We have been discussing the epidemic of rape in India, including the grotesque recent gang rape of a woman on a bus who died from internal injuries. The attitude of Indian officials has ranged from the disgusting to the bizarre. Now we can add the rape of a Swiss 39-year-old woman who was gang raped and her husband beaten up after camping near a Hindu temple. A spokesman for Madhya Pradesh police department promptly said that the woman and her husband brought on the rape by camping in the wrong spot. This week a British woman fractured both legs and suffered head injuries after jumping from her hotel window to escape being raped by the owner.
Six suspects have been arrested in the northern state of Madhya Pradesh. The couple was cycling and camping around India and had stopped near the village of Jhansi. Around 10 pm, the men came to the camp, beat up and tied up the husband, and proceeded to gang rape his wife in front of him.
The spokesman for Madhya Pradesh police blamed the couple and said “No one stops there. Why did they choose that place? They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They would have passed a police station on the way to the area they camped. They should have stopped and asked about places to sleep.”
Police have recovered 5,500 rupees (£67), a laptop and a mobile belonging to the couple — strengthening the case even further. The men allegedly operate an illegal distillery near the crime scene.
Source: Independent
Interesting ad campaign:
“Ford India Needs to Fire Its Advertising Execs”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/03/22/ford_india_should_probably_fire_its_ad_execs_for_depicting_bound_and_gagged.html?wpisrc=most_viral
Sure, we use sex to sell cars and the concept is that women are so shallow a nice car owned by a guy will do it. Tacky. We don’t use (even in jest) the premise that if you’re going to kidnap women use a Ford, the trunk space is great. Considering the cast of characters this appears to be a satirical campaign but c’mon, considering the culture it’s a campaign that may ‘work’ on multiple levels and really, is Ford in India that clueless?
Whether the rape matters seems to depend on the victim:
Maliki’s Iraq: Rape, Executions and Torture
Thursday, 21 March 2013 09:33 By Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera | Report
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15246-malikis-iraq-rape-executions-and-torture
“Baghdad – Heba al-Shamary (name changed for security reasons) was released last week from an Iraqi prison where she spent the last four years.
“I was tortured and raped repeatedly by the Iraqi security forces,” she told Al Jazeera. “I want to tell the world what I and other Iraqi women in prison have had to go through these last years. It has been a hell.”
Heba was charged with terrorism, a fate faced by many Iraqis who are detained by security forces.
“I now want to explain to people what is occurring in the prisons that [Prime Minister Nouri al-] Maliki and his gangs are running,” Heba added. “I was raped over and over again, I was kicked and beaten and insulted and spit upon.”
Heba’s story, horrific as it is, unfortunately is but one example of what a recent report from Amnesty International refers to as “a grim cycle of human rights abuses” in Iraq today.”
The police spokesman expressed his view that the victim should have been more conscious of the environment as an admonition to others to exercise better judgment in their own interest.
He may have given his opinion in English but almost certainly English is a second or third language to him. English is the sort of “lingua franca” of India as English speakers are found all over the country, especially in the cities, but most Indians do not speak it as their primary language and thus are competent only to a limited extent.
Hinduism is known as a religion that teaches peace and decency. Hindus are not supposed to instigate violence. Can you imagine camping on a Christian church house grounds and being raped by members of that church as punishment for violating the sanctity of the premises?