INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2013 A year since Delhi rape, women see crucial changes

NEW DELHI: The phones were ringing nonstop in the tiny, win- dowless office in downtown New Delhi, with urgent appeals from desperate women. One caller, speaking in whispers, said her hus- band beat her regularly because she failed to bring in enough dowry. Another woman said her teenage daughter was being stalked by a neighbor and needed legal advice. Established in the wake of last year’s gang rape and murder of a young New Delhi woman, the government hotline is part of a wave of change since the case forced the country to confront its appalling treatment of women. The victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, was heading home with a male friend after an evening showing of the movie “Life of Pi” when six men lured them onto a private bus. With no one else in sight, they beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries. The pair were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later. Indian media named her “Nirbhaya,” or “fearless,” as rape victims cannot be identified under Indian law. She became a rallying cry for tens of thousands protesting the treatment of women. New laws have made stalking, voyeurism and sexual harass- ment a crime. There is now a fast-track court for rape cases. In some ways, the case cracked a cultural taboo surrounding discus- sion of sexual violence in a country where rape is often viewed as a woman’s personal shame to bear. But for so many women in ’s urban centers like New Delhi and Mumbai, the new laws : A Bangladeshi man tries to contain the fire after several vehicles were set ablaze by activists of Islamist party, Jamaat- have not made the streets any safer. And in such a conservative e-Islami yesterday. — AP country with patriarchal traditions, it will take more than a year to erode generations of devastating sexism. Deadly clashes in “Out on the streets, I find men staring at me, passing lewd comments,” said Barnali Barman, a 23-year-old business executive in New Delhi. “I find people following me as I get down from the after top Islamist executed train and walk to my office.” Nirbhaya’s father told The Associated Press he takes comfort in the changes his daughter’s suffering have brought. But, he said, “not a day passes when we don’t shed Jamaat activists detonate crude bombs tears.” “Our tears are not for her death, but for what she suffered,” he DHAKA: Bangladesh was rocked by a new wave of deadly vio- he said. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie said in an interview from the family’s three-room apartment in the lence yesterday as Islamist supporters went on the rampage to Harf said Bangladesh was passing through a “very sensitive outer suburbs of New Delhi. “We just can’t forget how she suf- vent their fury at the execution of one of their leaders for war moment”, urging all parties to resolve their differences peace- fered at the hands of these men,” he added, his voice thickening. crimes. Abdul Quader Molla became the first person to be fully. “We’ve long urged the authorities to assure that trials are On the wall hung a faded piece of cloth - an award for bravery giv- hanged for his role in the country’s bloody 1971 war of inde- free, transparent and in accord with international standards, but en posthumously to his daughter. pendence from when he was sent to the gallows at a we’ve also urged all parties and their supporters to express their His wife, a pale shadow, backs out of the room at any mention prison in the capital Dhaka late Thursday. The hanging took views peacefully and again, to refrain from violence,” she said. of her daughter. The assailants were tried relatively quickly in a place at 10:01 pm (1601 GMT) after the Supreme Court dis- Authorities went ahead with the execution despite widespread country where sexual assault cases often languish for years. Four missed an appeal for a final review of the death sentence hand- international appeals against the move, including from UN defendants were sentenced to death. Another hanged himself in ed down to Molla, who was a senior figure in the Jamaat-e- Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. prison, though his family insists he was killed. And an 18-year-old Islami party. Neighbouring India-which was an ally of the then East who was a juvenile at the time of the attack was sentenced to Molla had been found guilty in February by a much-criticised Pakistan in the independence war-did not join in the condem- three years in a reform home. In India, the arrival of a daughter is a domestic tribunal of having been a leader of a pro-Pakistan mili- nation, saying the execution was the “outcome of internal judi- tragic event in many families. Illegal sex-selective abortions over tia that fought against the country’s independence and killed cial processes and laws of Bangladesh”. The Bangladeshi gov- decades have