Patrice Ellerbe, Staff Writer
Last Modified: 12: 34 p.m. EDT, 16 January 2013
NEW DELHI, India – Only weeks after a shocking gang rape incident in New Delhi, six men have been arrested in India after being accused of abducting and raping a 29 year-old woman in India. The woman was said to be the only passenger on the bus as she traveled to her village in northern Punjab state on a late Friday night. The driver of the bus drove the woman to a location deserted of people, where he and five friends took turns raping her before dropping her off at her village early Sunday morning. The six suspects were arrested, and then confessed to the crime after the woman filed a complaint.
As for the incident that occurred only weeks before this, the five suspects that were accused of brutally raping a 23-year old woman are set to go to trial in a fast-track court. Outrage sparked nationwide once news got out that the victim and a male friend were lured onto a bus, beat, and brutally raped, resulting in death only a month ago. Because the sixth suspect is under the age of 18, he will be tried separately in a juvenile court. It was unfortunate that the woman died of her severe internal injuries on 29 December 2012 in a Singapore hospital.
Indian authorities have charged the men with murder, rape, kidnapping, and various other charges. According to the lawyer of three of the suspects, his clients will plead not guilty. The lawyer stated that the police used force to gain confessions from the men and also manipulated the evidence to make his clients seem guilty. Two of the suspects have stated they want to become witnesses for the prosecution in order to receive lighter sentences.
Protesters have called for tougher rape laws, major police reforms and a transformation in the way the Indian nation treats women, period.
It is disappointing when nations have not taken more serious action after situations like this have occurred multiple times, and in such a short time frame. In aggreance with protesters, India should enforce rape laws as well as begin the transformation as to how women are treated. In this day and age, equality is important. If women are not looked at as an equal, men will only continue to take advantage of them because they seem so weak. It is imperative that India enforces female equality, and if not that, make it known that it is not okay to keep violating the women of that or any other nation.
Related articles
- ‘Slumdog’ star on rape in India (edition.cnn.com)
- There Was Another Gang Rape in India (theatlanticwire.com)
- India Gang Rape: Woman Assaulted By Bus Driver, Conducter (huffingtonpost.com)
- Another bus gang rape reported in India (cbsnews.com)
Staff Writer: @PatriceEllerbe
![Rehtaeh Parsons, a teen from Nova Scotia, was a gorgeous, kind, straight-A student with her whole life ahead of her. On Thursday, she hung herself in her bathroom. On Sunday night, her family took her off life-support. Approximately a year and a half earlier, in November 2011, when Rehtaeh was 15 years old, she was reportedly gang-raped by four boys, classmates of hers. The trauma did not end there. One of the boys reportedly took a photo of the act and circulated it among Rehtaeh’s school and community where, as noted, by Rehtaeh’s mother, “it quickly went viral.” Authorities reportedly investigated the sexual assault but claimed there was insufficient evidence to make formal charges. Rehtaeh’s mother recalls the investigation: They didn’t even interview the boys until much, much later. To me, I’d think you’d get the boys right away, separate them…. Nothing was done about [the photos] because they couldn’t prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone. [She was told that the distribution of the photos is] not really a criminal issue, it’s more of a community issue. Even though she was 15 at the time, which is child pornography…. The whole case was full of things like that. We didn’t have a rape kit done because we didn’t even know (anything had happened) until several days later when she had a breakdown in my kitchen. She was trying to keep it to herself. Tormented and bullied, Rehtaeh was forced to leave her school and tried to start fresh in a new community. Despite efforts, she continued to struggle, at one point checking into a hospital to cope with suicidal thoughts, anger, and depression. In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident. “The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut. “This day changed the lives of our family forever.” Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.” “She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.](http://ayannanahmias.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rehtaeh-parsons-17-canadian-rape-victim-commits-suicide-3.jpg?w=45&h=45&crop=1){kind=small}
27/01/2013 at 18:24
rapist didn’t commit anything other than what is being done by their own army
http://latheeffarook.com/index.php/my-articles/regional-articles/392-rape-in-india
17/01/2013 at 12:01
Excellent post.
Hadn’t seen anything from you for months and was hoping all was okay. Glad to see you’re back.
17/01/2013 at 12:18
Thank you too. I have missed all of the readers and followers. I took time off to focus on completing my book. I have been talking about finishing it for too many years and I am not getting any younger.
Writers write, and writing this blog has given me a sense of purpose and well-being, but the book is also important because it will help women in particular, and people in general to embrace their uniqueness and discover their voices so that they can give back to others and society.
However, I am to be back and excited to continue this journey toward equality for all.