DELHI_RAPE_PROTEST_1314440f     The fear women live with everyday manifested itself in one of the most horrific ways in New Dehli.

“The woman and a male friend, who have not been identified, were on a bus in New Delhi after watching a film on the evening of Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman’s body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police.”

Their culture, like our culture, is a rape culture.  Women are deemed sexual objects for use and abuse by men.

“Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days,” Loh said. “She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds, but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome.”

She is unnamed, she is dead.  The existing (patriarchal) system tries to justify what happened:

“The tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, which forces them to keep quiet and not report it to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Also, police often refuse to accept complaints from those who are courageous enough to report the rapes, and the rare prosecutions that reach courts drag on for years.

Indian attitudes toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen as provocative.”

Victim blaming is on the first page of the rapist’s playbook.  It happens in India, and it happens here in North America.  One in four women experience sexual assault/rape in our society – the same barriers in India are present here in North America that deny women  justice and protect and promote rape culture.   They are working on the problem in India:

“Nehra Kaul Mehra, a young Indian studying urban and gender policing at Colombia University in the United States, said, “We come from a feudal and patriarchal set-up where we value men more than women.

“We kill daughters before they are born. Those who live are fed less, educated less and segregated from boys,” she said with a black band of protest around her mouth.

Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, assured the protesters in a statement that the rape victim’s death “deepens our determination to battle the pervasive, the shameful social attitudes and mindset that allow men to rape and molest women and girls with such an impunity.”

What needs to happen is like the following statement.

“The outrage now should lead to law reform that criminalizes all forms of sexual assault, strengthens mechanisms for implementation and accountability, so that the victims are not blamed and humiliated,” Ganguly said.

Amen to that.