Victim

This is the car it happened in. A repurposed government car, can you believe? An old white Ambassador with white curtains hanging from the tinted windows, so the sun and everyone else could be shut out from the hallowed government business that went on inside. I'm sure the tinted windows weren't meant for the same nefarious purpose which aided the perpetrators of my crime.

Perpetrators. What a great word. Has all the echoes of pervert, terminator, traitor, dictator, which for that one hour is what those two men and one "boy" were to me.

Yet nothing has the sting of the word rapist. Listen to it. The rasping R, the shrill long A, the ultimately effete PIST of a loser who preys on the vulnerable and weak.

You're not looking at the pictures of the car. Did you really look? You wanna see inside? I mean you can rely on my description if you want. I'm good at describing things, everyone always says. Did I mention the red-orange paan stain on the back of the front seat? Don't mistake it for blood. That's on the back seat, vague patches of it left after a feeble attempt to wipe it off. But the erupting red-orange splots, that's paan, a ubiquitous stain across India. But who spits paan inside their car? Yet there it was. Funny the things you focus on when you're trying to shut out pain and humiliation. You can close your eyes, but that just magnifies the senses. So I clung to the bulbous splat on the dingy white seat covers and a small crack in the dingy white curtains that occasionally let in a shard of light from a passing street lamp.

OK, you don't have to look at the photos. You can just read my words and rely solely on my description.

Only, how do you know I'm telling the truth?

01
Table Of Contents

JAW DROPPING ENLIGHTENMENT

Some of India's less progressive minds tackle
the problem of rape

"It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong." -
Babulal Gaur, Home Minister Madhya Pradesh
"Boys will be boys, they make mistakes... Will you hang them for rape?" -
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief
"Just because India achieved freedom at midnight does not mean that women can venture out after dark." -
Botsa Satyanarayan, INC legislature from state assembly of Andhra Pradesh
"Rapes take place also because of a woman's clothes, her behavior and her presence at inappropriate places." -
Asha Mirje, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and a member of the Maharashtra Women's Commission
"I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady." -
Manohar Lal Sharma, defense lawyer in Delhi Dec 16, 2012 gang rape case

For more read:

Short skirts, bad stars and chow mein: why India's women get raped - Reuters

Political potshots: Why me, asks modern woman - Times of India

Shut up, please! - Newslaundry.com

C R Y I N G   W O L F

P R O S T I T U T E

A T T E N T I O N
S E E K E R

J I L T E D
F I A N C E

V E N D E T T A

M E N D A C I T Y

F I R E D
M A I D

D I S A P P R O V I N G
P A R E N T S

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The tyranny of tradition

"What drives otherwise-decent people to suffocate or drown newborn girls? Simply put, girls are often an unbearable burden. The practice of giving dowry for marriage is entrenched in all strata of society, and dowry demands can financially cripple poor families. In some parts of India, ancient property laws mean that only sons can inherit land. Through this cultural lens, sons are inevitably viewed as a form of family insurance. Sex-determination techniques mean that parents don't even need to wait for their girls to be born before killing them." (The Lancet 2/2011).
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TO BE USED

Click on the pictures for more.

Artist: Siddharth Sarathi

"Nirbhaya" is one of the many nicknames given to the Dec 16 rape victim as it's illegal to publicise a rape victim's real name. Other nicknames were, Damini (lightning), Jagruti (awareness), Amanat (treasure).

child_marraige Form Video Sexual Abuse cradle_to_grave HITTING FETUS RIP

The tyranny of tradition

"In countries like India, female infanticide is perpetuated by a fierce social pressure that favours boys. But what drives otherwise-decent people to suffocate or drown newborn girls? Simply put, girls are often an unbearable burden."
(The Lancet 2/2011)
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Women in India are routinely asked to give their husband or father's name on forms and applications - whether it be official tax forms, bank applications, a doctor's office registration, even resident association membership forms - underlining the inference that women are not individuals of equal status to men, but the possession or wards of men.
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CRADLE TO GRAVE

Many Indian women are trapped in the
dark ages

"It's a miracle a woman survives in India. Even before she is born, she is at risk of being aborted. As a child, she faces abuse, rape and early marriage and even when she marries, she is killed for dowry. If she survives all of this, as a widow she is discriminated against and given no rights over inheritance or property." Read more