NEVER AGAIN! NO MORE RAPE!
(***AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
New Delhi has been flooded with protests since a brutual gang-rape that took place a few weeks ago. The young woman died as a result of her injuries. (I'm putting a trigger warning before I state this next part, because what they did to her is very horrific.)
"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."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/india-gang-rape-case-attackers_n_2380599.html?utm_hp_ref=world#slide=1928908
As a result of being beaten and raped with an iron rod, the woman suffered massive internal damage as well as brain damage, she also had a heart attack in the hospital before she died. Even after being transported to Singapore for speciality care it was not enough to save her, the damage was too extensive. This happens every single day to women and girls all over the world, but normally our male dominated medias in all countries do not report any of the brutality that we face, so our stories, our voices, our bodies, and ourselves go completely unnoticed. But due to the massive protests happening there, which to my surprise includes a lot of men, the media hasn't been able to ignore this.
As this article points out a lot of the elected officials in their government have been accused of rape or other violence against women crimes. In the United States, we have this same problem, although our government does an excellent job of keeping all of this silent or immediately discrediting the woman who was victimized. Further causing woman and girls in this country to be terrified to ever bring abuse charges against any member of the male population, because she knows she will just be blamed for it.
As for me and all women and girls everywhere we know the truth of what our lives are like, and how the male population treats us on a constant basis. Do I need to remind men that everything that a person does is recorded, and people like me are able to access all that information, so I know who every man on this planet really is, and what he's done. He cannot hide anything from me. I see every man for who we truly is, and he will not be able to escape being held responsible for his actions. I think when people are forced to look very clearly at those in charge of this country as well as the men in their own lives they'll be sickened by a lot that comes out. I hope that this case triggers massive anger of the way women and girls are treated in this country too, as well as a closer examination of our elected officials and their pasts.
"According to mandatory self-declarations filed by candidates with the Election Commission and tabulated by National Election Watch, India’s leading political parties have offered tickets to 27 candidates accused of rape and a whopping 260 candidates facing charges for crimes against women ranging from assault to harassment over the past five years. As a result, two members of the current parliament and six members of the various state legislative assemblies are facing rape charges, while 36 others face charges for lesser crimes against women.
Not one of India’s major parties is innocent of the charge, and by some measure the two largest, national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the worst offenders, according to National Election Watch. While most of the rape accused hail from smaller parties, or from the regional Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, both based in Uttar Pradesh, 11 out of 36 legislators facing charges for crimes against women hail from the Congress and BJP. And out of the 260 candidates offered tickets despite facing such charges, the Congress and BJP account for 50."
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/29/indias_culture_of_rape_is_endemic/
*** In this article this young woman's father tells his daughter's story. He sounds like a really wonderful man, who supported his daughter and did everything that he could to support her dream of becoming a doctor. As he says in the article he hopes that his daughter's strength will encourage other women who have survived abuse. I think she's already changed the entire world, and has helped a lot of women have the courage to step forward and talk about what's happened to them.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/india-gang-rape-victims-father-1521289
