Japanese Student Raped In India Over a Number of Weeks

AndonHandon · 03-01-2015 02:46PM #1

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30665581

Five men have been arrested in India charged with kidnapping and repeatedly raping a Japanese student.

Police in the eastern city of Calcutta say the assaults took place over a period of more than a month from 23 November and in at least two locations.

They say an organised gang is suspected of targeting single women tourists.

Another high profile story involving a female tourist being sexually assaulted in India to go with the Swiss and Danish ladies over the past years and the gruesome gang rapes of Indian girls too.

The article goes on to state "Increasing numbers of rape cases are being reported and highlighted in India, prompting widespread outrage." The key word here is 'reported'; does this indicate that the rape culture is not just confined to India? In rural areas of India there is a hierarchy among the societies where essentially women are less valued than animals which in turn justifies, to certain people, rape. But is it as bad as the media coverage suggests and should foreign women avoid travelling around India full stop, let alone as part of a group?

Menas · 03-01-2015 03:51PM

AndonHandon wrote: »

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30665581

Another high profile story involving a female tourist being sexually assaulted in India to go with the Swiss and Danish ladies over the past years and the gruesome gang rapes of Indian girls too.

The article goes on to state "Increasing numbers of rape cases are being reported and highlighted in India, prompting widespread outrage." The key word here is 'reported'; does this indicate that the rape culture is not just confined to India? In rural areas of India there is a hierarchy among the societies where essentially women are less valued than animals which in turn justifies, to certain people, rape. But is it as bad as the media coverage suggests and should foreign women avoid travelling around India full stop, let alone as part of a group?

India is a big country with lots of people. Rapes happen all over the world...but media focus is on India at the moment.
If every tourist who got robbed in ireland had international attention we would have no tourist industry.

Grayson · 03-01-2015 03:56PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

India is a big country with lots of people. Rapes happen all over the world...but media focus is on India at the moment.
If every tourist who got robbed in ireland had international attention we would have no tourist industry.

To be fair, even though it might happen everywhere it's worse in that part of the world. India does have a rapey culture. As does Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Here's a vice piece about Bangladesh where they talk to police, victims and even rapists. the prevailing attitude is that any woman who gets raped deserved/wanted it

Tony EH · 03-01-2015 04:53PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

India is a big country with lots of people. Rapes happen all over the world...but media focus is on India at the moment.
If every tourist who got robbed in ireland had international attention we would have no tourist industry.

Robbing...

Gang rape...

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

Venus In Furs · 03-01-2015 04:55PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

India is a big country with lots of people. Rapes happen all over the world...but media focus is on India at the moment.
If every tourist who got robbed in ireland had international attention we would have no tourist industry.

I know you're being devil's advocate, but I don't agree. In parts of India, it is ingrained in the social fabric that women aren't worth sh-t.
It's not the case throughout all of India though, for sure.

Menas · 03-01-2015 05:03PM

Tony EH wrote: »

Robbing...

Gang rape...

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

I am not comparing rape and robbery.....but I suspect you knew that, you know, from my post?

Tony EH · 03-01-2015 05:05PM

Yeh, but the analogy really doesn't work.

Grayson · 03-01-2015 05:09PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I am not comparing rape and robbery.....but I suspect you knew that, you know, from my post?

If an american came to Ireland, was abducted and gang raped for weeks, that would make front page news in every US paper. It'd also be mentioned on the news in a lot of other countries.

The Japanese girl's lucky she got out when she did.

GalwayGuitar · 03-01-2015 05:21PM

No foreign woman should travel by herself in India.

Precious flower · 03-01-2015 05:38PM

Grayson wrote: »

To be fair, even though it might happen everywhere it's worse in that part of the world. India does have a rapey culture. As does Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Here's a vice piece about Bangladesh where they talk to police, victims and even rapists. the prevailing attitude is that any woman who gets raped deserved/wanted it

God that video is scary. How can the chief of police and the leader of a religious order stand their and spout that? How can anyone think that that is okay? Does Islam really promote such behaviour? The men who raped that woman seemed to know it was wrong and said the community and Allah would disown them for it but yet the people the girl interviewed in top positions suggested otherwise. That whole "if you make the man's eyes wander he can basically do want he wants to you" is so disturbing. Clothing never comes into it (though all those women were fully covered, though in the policeman's view not enough) that even if you were wearing a burka, you would still get raped. I would be really terrified in a place like that.

