New Delhi Gang Rape.

On December 16th 2012 (16/12/12) a 23 year old woman who has not been identified was raped by six men on a bus in New Delhi India. After filming the attack and severely beating her the attackers threw the woman off the moving bus. Yesterday she died of her injuries in a hospital in Singapore. Across poor nations violence, especially sexual violence against women is common place and it is measure of how developed a society is whether or not it is prepared to tolerate this and protect the perpetrators. As Indian society has developed economically and socially it's people are becoming less and less prepared to tolerate this type of thing. The New Delhi attack has become the lighting rod for this wider shift within Indian society. Therefore I've been actively ignoring the story up until now because all I've seen is normal people behaving naturally and I think it is something Indian society needs to work out for itself without my interference.

However in order to cope with the mass demonstrations and riots in which police officers have been killed which the attack provoked the Indian government has been attempting to present the story as it's response to the US over the Rihanna/Chris Brown reunion. Obviously in this metaphor Rihanna is the rape victim while Brown and those who continue to protect him are the gang of rapists. This comparison has also expanded outwards to include the issue of force marriage through a similar story about an 18 year old rape victim in the Punjab who was told by police to marry her attacker and the return of Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson to the UK from neighbouring Pakistan. This bothers me primarily because it clouds a very important issue and may well confuse it to the point of derailing it completely. Secondly it is never nice to hear yourself described as the rape victim or as the rapist that everybody wants to see put to death especially when there is more then a grain of truth in the comparison. Therefore I can't help but feel this makes the situation much worse because the US themselves seem very keen to pile the pressure on Rihanna at the moment although Brown seems to be being left alone.

15:15 on 29/12/12.

Edited at around 18:05 on 29/12/12 to add: There's really things I'd rather being doing at this point. However as this now making proper news you'll be glad to know that Chris Brown has missed his flight to the Kora Awards (dubbed the 'African Grammy's') in Cote D'Ivorie. As a result the entire awards ceremony has been rescheduled to accommodate him. This along with the public appearance at the Staple's Centre on Christmas day and the arrest of the woman over a false business relationship with the Webster gunman is Brown's people arguing that a restraining order can't be re-introduced because it would have a negative effect on his career. If anything this highlights the giant chasm between Brown's people and well most everybody else. The minimum that would be expected would be the re-introduction of the restraining order. A more reasonable expectation would be 3-5 years in prison and there are plenty of people who would happily just see him killed. Politics aside though it must be said that if the LA courts are seriously considering putting the offenders desire to make money over their duty to protect the victim something has gone very badly wrong.