Mercy plea deadline, Rewari survivor ‘humiliated’, marital rape on screen
The 5 November edition of Note This — our weekly round-up of media reports and opinions on sexual assault
The Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case is back in the news with three of the death row convicts being given a seven-day day deadline to file a mercy petition.
Developments in the Chinmayanand case continue to be tracked by the media. On Monday BJP leader DPS Rathore “finally” handed over a pen drive and laptop to the police — these are believed to contain evidence of former Union minister Chinmayanand “sexually exploiting” a young woman.
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“I would definitely advocate for the use of the word ‘victim’ [over ‘survivor’]. This gives the affected person certain legal rights,” says victimologist Dr Beulah Shekhar. In an interview with NewsTracker’s Harikesh P, she also elaborates on how media representation can affect crime reporting rates.
Across India: news since last Tuesday
Two significant developments have occurred in the Shahjahanpur case, in which BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand stands accused of sexually exploiting a college student (who in turn is in jail for allegedly trying to extort money from him). This week the police recovered a bag from a drain that they say belongs to the young woman. She had earlier said it had been stolen from her room along with a pair of spectacles in which she had fitted cameras. The Special Investigative Team (SIT) also “finally” obtained from a BJP leader the computer and pen drive that allegedly contain video footage of Chinmayanand’s sexual assault of the woman.
In Odisha, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pramod Kumar Sahu has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a woman colleague. The woman has said that she has submitted “evidence” to “police and media”.
Nirbhaya case
Three convicts who were sentenced to death for the 2012 gang-rape and murder of ‘Nirbhaya’ have sought the withdrawal of an October 29 notification in which they were told they had seven days to file a mercy petition to the President of India. Their lawyer has said that they have not yet exhausted all legal remedies, and that the timing of the notice before “a long holiday” was “a joke”. In 2018, the Supreme Court had dismissed the convicts’ pleas for a review of a 2017 verdict upholding the death penalty.
Insult over injury
Three professors have been suspended for preventing the Rewari sexual assault survivor from appearing in an exam because they objected to her security cover. According to the Print, the survivor’s mother said the professors “told her daughter she shouldn’t ‘feel special’ because of her elaborate police security as she wasn’t the only victim of such an incident”.
Marital rape in ‘entertainment’
Marital rape is not recognised as a crime in India, but a section of the media has made it clear that there is nothing ‘acceptable’ about it. A recent indication is the media’s response to the treatment of marital rape in two new films and a popular TV show.
The Malayalam film Aadya Rathri (First Night) has been described in Firstpost as “openly misogynistic… lined with sexist humour and a trivialisation of marital rape”.
In Bollywood, the trailer of Pati, Patni aur Woh has been enough to trigger a flood of objections on social media over its “sexist” and “shameful” jokes about marital rape. A News18 review notes, “In a country where crimes against women only seem to be increasing… we surely do not need more regressive films which normalise marital rape”.
Finally, the Print describes the popular TV serial Nimki Vidhayak, where the protagonist is raped by her husband, as a “disgrace on all women, especially rape survivors”. Reviewer Shailaja Bajpai points out how the story “sends out a very ugly message to young women” particularly those who are currently “battling for their rights” such as in the Chinmayanand and Unnao cases.
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This roundup is curated from the RSS feeds of more than 30 English news publications from across India.
See the full list of rape and sexual violence cases reported this week and earlier on our web tool, NewsTracker Data. Use our search function or select one of our boards (such as #MeToo, #KeralaPriest, or #PoliticsofRape) to read reports on specific cases and/or themes.
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