Daily Times

That three teenagers have been raped and burned alive in a week should not be a matter of shame for just India, where these horrific crimes occurred. Everyone everywhere should hang their heads in collective remorse. Because here in the 21st century, the problem of rape remains a global one.

The latest incident occurred in Madhya Pradesh. She was just 16-years-old. Her cousin has been arrested for his role in informing the 26-year-old attacker that she was home alone. When she threatened to tell her family of the rape — she was murdered. It was a similar story for the other two victims; both in Jharkhand state. One died while the other remains in a critical condition.

So, what is to be done?

The entire world community needs a united response to rape. At a minimum, lifetime jail sentences should be awarded for such violations. And life must mean life. None of this out-on-probation after serving a half-sentence. To be sure, periods of incarceration are not in and of themselves sufficient to provide an effective deterrent. Here in Pakistan, the sentencing to death of the rapist-murderer of little Zainab did not serve as a warning to others. For just days later, four-year-old Asma met the same tragic fate. Meaning that the point of lengthy imprisonment is to allow those victims ‘fortunate’ enough to survive sexual violence to at least get on with the traumatic business of rebuilding their lives secure in the knowledge that they will not come face to face with their attacker any time soon.

The next step is for everyone, including civil society and women’s rights activists, to begin the challenging task of reaching consensus on responding to such brutality; particularly at the policymaking level. For there tends to be, at least in this part of the world, undue focus on class structures if the rapist happens to come from a disadvantaged background. Thus victims may find themselves enduring a double betrayal that sees class under-privilege given disproportionate consideration. This was seen in the BBC documentary, India’s Daughter, that dealt with the 2012 New Delhi gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh. Whereby a prominent local rights activist was more troubled by the prospect of the film casting the poor men of India as rapists across the board. It did not.

The time has come to mobilise. To consolidate the gains of the #MeToo movement; to consult immensely brave women like Mukhtaran Mai who fought a flawed criminal justice system before turning her attention to educating girls; to making the quest for social justice as inclusive as possible. In short, the time has come to ensure that this century belongs to women everywhere.  *

Published in Daily Times, May 13^th 2018.