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Indian Woman Sentenced to Rape Says She Can't Return Home

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday September 03 2015, @05:27AM   
from the not-something-to-joke-about dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

One of the sisters who has been sentenced to be repeatedly raped because her brother eloped with a woman from a higher caste has said she cannot return home because she fears village elders will want to take revenge on her.

An illegal jury, composed of male upper caste Baghpat village elders, reportedly ordered the gang rape of Meenakshi Kumari, 23, and her 15-year-old sister after their brother Ravi eloped with a married woman, known only as Krishna, from a higher caste.

Ms Kumari, fearing for their lives, petitioned India's Supreme Court for protection. The case brought international attention after an Amnesty International petition to save the two girls from the punishment garnered more than 200,000 signatures.

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Original Submission

• Re:Technically advanced, socially retarded. (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @06:48AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @06:48AM (#231604)

  India is a huge country, and it's still extremely socially stratified. Ancient and barbaric customs like those described still persist in some places in rural India, even though there are laws against them. Discrimination by caste was made illegal in the 1950s, but it's probably going to take a lot longer than half a century to eradicate the last vestiges of a discriminatory system that existed for thousands of years. For comparison it took longer than half a century for the United States to get rid of slavery, and there are still vestiges of racial discrimination that persist in the United States even today.

  Parent

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