2 Indian sisters face village rape for brothers wrong doing

Beck.er.

All Star
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
1,824
Reputation
700
Daps
6,491
Elders Threaten Gang Rape of Two Indian Women as Punishment

On July 30, 23-year old Meenakshi Kumari and her 15-year-old sister were sentenced to be gang-raped by a group of village elders in the Baghpat district. The sisters weren’t convicted of any crimes, rather their sentence was punishment for their brother’s elopement.
Vice reports:

[The sisters] were told that their faces would be blackened and they would be raped and paraded naked in front of their neighbors by a council based in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. Kumari then petitioned the Indian Supreme Court to protect her and her family, which is of the Dalit caste — the lowest in India’s hierarchy. Members of the caste were previously referred to as “untouchables.” The word Dalit means “oppressed.”

The woman their brother eloped with is of the higher Jat caste.

The sisters’ case has obviously sparked international outrage. Amnesty International began a petition decrying the sentence and demanding justice for the sisters. Amnesty notes that the punishment was handed down by an “unelected, all-male” council. Those councils operate outside of the official legal system, yet they remain deeply influential in parts of India.

Via Amnesty:
“Sumit Kumar, another brother of Meenakshi says that members of the Jat caste are powerful members of the village council, ‘the Jat decision is final’.

His family fears for their lives if they return.

Meenakshi has filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking for protection, and her father has lodged a complaint with two national bodies saying that both his family has been harassed not just by the family of the eloped woman (who are of the dominant caste and, therefore influential), but also by the police.
India’s Supreme Court routinely throws out decisions made by village councils (called khap courts), which they have declared illegal, so the Supreme Court remains the sisters’ best chance for protection. Amnestytold Vice that the “government...has an urgent duty to keep this family safe.”

Image via Getty.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
82,422
Reputation
8,445
Daps
221,990
Did India village council really order rape of two sisters?

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition by Amnesty International after allegations that a village council in India ordered that two women be raped as punishment because their brother eloped with an upper caste woman. It has even led to calls by British MPs for action. But local police and officials say no such order was given. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder travelled to Baghpat in northern India to investigate.

The village of Sankraud is just an hour's drive from Delhi.

The narrow dusty lanes with mostly male residents milling around are typical of the area. The few women who can be seen have their faces covered.

But Sankraud has now achieved a level of notoriety. It's here that an all-male village council is alleged to have ordered the rape of two sisters because their brother eloped with a woman from a higher caste.

On its lanes and inside its tea-shops, people are outraged at the focus on an event they say didn't happen.

"We've read in the newspapers that a British MP has expressed concern over the so called shameful treatment of women in our village," one elderly man tells me.

"The reports are completely false."

"We are so ashamed that our village is in the news for something that did not even happen," one young man shouts.


"We feel dishonoured."

It's a theme that recurs throughout. Honour and dishonour.

Did India village council really order rape of two sisters? - BBC News
 

thatdude954

All Star
Joined
Jul 8, 2015
Messages
1,592
Reputation
225
Daps
3,301
lol wow. sometimes you just hear shyt and have to laugh...not funny but wow...just...:skip:


srsly tho:why:
 

Beck.er.

All Star
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
1,824
Reputation
700
Daps
6,491
--------
The narrow dusty lanes with mostly male residents milling around are typical of the area. The few women who can be seen have their faces covered.
-----------
On its lanes and inside its tea-shops, people are outraged at the focus on an event they say didn't happen.

"We've read in the newspapers that a British MP has expressed concern over the so called shameful treatment of women in our village," one elderly man tells me.

"The reports are completely false."

"We are so ashamed that our village is in the news for something that did not even happen," one young man shouts.

"We feel dishonoured."

It's a theme that recurs throughout. Honour and dishonour.

'No love affair'
At a lawyer's office in Delhi, one of the sisters allegedly threatened seeks legal help.

She's petitioned the Supreme Court to order the police to protect her. Since the incident, she says her family's been abused and threatened by the girl's relatives and upper caste villagers forcing them to leave the village.

"The whole village knew that my brother and that woman were in love," she says.

"But her family disapproved. They said 'you've dishonoured us and now we'll dishonour you'. They're upper caste, they're capable of anything."

They are also concerned for the woman's safety, since she's now been sent back to her family.


So back in the village, I visit her home.

Her relatives and village elders are seated inside, some of them smoking.

A large crowd gathers outside as well, curious but also, it feels, in a show of strength.

"It's all lies," the woman's male cousin tells me. "She never went willingly. There was no love affair."

Eventually I'm finally allowed to meet and speak to her on the roof - but only under the watchful eyes of two of her male relatives.

Just two doors away, I can see the roof of the house belonging to the man she is said to have eloped with. It's easy to imagine how they met and decided to run away.

But when she speaks to me, I get a completely different version.

"I barely knew the man," she says her eyes fixed on the ground.

"I didn't even know his name. He tricked me into going with him saying he'll get me a job. Then he kept me against my will."

It's difficult to judge whether she's speaking of her own free will but her answers appear a bit rehearsed.

-----------

Social pressure
"We believe that the woman went with the man willingly," says Additional Superintendent of Police, Vidyasagar Misra.

"But in our investigations we didn't find any evidence that a village council meeting took place and order passed against anyone as reported."
--------
"We have not been on the ground, we have not visited the village," Amnesty spokesperson Gopika Bashi told us.

"We still believe that whatever has occurred, regardless of allegations being thrown back and forth that it's very important that the family is safe and the girls are safe."

The controversy has shifted the focus, perhaps unnecessarily, on whether the village council passed a brutal order rather than on a young couple facing social pressure because they belong to different castes.

It's a reality prevailing across rural India and perhaps best expressed in what one village elder in Sankraud told me.

"You people in the city may inter-marry, it's your custom," he said, slowly pulling on a hand-rolled cigarette.

"Not here, not in our village. We have our customs and our traditions and we will preserve them, at any cost."
:comeon:
 
Top