Menas · 03-01-2015 05:46PM

Grayson wrote: »

If an american came to Ireland, was abducted and gang raped for weeks, that would make front page news in every US paper. It'd also be mentioned on the news in a lot of other countries.

The Japanese girl's lucky she got out when she did.

Completely agree, but my response was to the OPs question which was should unaccompanied women be afraid to travel to india.
I used the amount of tourist muggings in ireland as an example - if they were all publicized then we would have no tourism industry.

GalwayGuitar · 03-01-2015 05:48PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Completely agree, but my response was to the OPs question which was should unaccompanied women be afraid to travel to india.
I used the amount of tourist muggings in ireland as an example - if they were all publicized then we would have no tourism industry.

What? Tourists get mugged in every country the go to. It's not a story. If tourists were regularly getting gang raped in Ireland it would news all over the world.

Grayson · 03-01-2015 05:52PM

Precious flower wrote: »

God that video is scary. How can the chief of police and the leader of a religious order stand their and spout that? How can anyone think that that is okay? Does Islam really promote such behaviour? The men who raped that woman seemed to know it was wrong and said the community and Allah would disown them for it but yet the people the girl interviewed in top positions suggested otherwise. That whole "if you make the man's eyes wander he can basically do want he wants to you" is so disturbing. Clothing never comes into it (though all those women were fully covered, though in the policeman's view not enough) that even if you were wearing a burka, you would still get raped. I would be really terrified in a place like that.

I thought the reporter had balls of steel. She's an attractive woman walking amongst rapists. You could see she was worried on occasion and yet she still ploughed ahead.

Precious flower · 03-01-2015 06:00PM

Grayson wrote: »

I thought the reporter had balls of steel. She's an attractive woman walking amongst rapists. You could see she was worried on occasion and yet she still ploughed ahead.

I didn't say that. I said I would be frightened if I was on my own or even with a male companion in a place like that. I thought the reporter was very good, she certainty wasn't afraid to confront the police chief or with the religious leader. I don't know how she controlled herself from punching them in the face!:mad:

Precious flower · 03-01-2015 06:03PM

It's more disturbing too that she pointed out it was often wealthy, educated young men who attack these women which was most certainly the case with the Japanese women as I read one of the men was quite fluent in Japanese.

03-01-2015 06:03PM

I have no desire to ever visit India even though I'd love to visit Asian countries like China, Japan, Thailand.

Most definitely not a fan of the Indian people I've met.

Grayson · 03-01-2015 06:15PM

Precious flower wrote: »

I didn't say that. I said I would be frightened if I was on my own or even with a male companion in a place like that. I thought the reporter was very good, she certainty wasn't afraid to confront the police chief or with the religious leader. I don't know how she controlled herself from punching them in the face!:mad:

I didn't mean that. I think you misinterpreted me. My comment had nothing to do with you. I honestly just thought that she was a very brave woman. What she did was incredibly daunting and she deserves a lot of credit.

UCDVet · 03-01-2015 06:27PM

I assumed she'd have known Karate. That's too bad

Teyla Emmagan · 03-01-2015 06:39PM

I have never been interested in visiting India (am convinced it would be too hot, smelly, full of poverty and noisy for my liking - and that I would be able to eat nothing over there), but all the stories that have come out in the last few years put it near the end of my to visit places. I don't want to go anywhere where my physical safety would be at risk because I am a woman. I don't want to visit any place that has such poor attitudes towards women. Or anywhere where daily violence towards women is so commonplace. If they are doing this to foreign tourists they are being much worse to their own.

I have worked with a few Indian guys over the years and although most of them are super easy going and friendly, I have met a few who really don't like to be told what to do by a woman. In a talk over you/ignore you completely sort of way. Irish men may have other problems with you, but I have met very few that took agin me just because of my sex.

For such a massive, secular and well educated democracy, they seem to have huge issues with how they treat women. Maybe such attitudes are much more prevalent in rural areas, but all this rape culture coverage has put me right off the place.

Precious flower · 03-01-2015 06:43PM

Grayson wrote: »

I didn't mean that. I think you misinterpreted me. My comment had nothing to do with you. I honestly just thought that she was a very brave woman. What she did was incredibly daunting and she deserves a lot of credit.

Oh apologises, I thought because you quoted me you disagreed with what I said. Sorry!:)

keithclancy · 03-01-2015 07:15PM

Going off the statistics, Southern Africa and North America are the two worst regions for reported sexual assaults:

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Crime-statistics/International_Statistics_on_Crime_and_Justice.pdf

Page 25

Although I would say Sexual Assault is not recorded or reported as much in India, in Ireland I would say there are many sexual assaults that occur that are never reported also.

