The controversy around the British documentary, India’s Daughter, which interviews the alleged rapists from the infamous 2012 gang-rape of a female student on a New Delhi bus, continues to rage.
I spoke with CNN’s Carol Costello last week about why India is banning this documentary, and I stressed that journalism here is not the crime, violence against women is.
I focused in on an aspect of the culture of violence against women that I am fascinated with which is why do men rape? Why do they think it is their right? Rape is not about sex, it is about power and I think the more conversations we can have around that, the more constructive we can be towards resolving this social cancer.
Some people that my stating that the alleged rapists in the documentary express a sentiment that the majority of men in South Asia hold was out of line. But as a woman born and raised in Bangladesh, I think I have a right to that opinion.
Rape culture is when we blame women for men’s sexual violence. Is that not the norm in countries like India, Pakistan & Bangladesh?
There are two excellent HuffPost features that echo my beliefs, and in one of them, Anu Aga, a member of the Indian Parliament, said that the country “has to confront the issue that many men in India do not respect women.”
“What the man [Mukesh Singh] spoke reflects the views of many men in India,” she said. “Why are we shying away from that? Let’s be aware of the view and not pretend all is well.”
The other article on this issue that I read while preparing for my segment is really one of my favorite posts on this issue period. Isha Singh Sawhney states that thinking women are responsible for rape, are not views held by psychopathic killers, dear offended people.
“These are views held, in varying degrees of militancy, by a majority of this country. Which is why the rapist has, as Leslee Udwin stated, no remorse,” she writes.
My sentiments EXACTLY.
Check out my full CNN segment here. Do you think India is having a clash between centuries of misogynistic and the rise of the new generation of empowered women?