Britain on Thursday said it was aware of “particular concerns” over violence against women and girls in India during a review of the global human rights situation in 2015. It also listed 30 nations as “human rights priority countries” where it plans to “prioritise engagement”. India does not figure in the list that includes Myanmar,…
One of the most lion-hearted women in our country made an astounding confession. She spoke up about a past riddled with abuse and harassment, and how she had to rise from the ashes of shame, self-blame and lack of agency to finally level with the burden of guilt in an act of abuse. Barkha Dutt,…
In India, rape is illegal. And the definition of what constitutes “rape” was widened only recently in response to a horrific fatal assault in New Delhi in 2012. Forced penetration by any object in any orifice is now a crime. Despite this law, some men in India can have sex with a woman against her…
“Can you deny a woman her right to climb Mount Everest?”, the Supreme Court asked on Monday. In using the Everest example, the top court was underscoring the point that the constitution, not custom, should govern what is banned and what is not, anywhere, including in temples. The court added that the constitution – not…
Muslim women in India are petitioning the country’s Supreme Court to ban ‘triple talaq’ as a means of instant divorce, arguing it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and contrary to Islamic law. A ‘triple talaq’ allows a husband to instantly divorce his wife, either orally or in writing, simply by repeating the term ‘talaq’ – or divorce –…
Frustrated that no one would believe she was abused, a teenage girl in northern India had no other option but to film her own father raping her. She later showed the recording to authorities which led to her father’s arrest. An 18-year-old girl, who was given the alias Sarita Devi, had been telling her mother…
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Sexual harassment remains a pervasive problem in India despite tougher laws enacted more than three years ago after a woman was gang raped on a bus and later died of her injuries, indicates new research by a Michigan State University criminologist. About 40 percent of women surveyed in Delhi said they…