07/12/2019
I was horrified to read about the Indian woman who was set on fire whilst on her way to testify against her alleged rapists. The as yet un-named young woman suffered 90% burns and died late on Friday, after suffering cardiac arrest at a Delhi hospital.
The victim was aged just 23 and it is heartbreaking to think about what she was subjected to.
The young woman was walking to a court hearing on Thursday, when she was brutally attacked. The hearing was for her to give evidence in the rape case she filed against two men in March in Unnao, which is in the Uttar Pradesh state of India.
Five men, including the alleged rapists, have been arrested.
Rape and sexual violence against women have been in focus in India for much of the last decade. The topic came to prominence in December 2012 following the gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in India's capital, Delhi.
However, police registered 33,658 cases of rape in India in 2017, an average of 92 rapes per day. This would suggest that the increased awareness of the abhorrent attacks women is doing nothing to bring an end to crimes against women.
This is something that should shame India as a nation.
Women should be able to walk from place to place without fear of being raped or sexually assaulted. They should not have to be scared to go about their normal daily activities.
The perpetrators of the rape and horrific murder of this 23 year old woman must face justice.
The sister of the victim has said that she, and I think this relates t the victim herself, wanted the death penalty for the two man who raped her. The manner of her murder is such that I am sure there will be many calling for the death penalty for those found to be responsible.
However, the death penalty is not the sentence applied to rape cases in India.
Police Encounter Killings
Extrajudicial killings, known in India as 'police encounter killings', have been an issue.
In the week before the attack on this 23 year old rape victim, Indian police shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad. The men were in police detention and were taken back to the scene of the crime in the early hours of Friday.
According to the police, the suspects were shot when they tried to steal the officers' guns and escape.
It was said that 10 armed policemen took the four suspects to the place where they are alleged to have raped and murdered a 27 year old woman, in order to reconstruct the incident. The police were apparently looking for the victim's phone, power bank and watch which were reported missing.
According to VC Sajjanar, the police commissioner of the Hyderabad suburb of Cyberabad: "The four men got together and started to attack the officers with stones and sticks and also snatched away weapons from two officers and started firing."
Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have called for investigations to determine if these were extrajudicial killings. Avinash Kumar, the executive director of Amnesty International India, said: "Extrajudicial killings are not a solution to preventing rape."
Nobody should act as judge, jury and executioner, obviously.
There are those times when it is easy to believe that the punishment should match the crime. I realise that the crimes of these men deserve harsh penalties. I wouldn't be protesting if the properly delivered sentence of the courts, after a fair trial, was death. I honestly cannot argue that the men who were killed by the police in the case referred to above deserve to live. The 27 year old rape and murder victim's charred remains, which were found on Thursday 28th November, would be enough to convince most people that the perpetrators are beyond redemption.
Perhaps, and I realise that this is a bit extreme, men who rape women might themselves face being anally raped. Those that then set their victims alight, could also face death by the same means.
That would of course be seen as a barbaric way to treat another human being, convict or not. But, that's how these men are treating their female victims.
The women have been horrifically abused sexually and, in some instances, then subjected to a savage and ferocious method of murder.
I am not saying that I truly believe these rapists should be killed for their disgusting crimes, especially if that is done in a way that would be considered criminal and uncivilised.
The monsters that rape and murder innocent women don't deserve our compassion or forgiveness. They don't deserve another five minutes of breath.
But we, who remain and who are innocent of such barbarism, don't deserve to be twisted into a life of hate. We do not deserve to be dragged down to their level of abhorrent behaviour.
We must bring an end to sexual violence against women.
Something must be done to bring an end to the brutal attacks on innocent women. This applies not just to women in India, but across the world. All women deserve to be protected from such awful violence.
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