India's Tipping Point: Death of Rape Victim Sparks Global Outrage
Anushay Hossain, Forbes.com
Indian residents gather to pray for gang-rape student victim during a silent protest in New Delhi on January 1, 2013. The family of an Indian gang-rape victim said that they would not rest until her killers are hanged as police finalised their investigation before charges are laid against suspects this week. As the ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed 'India's rape capital'. (Image credit: AFP/Getty
The brutal gang-rape and death of a 23-year-old female medical student in India has prompted outrage and horror around the world.
The physiotherapy student was tortured and raped by a group of six men on Dec. 16 armed with a metal bar on a private bus in New Delhi. She died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital on Saturday. Yesterday morning, as per Hindu custom, the ashes from her cremated body were scattered in the Ganges River.
Police have detained five men and a teenager, and are seeking the death penalty against the accused.
The woman was raped for nearly an hour before a metal rod was pushed inside her, destroying her internal organs. Then they threw her from the bus. The Police would not help or touch her, as they did not want to soil their uniforms with her blood
The incident has sparked marches across India where a woman is estimated to be raped every twenty minutes, with Delhi being labeled the “rape capital” of the country. Huge protests and demonstrations voiced people’s anger against the treatment of women in India, demanding tougher laws on violence against women.
The death of the young woman has become a rallying cry against the violence all Indian women face in society despite making huge economic and social strides. The 23 year old’s death symbolizes a clash between the India which has the highest number of women in Government, and the India with the world’s largest coerced prostitution rates.
I can understand this “sense of displacement” men may feel especially when they are not used to seeing women in the public sphere. But I am also fed up with us excusing men. You feel threatened by women accessing education, asserting their rights as human beings so you rape them with a metal rod? You rape them until their intestines come out?
You throw her body from the bus and leave her for dead?
When I think of the pure torture this young woman went though in the last hours of her life, I hang my head in horror.....