23-year-old woman in India’s capital city was riding on a public bus. Five men and one youth on the bus beat and raped her. Her body was dumped on the street where she died.
Also, an eight-year-old girl was recently raped in India. No charges were pressed.
Every 20 minutes in India, a woman is sexually assaulted.
Anchal Sabharwal, one of the young organizers of New Delhi’s first Slutwalk protests in 2011, as quoted by the CBC news in India as saying, “Most women don’t feel safe in the capital after dark, even eight o’clock is not a good time to go out.”
A Slutwalk is a protest march. The name came from a Toronto (Ontario) police officer in 2011 saying if women want to remain safe they should “avoid dressing like sluts.” The first one took place on April 3, 2011 in Toronto. Slutwalks are now taking place throughout the world.
Slutwalks mainly contain young women. Many of the women in these marches dress provocatively to protest the idea that women who dress a certain way are asking to be raped. Many of the women who participate in these marches also go to workshops, meetings and listen to speakers.
In India in the past few weeks, there have been candlelight vigils held. One of these vigils was for the 23-year old college student who was raped on a bus. The victim’s name wasn’t released until recently, because of a law that protects victims of rape.
This young girl’s father just released her name. Her name was Jyoti Singh Pandy. Before the world knew her name she was referred to as “Amanat,” an Urdu word meaning treasure, and “Damini,” which is a Hindu word meaning lightning, which was also the title of a movie about a woman’s fight for justice.
Rape isn’t just a problem in India. In the United States someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes. According to the Huffington Post, in the United States 97 percent of the persons convicted of rape don’t spend a single night in jail.
For example, Savannah Dietrich was a victim of rape in the United States at age 16. Dietrich was at a party and passed out, when two boys stripped her down, violated her and took pictures. Dietrich decided to go public with this information.
On Dietrich’s Twitter account she wrote: “There you go, lock me up. I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell.”
Dietrich pressed charges and the two boys pleaded guilty. The judge ordered Dietrich not to talk about this incident. She believed it was a clear violation of her free speech and continues to talk about it. She still continues to press on and not let anyone stop her from getting justice.
Rape claims are rising globally and the way of stopping this problem is still unclear.
