While China is moving to block the airing of a documentary on pollution, India is moving to block the airing of a documentary on the scourge of its country: rape. India has long been accused of having a rape culture where women are blamed for their own victimization and the caste system (and poor legal system) continues to frustrate efforts to hold rapists accountable. That dire situation for women led to the much acclaimed documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, “India’s Daughter.” The Indian government is so opposed to letting its citizens hear about such abuses that it is now threatening the BBC for airing the banned documentary.
The documentary deals with the gang rape and subsequent death of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 that we previously discussed. The most riveting portion of the film is the interview of Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus currently on death row in Delhi’s Tihar jail. Singh not only shows no remorse but blames the victim: “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.”
It is a view that is all too familiar to women in India, but the government wants the interview and the film quashed. India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the upper house: “When I heard about the documentary I was hurt. Under no circumstances should this be telecast. So we got a restraining order from the court.” Now there is solid logic. The film is deeply revealing and disturbing and therefore must be banned.
The Government insists that it is not clear who gave permission for the interview. However, the interview was clearly voluntary and he clearly received someone’s permission since he is in prison. None of that explains why the government would bar citizens from hearing this interview.
Source: Fox
Wally – those Democrats were not ‘key players’ in the KKK, they were the players.
@ happypappies and All
I was surprised at the number of rapes/100,000 people in Sweden, and looked up the UNODC statistics, finding the following:
“In 2012, Sweden had 66 cases of reported rapes per 100,000 population, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå).[228] This was unequivocally the biggest number reported to the UNODC in 2012.[229]
“However, widely differing legal systems, offence definitions, terminological variations, recording practices and statistical conventions makes any cross-national comparison on rape statistics difficult,[230][231][232][233] *which is why the UNODC itself cautions against using their figures.[229]*” (my emphasis)
And:
“The Swedish police record each instance of sexual violence in every case separately, leading to an inflated number of cases compared to other countries.[230][233][237] Sweden also has a comparatively wide definition of rape.[230][231][232] This means that more sexual crimes are registered as rape than in most other countries.[231] For example, in 2005 Sweden reformed its sex crime legislation and made the legal definition of rape much wider,[230][238][239][240] which led to a marked increase in reports.[241][242] Additionally, the Swedish police have improved the handling of rape cases, in an effort to decrease the number of unreported cases.[230][242][243][244]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Sweden
This sheds some additional light on the accusations again Julian Assange, who, however (so far as I know), has never actually been charged by Swedish authorities, who tried to extradite him only for “questioning.”
Regarding “Libby’s” posts, I doubt *very* much that he/she is so gullible or dim as to believe that forcible rape is something that’s condoned on the basis of diversity education or anything else by any teacher he/she’s ever had.
On the remote chance that s/he *is* that gullible and/or dim, and interpreted in that way what s/he was “taught,” it would definitely be a personal problem.
Many moons ago, when American women used to yell rape, they were not treated as a victim, but as the antagonist. Although, times have improved for women, there are still judges, lawyers, and men who blame the victim.
Recently, we read about an Indian man, in this country, who told the court that it was the rape victims fault, not his.
I hope the women of India will stand their grounds and demand the movie be shown, or go underground and show the movie. Also, every parent (male and female) should demand the movie be show.
WE, women and men, must be the voice for the women of other countries, like India and the Middle East, where men take and get whatever they want and walk away scott free–because, it’s always the woman’s or child’s fault, never their own.
I am not sure if that first link will work this one sounds better
This is absurd
Once again treated to the resident revisionist historian, expert on India, Vietnam, etc. Good practice, perhaps, for a novel you may wish to write depicting your own views, derived from hammering the facts around to suit your purposes.
If there are any courses in sophistry, I can give you excellent references as to your qualifications.
Wally – we mustn’t forget those southern Democrats running around in their white hoods and voting against the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
“Just because your culture believes the subjugation of women and censorship are wrong doesn’t mean it is a better culture, it is just different.”
Libby
I think you have a point. Moreover, the deep lack of self-awareness (again) in this piece demonstrates the ignorance to our own problems.
