Victim of 'gang-rape' dies in Singapore hospital

Very, very sad to hear of the death of the 23 year old student, ‘Nirbaya’ (not her real name) of her injuries from the ‘gang-rape’ she suffered in Delhi. She died yesterday in a hospital in Singapore after having had several operations to remove parts of her injured intestines, having been transferred there from a hospital in Delhi (the treatment having been paid for by the Indian government).

The only consolation in this case is that it has brought many people out onto the streets – both men and women – in protest over the initial seeming indifference of the ruling elite and the failure of Indian society to protect women. I hope that the family of Nirbaya will take some comfort that so many in India and all over the world are outraged at such brutality.

To me, the term ‘gang-rape’ does not adequately describe what the 23 year old student went through. Perhaps ‘torture’ is closer. They beat both her and the man she was with with an iron bar, seemingly tortured her with it as well as raping her before throwing them both off the bus when they were unconscious. This is such a level of brutality that makes you wonder where it comes from. Apparently the men originally abused her because she was out at night with a man who wasn’t her husband.

The Telegraph reports that there have been more than 600 reported rape cases in Delhi so far this year. But campaigners believe this represents only 1 in 50 rapes – the rest going unreported as women are afraid of the police, and for being blamed themselves for the attack.

Victim-blaming in rape cases is not new – both in Delhi and around the world. Despite all the campaigning and publicity in the last 30-40 years, this attitude is still entrenched in Western society. In 2005, an ICM commissioned poll by Amnesty found that over 1/3 of the British public surveyed thought that women were sometimes wholly or partly to blame if they were raped, for example by drinking, flirting or dressing outrageously.

More recently, at Caernarfon Crown Court earlier this month, a 49-year-old man was convicted of raping a teenage girl. Jailing the rapist, the judge told him: “She let herself down badly. She consumed far too much alcohol and took drugs, but she also had the misfortune of meeting you”. (Would this same judge blame victims of burglary for owning too many possessions? Of course not).

Again, earlier on this year, during the campaign for the US Presidential election, Todd Akin tried to make a distinction between a ‘legitimate’ rape and, presumably a ‘non-legitimate’ rape, the distinction being that women did not get pregnant from ‘legitimate’ rapes as the body somehow ‘shut down’. Or the Californian judge who claimed that rapes were only ‘technical’ unless the rape victim showed evidence of physical damage.

We cannot be complacent with such attitudes still around in the West, despite some progress made (such as rape within marriage being recognized as a criminal act in the UK in 1991).

In India, as both myself and Susen have argued previously, there are at least 2 Indias. There is the modern, progressive India with its highly educated urban elite, which is existing side-by-side with the India of the villages with entrenched attitudes of the respective roles of men and women. Women are still seen, in the villages, as inferior, who have to obey the will of their fathers and husbands and not be seen on the streets at night.

My thoughts tonight are with the family of Nirbaya and to hope that women in India, and all over the world receive the respect, dignity and equality they deserve.