A deadly gang rape in India: Could a tragedy inspire positive change?

Protesters demand tougher rape laws and greater respect for women's rights in the wake of a shockingly cruel crime

Indian women offer prayers for a gang rape victim during a memorial service on Jan. 2, in New Delhi.
(Image credit: AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)

The death this weekend of a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped and tortured in a Dec. 16 attack on a bus has ignited protests and outrage across India. Thousands of demonstrators joined a march in New Delhi — the capital, where the attack occurred — calling for tougher sexual-assault laws and greater respect for the rights of women in India. The country's junior education minister, Shashi Tharoor, urged authorities to release the name of the victim, a medical student, so that a new anti-rape law could be named in her honor. Six suspects have been arrested, and five of them are expected to be charged with murder on Thursday. The government promptly inaugurated a fast-track court to make crimes against women a priority, and eliminate a backlog of un-tried rape cases.

People across India mourned the unnamed woman as her ashes were scattered on Tuesday. She survived her injuries for nearly two weeks after being sexually assaulted for nearly an hour when she boarded a bus with a male friend to head home from a movie. Both were beaten with iron bars before being thrown from the moving bus. This "savage rape" has at last shined a spotlight on how badly India treats its women, says Soutik Biswas at the BBC. This is a country where "female fetuses are aborted and baby girls killed after birth, leading to an appallingly skewed sex ratio." Many of those who survive face threats to their well-being — from violence to discrimination to neglect and inadequate health care — throughout their lives.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.