But does our culture believe the subjugation of women and censorship are wrong? A woman is raped on average, once every 16-17 seconds in the US. 1 in 3 women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime in the US. Not to mention the struggles faced by women economically.
Also, does are culture believe in no censorship?? Have you checked our presidential “debates”? They are the most scripted things I’ve seen. Or what about the shiny free press we have. It’s not hard to understand that America’s entrenched media venues are anything but freedom of the press.
Just because a court, legal scholar, or legislator says it or writes it does not mean that is the actual circumstances for people. The actual rule-of-law differs significantly, but I understand why many in the elite culture and nationalists don’t understand this.
@Inga (Annie)
Well, it takes only a few exchanges to determine what one’s dealing with, and I haven’t really expended an inordinate amount of time or energy here.
It just occurred to me that my attitude toward blog comments that are more emotional than rational is analogous to that of an advocate of broken-window + catch-and-release policing, and I hope the law-and-order cohort here appreciates that. 🙂
Those obsessive types that love the drama of who is a sock puppet, who is a moby, detract from substance on a blog. It’s a side show. A freak show. A soap opera. It’s horseshit. Avoid the carny barkers and freak show, stay on the topic of women in India.
@Nick Spinelli
Well, Nick, I guess you pretty well ‘splained *that* to ‘er. 🙂
No Ken it doesn’t matter, but it’s so outlandish that it seems like we are just being manipulated by this Moby for his amusement. You do a better job with these sorts of commenters than I do. I don’t have that level of patience.
Wally – it was the Republicans who freed the slaves. Why the hell would they be okay with slavery?
@Inga (Annie)
“Libby is Mobydick, IMO. “Libby” probably doesn’t believe a thing ‘she’s’ been saying and is merely trying to solicit a response from commenter’s who ‘she’ thinks will fall for the mobydicking.”
Thanks for the heads-up, but if we address the *idea* in the posts, does it really matter whether the poster is Libby, Mobydick, or Karl Rove?
I thought of Rove in this connection, as “Libby’s” posts sound like something Rove would think is cute and snarky, while actually being disingenuous to the point of stupidity.
See, for example, his comment shortly after 9/11: “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” “Conservatives, he said, “saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8324598/ns/politics/t/white-house-defends-rove-over-remarks/#.VPoNBOFKnng
Just try to understand where you draw the line.
So Libby, are you fine with slavery if the culture supports it?
@Libby
“Sarcastic? Ironic? I’m just stating what I’ve always been taught: Diversity is a good thing, and in fact should be celebrated.”
Diversity manifested in ways that don’t harm others *is* a “good thing.”
Conformity manifested in ways that don’t harm others is also a good thing.
I don’t know, because you haven’t shared them, the particulars of your education regarding diversity, but as you’ve ostensibly defended India’s rape culture on the basis of it, perhaps you’ve interpreted “what you’ve always been taught” regarding the value of diversity a little too literally, i.e., simple-mindedly.
Libby, I agree with you that we are not taught to make judgments about what is happening in many cultures, to include our own. This is wrong. Of course we all make judgments whether we admit to it or not. Therefore, it behooves all of us to make informed judgments.
Rape is as acceptable in the US as it is in India. The suppression of speech is as acceptable to the USG as the govt. of India. As citizens of either nation, we should hold our govt. to account for the suppression of free speech and the failure to prosecute rape.
We have minds, we can use them! That’s something that most cultures don’t like–thinking, feeling, caring citizens. That’s exactly why it’s our job to be those things! The way to social justice is our hearts and our minds and the questioning of deeply held beliefs that harm others.
What happened to the woman is what should “hurt” Mr Singh. Instead, the fact that such a cruel and malevolent opinion is shared by many in India “hurts” him (makes his nation look bad). Well, time for a change!!!!
Libby
Some cultures are better, more evolved as societies, higher up if you will. The ‘everything is as it should be as it is’ routine is the biggest exit from the brain there is. Knowing is the first step. It is not an easy place to be, knowledgeable. “I know nothing.”