Srinagar, Oct. 28 -- While scrolling through my phone one evening, I saw a video that stopped me cold. A woman doctor slapped a father who had brought his sick daughter for treatment, then refused to treat the child. I didn't want to believe it. I checked online, hoping it was fake. It wasn't.

I kept thinking about that father: standing in a hospital corridor, humiliated and helpless.

If a male doctor had slapped a mother instead, the story would have blown up everywhere. People would have called it assault. There would have been outrage, debates, maybe even a protest.

When a woman does it, though, the reaction changes. It becomes a moment of "anger," "stress," or "pressure." The empathy shifts direction.

That's where the imbalance ...