left the country with a ratio of 914 girls under age 6 some of Bangladesh’s top professors, doctors, writers and jour- ernment, which has also rebuffed international pressure to for every 1,000 boys. Girls get less medical care and less education. nalists. He was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder, delay the elections scheduled for next month, was unrepentant Still, in the last two decades as the Indian economy boomed, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. about the decision to carry out the execution of 65-year-old rising education levels and inflation have led to larger numbers of Prosecutors called him the “Butcher of Mirpur”, a Dhaka suburb Molla. women joining the work force. But the deep-rooted social atti- tudes toward women have remained largely unchanged. The where he committed most of the atrocities. Fears that the exe- Shortly after the execution, Molla’s body was driven by result is that women’s complaints of rape and sexual abuse remain cution could spark further unrest, in a country where political police escort to his home village in central Faridpur district, drastically underreported. Families often do not make a police violence is intensifying in the build-up to deeply divisive elec- where he was buried beside his parents’ graves in a pre-dawn complaint to avoid the stigma that befalls the victim and her fami- tions, were soon realised as the Islamists rioted in street battles service attended by around 300 people, local police told AFP. ly. “The criminals know that the Indian police and courts will take in towns and cities. 10 years or more to prosecute them,” said Tanpreet Singh, a 26- ‘Political murder’ year-old New Delhi businessman. “The system is corrupt and Hacked to death Jamaat has called the execution a “political murder” and many succeed in bribing their way out.” For all the attention given Three protesters were killed and two activists from the ruling warned of exacting revenge for “every drop” of Molla’s blood. to Nirbhaya’s case, daily indignities and abuse continue unabated were hacked to death yesterday, police officials But in a sign of the sharp divide in Bangladesh, thousands of for many women, particularly the poor. told AFP, with an Islamist becoming the latest fatality after he secular protesters erupted in celebration as news of the execu- “Indian society has to change its mindset about women,” said was shot dead during clashes with ruling party activists in the tion came. They had been camping at Shahbagh square in Chaitali, a field worker with Jagori, a women’s rights group, who southern town of Sonaimuri. Rampaging Jamaat activists fire- Dhaka since Tuesday night, shouting slogans including: “Hang goes by one name. “That is something that will take more than a bombed train stations, set fire to businesses and houses Quader Molla, hang war criminals”. year. If we are lucky it will take a couple of generations.” The belonging to ruling party supporters and blockaded key high- Molla was one of five Islamists and other politicians sen- women’s hotline aims to speed things up. On a recent evening, six ways, they said. tenced to death by the domestic court known as the women wearing headsets sat at computer terminals, speaking in Violence also erupted near the country’s largest mosque in International Crimes Tribunal, which the opposition says is gentle tones to agitated callers. Dhaka after yesterday prayers as Jamaat activists detonated aimed at eradicating its leaders. The sentences have triggered “Most of the calls are from women who are suffering some kind crude bombs and torched at least a dozen cars and vehicles, riots and plunged the country into its worst violence since inde- of abuse - sexual harassment, domestic violence, stalking, or AFP correspondents at the scene said. Police fired rubber bul- pendence. Some 235 people have now been killed in street obscene phone calls,” said Khadijah Faruqui, a veteran women’s lets to disperse the crowds, critically injuring a 12-year-old child, protests since January, when the verdicts were first handed rights activist who heads the helpline project. In cases of domestic footage aired by private station Channel 24 showed. down. Hasina’s government says three million people died in violence, or where there is imminent danger to the caller’s life, the Activists also tried to burn down the coastal village home of the 1971 war, many at the hands of militias led by Jamaat lead- helpline informs the police, or women’s groups nearby, so that one of the war crimes trial judges, local police chief Anisur ers who opposed the then seceding from they can reach the scene and intervene. The helpline also offers Rahman told AFP. “They tried to torch the house with kerosene. Islamabad. Independent researchers put the death toll at legal advice and follow-up calls.—AP We fired rubber bullets to disperse them. No one was injured,” between 300,000 and 500,000 people. — AFP