Homosexuality not abomination; women’s clothing don’t invite rape-Swami Aksharananda

Last Updated on Sunday, 28 April 2013, 15:55 by GxMedia

Swami Aksharananda

Principal of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) High School, Swami Aksharananda says he respects the rights of homosexuals but he will not promote or judge a lifestyle.

“It is not an abomination for us,” he said on Christopher Ram’s weekly interview programme “Plain Talk.”

The Indian and United States-educated Swami also addressed other issues such as the role of religion in politics, religious conversion and the increasingly dominant role of women in Hinduism.

On the issue of domestic violence, he identified the need for individuals to see themselves as agents of change. He also cited the need for special attention to be paid to men. “Why excuse the man from the responsibility? Why pretend that this man is the victim of his passions and he has absolutely no control over that?,” he said.

You can watch the programme here:

On the matter of the 23-year old girl who was gang-raped in India on December 16, he disagreed with a recent letter writer who is a Muslim that women should be judged by the clothes that they wear.

“I do not believe that a person’s character can be judged by the dress she wears. I do not believe that a woman invites rape by wearing a particular kind of clothes because the evidence is so clear that it has nothing to do with that,”

Swami Aksharananda says rape is used as a form of humiliation and he expresses concern that Holy books are invoked to justify such an act.