A woman interviewed 100 convicted rapists in India. This is what she learned.

[icymist]

NEW DELHI — In India, many consider them “monsters.”

Madhumita Pandey was only 22 when she first went to Tihar Jail in New Delhi to meet and interview convicted rapists in India. Over the past three years, she has interviewed 100 of them for her doctoral thesis at the criminology department of Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom.

It all started in 2013, first as a pilot project, months after the highly publicized gang rape and murder of a woman now known as “Nirbhaya” meaning “Fearless One.” The details of the case — a young, aspirational medical student who was attacked on the way home with a friend after watching the movie “Life of Pi” — struck a chord in India, where according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 34,651 women reported being raped in 2015, the most recent year on record.

Nirbhaya brought thousands of Indians to the streets to protest the widespread culture of rape and violence against women in 2012. That year, gender specialists ranked India the worst place among G-20 countries to be a woman, worse even than Saudi Arabia where women have to live under the supervision of a male guardian.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/a-woman-interviewed-100-convicted-rapists-in-india-this-is-what-she-learned/

[PoliticAverse]

1. "What they've done is because of upbringing and thought process. n/t

[Warpy]

2. This is the important paragraph, IMO

"Pandey said that hearing some of the rapists talk reminded her of commonly held beliefs that were often parroted even in her own household. “After you speak to [the rapists], it shocks you — these men have the power to make you feel sorry for them. As a woman that’s not how you expect to feel. I would almost forget that these men have been convicted of raping a woman. In my experience a lot of these mendon’t realize that what they've done is rape. They don't understand what consent is.”

I would add "or know that women have the right to withhold it."

[icymist]

3. What I took from reading this short essay

India is a highly conservative society with a strong emphasis on 'tradition'. There has been a great 'dumbing down' of the education level here, even banishing all mention of any type of sexual education. Most of these guys she has interviewed had dropped out of high school at a very early grade level. A lot of them grew up in household where the mother is so submissive that she won't even speak her husband's first name.

We should learn from India of the dangers of too conservative of a society.

[cyclonefence]

4. Thank you for fulfilling the promise of the OP's title

I wish DUers who post articles from NYT and WaPo would stop c&p the first paragraph and then the hyperlink. These are pay sites, and many of us cannot read the entire article. If posters would summarize the point of the article, as you did, it would be ever so helpful and appreciated.

[icymist]

5. I wasn't aware that the Washington Post is a pay site.

I was able to read the essay in it's entirety without subscribing or paying money to read it. You are welcome for my short summary.

[cyclonefence]

6. Yep. You're allowed a certain number of "free" reads, then you have to pay to subscribe.

You can't blame them--newspapers are trying to adapt to the digital age and they deserve to be paid--but I like my newspaper foldable.

[icymist]

7. Alright then. I'll keep that in mind for future postings.

[cyclonefence]

8. thanks

[BigmanPigman]

9. When I read the posted links to the Washington post and NY Times

I always run out of my allotted free amount so a summary is helpful to me. I prefer to read print news but I can't afford subscriptions for all of the ones I like to read the most.

I wonder how far down the list the US is as far as equal rights for women is concerned. Sexism is one of the factors why Hillary lost (after Comey and Russia in that order) and don't forget the 13 white men chosen to craft the secret Senate healthcare plan. Sexism is very much alive and thriving in this so called progressive country. It is everywhere and at very level and most people are so used to it that they do not realize there is NOT equality of the genders here. Or else they are aware of it and want it to remain a "man's world" and even women are included in this group. During my lifetime three words are viewed negatively by society.... feminist, Atheist, and mental health. Why? Younger had women better wake up and smell the coffee since they are not noticing the numerous restrictions that they will encounter in their futures.

[PoliticAverse]

11. When that happens with Washington Post articles go to google.com and search for the title...

When you click on the link google returns to the article you should be able to bypass the monthly
limit as google has a deal with the Washington Post.

[BigmanPigman]

12. REALLY? THANKS!

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. For you

One case in particular, participant 49, sent Pandey on an unexpected journey. He expressed remorse for raping a 5-year-old girl. “He said ‘yes I feel bad, I ruined her life.’ Now she is no longer a virgin, no one would marry her. Then he said, ‘I would accept her, I will marry her when I come out of jail.’”

The response shocked Pandey so much that she felt compelled to find out about the victim. The man had revealed details of the girl’s whereabouts in the interview. When she found the girl's mother, she learned that the family had not even been told that their daughter’s rapist was in jail.

There are links to other stories of Indian woman being harmed by the patriarchal system

[cyclonefence]

13. Thank you

I am so accustomed to working with strong, assertive, highly-educated Indian women in medical settings that it shocks me even more to read about the Indian rape culture. There's a through-the-looking-glass quality about all this.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. On a related note:

There's a documentary called Daughters of Destiny, about an Indian man who sold his business and started a free school for Tamil children, who are from the lowest cast in India.

The deal, he takes 12 girls and 12 boys, one each from families, and the kids live at the school except for holidays and etc, like British boarding school schedules.
They enter the program when they are 4, they leave when they have been accepted into a college,
anywhere in teh world they can get into.
The program pays all their expenses, including collage costs. And teaches them English right off the bat.

The kicker is, they have to take all that free education and pay it back, by giving their parents money and by sponsoring a another child in the school.
Many of students have gone on to work in medicine, as lawyers, engineers, etc. And have a strong of social justice, which they support, in various ways.

Incredible idea, incredible documentary.

[cyclonefence]

16. What a magnificent enterprise

and what a wonderful man. Selflessness and a genuine desire (not to mention effort) to help others is something the RW does not seem to understand. They ascribe their own self-interest to everyone else's actions, and I doubt that there is much interest among the super-wealthy RW in this country to consider doing something like this.

And ironically, I believe this kind of effort is the only way to combat terrorism.

I'll keep an eye out for Daughters of Destiny--thanks.

[SunSeeker]

15. K & R for exposure.