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from the make-the-punishment-fit-the-crime dept.
After a number of high-profile crimes that sparked outrage and protests, India will allow the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls under the age of 12:
The executive order was cleared at a special cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It allows capital punishment for anyone convicted of raping children under the age of 12. Minimum prison sentences for rape against girls under the age of 16 and women have also been raised.
According to Reuters, which has seen a copy of the order, there was no mention of boys or men.
Two recent rape cases have shocked the nation. Protests erupted earlier this month after police released horrific details of the rape of an eight-year-old Muslim girl by Hindu men in Kathua, in Indian-administered Kashmir in January. Anger has also been mounting after a member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was accused last week over the rape of a 16-year-old girl in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
India's poor record of dealing with sexual violence came to the fore after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. This led to huge protests and changes to the country's rape laws. But sexual attacks against women and children have since continued to be reported across the country.
Some activists have criticized the application of the death penalty, saying it will deter reporting, especially given that almost all perpetrators are family members or acquaintances.
Also at Reuters and Bloomberg. Editorial at The Indian Express.
Related: Indian Government Attempts to Suppress Rape Documentary
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 22 2018, @06:39AM (12 children)
How is an anti rape law Islamophobia? Especially when one of the cases that triggered it had a Muslim victim while the perpetrators in all mentioned cases were Hindu?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @07:07AM (6 children)
And all of the others have been perpetrated by Muslims on Hindus or other non-Muslims. Just that one case makes the news in the West because the mainstream media is pro-Islamist. If you track non-Western news covering India any time during the last years you see both those points. That one outlier case is used only to make the law seem just and balanced. It's real purpose is to come down hard on perpetrators of Islam.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday April 22 2018, @07:18AM (2 children)
It's real purpose is to come down hard on those that rape children - FTFY
But, hey, don't worry about your personal bias getting in the way of facts. And how, exactly, does one 'perpetrate Islam'?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @08:51AM (1 child)
Hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your personal pro-Islamist bias. The current legislation was started last year and is the result of the Nirbhaya Act from 2013 being ineffective against Islamic violence.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday April 22 2018, @12:06PM
It doesn't state that it only applies to those of an Islamic faith. So, as I said, don't let your personal bias get in the way of facts.
Now you might argue that there are more Muslims carrying out such attacks than other religions but then you had better cite a source that backs up your assertion, rather than it being simply something that you have chosen to believe.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday April 22 2018, @07:29AM
I love Hindu. And look at Narendra! He's doing a great job. Moving very strongly against the Muslims. Like he did when he ran Gujarat. Congratulations!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 22 2018, @11:33AM
No, you're going overboard. Hindus rape Hindus too. The rape culture among Hindu males is something of a holdover from the old caste system. Ancient India may have been a little better than Islam for most people, but it wasn't a helluva lot better. Women were disposable, in infancy, childhood, or even adulthood. Women of the lowest castes had zero rights - women of the highest castes had few rights. A man from a high caste could use any woman whom he deigned to touch, and the very worst that might happen would be that he pay compensation to whoever was responsible for that woman. If she were low enough caste, the judges might even tell her that her rapist had done her a favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @07:29PM
One of the crazier bits I've seen around here.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 22 2018, @11:28AM (4 children)
Well, if you happen to be a Muslim male, then you have the Allah-given right to use any woman as you like, unless she has a protector present. Mohammed said so, and that is all there is to it. So, yes, anti-rape laws are Islamophobic. I'll have to go along with GP on that one. No Muslim male is going to agree with any law that says he has to keep his penis away from women, girls, babies, goats, sheep, or anything else that takes his fancy.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday April 22 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)
Don't be thinking Christians or any other group were always better on that one. In medieval Christian Europe, young women could not go about alone, always had to have a protective father or brother to escort them. Any young woman who did wander about alone was asking to be raped, unless she was of very high rank. Any man in the nobility might grab her, drag her behind the nearest handy curtain, and have his way with her, and no one would lift a finger or say a word against him. If anything, it would be her fault. If of the lesser nobility herself, her family would be angered and might try to get revenge, challenge the perp to a duel, but as for dragging him before the King or the courts and getting justice, forget it.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday April 23 2018, @12:41PM
I wasn't wandering around raping unattended females 1000 years ago and neither were you. In fact I sincerely doubt that any medieval rapists at all are still alive, so let's just move on shall we.
What people did that long ago is not justification for similar behaviour now.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @03:08PM (1 child)
So, just like Catholic priests.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 22 2018, @03:28PM
You seem to be confusing catholics with mormons. Mormons like little girls, priests like little boys.