Blog 8- Second Rape Case in India and Public Outcry

Rape cases and the slow justice for those who commit such crimes against women have become a hot political issue in India since the ban of a BBC documentary featuring an unapologetic rapist and the silent culture surrounding the crime of rape within the country as a whole. Recently a second attack has sparked a mass of public outcry that can not be banned or silenced by the government. This is the rape and attack of an elderly nun whose attackers vandalized the Christian church where the nun lived in worked and stole money before attacking her. There is no proof as of yet if the nun was targeted simply for being christian or if it is revenge for the expulsion of a pupil from the church's school. The young men were caught on the security cameras within the building and the principal of the school explained to the writer of this article that he had requested police protection days before the attack due to the threatening phone calls being made to the school and that they happened to be missing when the attack took place. The authorities have yet to say if the young men responsible will be charged and to what the extent of that sentencing might be. To insure that the men will br held responsible Christians have taken to the street in marches and other peaceful protests to garner public and international support. Given the banning of the documentary, and the demeanor of the rapists from that incident, and the careless way that the men revealed their faces on the security cameras in this one suggests that they are not fearful of lawful retribution or punishment. The seemingly large amount of rape cases being written about from india shows not only a changing cultural norms from one of silence to public accountability also speaks to the changing gender norms within areas of the country. Rape has historically been used as a tool to force women into submissive roles, it is plausible that such social changes have a correlated effect on the rise in rape cases within the country, as the BBC article seems to suggest. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31902013