A Pakistani woman has set an example to India in the condemnation of the rape of defenceless women. It took days for the Delhi High Court to ratify the death sentence on the perpetrators of the heinous gang-rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi. The debate is still on concerning the death sentence. What is not clear is whether it is opposition to capital punishment which has not been abolished in India or whether it centres round the enormity of a crime like rape. That is preposterous. In Pakistan, near a police station in Muzaffargarh in Punjab, a 17 year old college girl was gang-raped. She killed herself by setting herself on fire in protest against a police report that led to the release of a key suspect. Pakistan is deeply conservative especially because of the widespread sway of Islamic law and rape, other forms of sexual assault and domestic violence are frequent occurrences there. It is heartening that at least one woman took such drastic action. She had succumbed to acute depression after going through the trauma and had lost all hope of getting justice.
The reaction of the police is a proverbial case of getting wise after the event. They said that they would revisit the case. The investigating officer has been suspended and placed in detention. But all this seems to be mere eyewash. The rape victim is dead and the incident will soon be forgotten. In India also there has recently been a rash of rapes and gang-rapes, especially in West Bengal and Delhi but there has been no action. Excuses are sought in the provocative dress and gait of the victims, losing sight of the distinction between seduction and brutal assault. As the legal process lengthens, the victims of rape are brutalized by an unfeeling society. International Women’s Day seems only sloganeering in the context of such criminal apathy about the protection of the weaker sex.