In Europe you have instances like that nutter Joseph Fritz that kept a girl locked up for 25 years and repeatedly raped her.

Also, the population of India is 1.25 billion vs 740 million in Europe alone, the difference being if something happens in Belgium (Paedophile ring for example) then it in no way reflects on the Netherlands, France or Germany but if something happens in India the whole lot of India is tarred with it.

Of course there are bad parts of India in the Cities too, but there are areas in Europe that are bad as well,

happysunnydays · 03-01-2015 07:47PM

There is this romantic naïve notion that India is this spiritual place to discover your inner self, and all the baloney that goes with that. Maybe this was true decades ago .....but India today is dirty and dangerous, is not a safe tourist destination!

archer22 · 03-01-2015 07:56PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

India is a big country with lots of people. Rapes happen all over the world...but media focus is on India at the moment.
If every tourist who got robbed in ireland had international attention we would have no tourist industry.

Yes India is big but China is even bigger.Yet China has almost zero crimes against tourists and is regarded as one of the safest places in the world to visit.
So being a big country with lots of people isn't really and excuse.

steddyeddy · 03-01-2015 08:18PM

Travelling through Africa it always amazed me how many women travel alone. Fair play to them for doing it but some areas are not safe for women to travel alone in. Places such as India or the island of Zanzibar.

lanos · 03-01-2015 08:29PM

The difference between India and western rape stats is the high incidence of gang rape in India. Rapists in western nations operate alone and perhaps would not even know another
rapist. It seems that somebody in India gets the urge and all his mates are happy to join in. Clearly detection efforts and punishment is lacking in India.

steddyeddy · 03-01-2015 08:35PM

lanos wrote: »

The difference between India and western rape stats is the high incidence of gang rape in India. Rapists in western nations operate alone and perhaps would not even know another
rapist. It seems that somebody in India gets the urge and all his mates are happy to join in. Clearly detection efforts and punishment is lacking in India.

To be honest I think it's a symptom of the caste system. Some groups such as the untouchables are treated like crap over there and women are generally considered third class citizens.

My name is URL · 03-01-2015 08:41PM

lanos wrote: »

The difference between India and western rape stats is the high incidence of gang rape in India. Rapists in western nations operate alone and perhaps would not even know another
rapist. It seems that somebody in India gets the urge and all his mates are happy to join in. Clearly detection efforts and punishment is lacking in India.

For the most part perhaps, but there's no shortage of gang rapes in the western world. Up to 20% of rapes in the US are gang rapes. It just doesn't get much attention in the media for whatever reason.

There are varying data on the percentage of rapes in the United States that are gang rapes. A 2006 report from the National Institute of Justice based on the 1995-1996 National Violence Against Women Survey found that 21.8% of rapes of women and 16.7% of rapes of men in the United States are gang rapes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States

03-01-2015 08:47PM

My Dad's wife was sexually assaulted in India, in front of my brother who was about 8 or 9 at the time. She had to fly back a few months after it happened for a court case. So these stories don't really surprise me!

Micky Dolenz · 03-01-2015 08:50PM

I've never been to India but I hope to some day.

Over 10 years ago, friends of mine had been there for 3 months, they are a couple and hardened travelers. But they did complain about the constant attention that she got, so much so it was a big issue.

lanos · 03-01-2015 08:53PM

My name is URL wrote: »

For the most part perhaps, but there's no shortage of gang rapes in the western world. Up to 20% of rapes in the US are gang rapes. It just doesn't get much attention in the media for whatever reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States

Thanks for the stats
I think USA is a special case and the incidence of gang rape there is perpetrated by blacks against whites. Probably in revenge for slavery. I'll probably be savaged for this view.

My name is URL · 03-01-2015 09:12PM

lanos wrote: »

Thanks for the stats
I think USA is a special case and the incidence of gang rape there is perpetrated by blacks against whites. Probably in revenge for slavery. I'll probably be savaged for this view.

Well I don't know about motives but there's no denying it's perpetrated mostly by young black males.

Same thing applies in the UK

We tracked down 29 cases, from January 2006 to March 2009, in which a total of 92 young people were convicted of involvement in gang rape.

One fact stood out. Of those convicted, 66 were black or mixed race, 13 were white and the remainder were from other countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gang-rape-is-it-a-race-issue-1711381.html

Japanese Student Raped In India Over a Number of Weeks

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