, who was an acquaintance of both women, was hit on his head and torso before he died on the scene. It said: “In the course of an argument, the women gave the 63-year-old man multiple blows with their fists and feet to his head and torso. The victim died at the scene as a result of his injuries. Wishing to avoid responsibility for the offence, the accused dragged the body of the deceased to a wooded area and hid it in a hole.” The suspects were subsequently remanded in custody.
This story definitely highlights the strange developments in today’s world. To say the very least, it sounds extremely bizarre that a man would be killed for refusing to have sexual relations with women who are obviously not his partners, and with whom he was unwilling to liaise at that level of emotional or physical involvement. Usually, it is men who are accused of such crimes, and the outrage is always deafening. But the crime isn’t less when committed by a female, and this point ought not to be lost on the society. Almost in all cases, sexual violence results from a narcissistic pursuit of the attacker’s private pleasures at the expense of the victim, and such cynical, demonic conduct should not be condoned under any guise.
While there’s a theory about Russian women being under sexual tension because their men are on the war front, we have always held that murder isn’t justified under any guise. People, regardless of their gender, should have a choice over their own bodies: they should be able to decide what they want to do with them. They should not be coerced into dark experimentations, or any experimentation at all. Sex is a private matter that ordinarily should derive from private choice, and in a climate of freely expressed consent, even if not always verbalised. The idea of a person, male or female, coercing another person into sexual relations is not only illogical, it is profoundly offensive. It stifles personal will and causes victims untold mental anguish. It erodes the natural trust that should surround human relationships and creates doubt long after the experience.
Of course, with the so-called advances in society and the apparently shifting moral boundaries, certain things that were clearly anathema in the days gone by are increasingly routine. Time was when it would have been impossible to contemplate the idea of drinking alcohol in a churchyard, or seeking to have sexual encounters in a cemetery, not to talk of a coerced one. To be sure, sexual violence is bad anywhere it takes place, but the point we are making is that the human society in general seems to be plunging into an abyss, and this, we hasten to add, is in large part because of the collapse of family values. If the traditional family system is wholesome, the society in general is likely to be wholesome. That is why attention should always be focused on those values. Being properly brought up, even if it appears to be going out of fashion, is still crucially important to creating an orderly society. We insist on it.
Besides, this story also points to the need to be circumspect in striking up relationships. The deceased was apparently well acquainted, if not fiends with his killers, but it is doubtful that he would have been drinking with them at all if he knew their real plans for him and the fate that awaited him if he failed to do their bidding. Still, the utter foolishness that underlies sexual violence is underscored by the fact that in the current case, those who in a fit of blind lust decided to violate another person have halted any exercise of their free sexual relations within the society. In any case, they are not likely to be having a threesome any time soon.
While you cannot be too careful, a little circumspection and some vigilance here and there can prove to be life-saving. We condemn the killing of Citizen Alexander and hope that his killers will have their just deserts. Those who perpetrate such crimes deserve the strictest punishment provided by the statute books.
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