Rape and Kitchen Fires in India

The world was outraged three weeks ago by the evil rape and murder of a 23-year old medical student, Jyoti Singh Pandey, in New Delhi, the capital city of India. The murder, along with the mutilation of women in India, is nothing new, but it has reached a boiling point with the brutality of this latest crime and a justice system that neglects to punish men who commit violent crimes against women. Thousands of rape and suspected murder cases are collecting dust in the court system and it can sometimes take years for a case to come to trial, if ever.

According to statistics, one woman is raped every 20 seconds in India. Most go unreported due to the perceived shame brought to the woman's family and, if they are reported, the police are slow to follow up or make any arrest. But rape is not the only form of violence, nor particularly the most violent act perpetrated against women.

Visiting Jaipur, I stayed for two weeks with some Indian friends I had met in Agra and each morning as I read the India Times I was struck with how many women were killed in 'kitchen fires.' It seemed very suspicious and it wasn't plausible that all these kitchen fires could occur over the course of a few days. When I asked my friends about these fires they said that the women, most likely, had been killed by their husbands or their husbands' family. 

In India, over 100,000 women are killed in kitchen fires each year and the majority of the deaths are related to domestic abuse and dowry extortion. These deaths are usually reported as accidental. The husband's family sometimes tries to extort more money from the bride's family and if the bride's family don't comply, or more money cannot be extracted from them, the bride is frequently assaulted and/or killed. These murders are labelled bride burnings or dowry deaths, where women are doused in kerosene and set on fire and left to die from their horrific injuries and if they don't die, receive little or no medical treatment.

Another form of torture and a common crime in India is the throwing of acid in the face of a woman, leaving her with a cruel disfigurement and chronic pain if she happens to live.  'Eve teasing,' which consists of public sexual humiliation through teasing and groping, is another form of emotional and physical terror visited upon women who may be considered 'loose.' 

Women are viewed as second-class citizens in India, property of their husbands and fathers and traditional thinking isn't going to change quickly. According to well-educated professionals and spiritual thinkers in India, Miss Pandey was herself responsible for the horrible crime committed against her and her male companion in New Delhi. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Manohar Lal Sharma, the lawyer representing some of the men charged with the rape and murder of Miss Pandey, has said that he has never heard of a 'respected lady' getting raped in India.

2. Asharam, a respected spiritual guru, said that the victim was equally responsible and should have 'chanted God's name and fallen at the feel of the attackers' to stop the assault. She should have said 'I consider you as my brother.'

3. A Rajasthan lawmaker has called for a ban on skirts as uniforms in order to keep girls safe from 'men's lustful gazes.'

4. A woman scientist, Dr. Anita Shukla, says that 'had the girl simply surrendered and not resisted when surrounded, she would not have lost her intestine. Why was she out with her boyfriend at 10 pm?'

5. And finally, it's in the food. Jitendar Chattar says that '...consumption of fast food contributes to such incidents. Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance evoking an urge to indulge in such acts.'

By these quotes, it's clear that an innocent woman is being accused of provoking her own attack. If the above quotes are considered valid opinions from the educated class, change won't come soon enough this year for thousands of women in India.


UPDATE: March 20, 2020

Four men were hanged in Tihar Prison in the country's capital as a result of the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in December 2012.