{"id":11529,"date":"2015-11-13T17:19:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T17:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=11529"},"modified":"2015-11-17T00:44:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T00:44:05","slug":"anti-rape-culture-activism-takes-to-the-streets-and-online","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/anti-rape-culture-activism-takes-to-the-streets-and-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Rape Culture Activism Takes to the Streets and Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you watch the harrowing, even jaw-dropping, film <\/span>India’s Daughter<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>which premieres Monday on <\/span>Independent Lens<\/span><\/i> [check local listings<\/a>], the case of the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh will stay\u00a0with you long afterwards. Anti-rape activists in the film and those spurred on by similar cases hope to create a lasting impression, inspiring discussion and activism on the grassroots level throughout not just India but the world. <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i><\/a> wrote, <\/span>“<\/span><\/i>for all of its horrors, the movie has a positive message, too: Out of tragedy \u2014 and this case is just one of many \u2014 can come galvanizing change.”<\/i><\/p>\n

The following is an overview of some key activists combatting sexual assault, gender inequality, and\u00a0rape culture<\/a> in India and beyond. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rape Culture on the Defensive\u00a0in India<\/b><\/p>\n

For the rape culture to change\u00a0in India, men need to be a part of it as well. From a piece on CNN, “<\/span>Keeping chivalry alive in India: Men respond to rape crisis<\/span><\/a>,” we see how some prominent men are attempting to become part of the solution: <\/span><\/p>\n

“Every time I look into the mirror, I want to see a man whose mother, sister, wife and daughter are proud to call their own,” says renowned Bollywood actor and director Farhan Akhtar on the website of his movement formed in March called <\/span>MARD \u2014 Men Against Rape and Discrimination.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Distributing plastic moustaches \u2014 <\/span><\/i>a symbol of masculinity \u2014 <\/span><\/i>at the cricket ground of Eden Gardens in Kolkata in April, Farhan is using his influence to encourage men to become “real MARDs” — also meaning “men” in the national language of Hindi.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is setting out a plan of action with <\/span>Magic Bus<\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/span>\u00a0an established NGO in India \u2014 that uses sport to engage children from poorer communities, teaching values such as the importance of education, health and gender equality.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Colleen Curry’s piece for VICE, “<\/span>How India Is Fixing its Rape Culture and Why There\u2019s Still a Long Way to Go<\/span><\/a>,” pivots\u00a0from Jyoti Singh’s story to look at ways the country with the second\u00a0largest population in the world (over 1.2\u00a0billion) has responded in the subsequent few years. <\/span><\/p>\n

“There’s a conversation about rape in India that you’d not been hearing very loudly before,” Michael Kugleman, a senior scholar in Asian studies at the Wilson Center, told VICE News. “People are more likely to come forward now and report rapes when they happen. They see that it is starting to get attention and it is starting to be condemned.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But two years later, activists and scholars say there has been only moderate progress to change the longstanding social mores that lead to rape in India. Grassroots activists and organizations have, however, made persistent attempts to educate women and make some changes to India’s sexual assault laws.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Priya’s Shakti<\/b><\/p>\n

An innovative new way of addressing gender-based violence is using the comic book medium to tell the story of <\/span>a superhero fighting the stigma of rape in India<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

The brainchild of Indian-American filmmaker Ram Devineni, <\/span>Priya’s Shakti<\/span><\/i><\/a> is an imaginative reaction to an alarming apathy among the authorities and public toward the issue of rape. Devineni witnessed this disconnect first-hand while participating in the protests that followed the 2012 brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student from Delhi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horrified, Devineni was moved to devise a comic book whose alternative storyline would defy India’s overarching misogynistic and patriarchal views and help redefine attitudes and beliefs toward sexual violence against women. He worked with the poet Vikas K. Menon and artist Dan Goldman on a simple concept: combining potent Indian mythology with the accessibility of popular culture to connect with readers and promote social change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Priya, a devotee of Parvati, the Hindu goddess of fertility, is raped and rejected by her family and neighbors. The goddess learns of her suffering and is appalled by the abuse women face on earth. She empowers Priya through Shakti \u2014 a manifestation of divine feminine energy. Parvati’s husband, the great Hindu god Shiva, loses faith in mankind and condemns it to infertility for its crimes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Learn more about Priya’s Shakti<\/a> or read the whole book right here:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Safety and Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jyoti Singh’s rape and murder\u00a0inspired India to take a deeper look at its infrastructure. Singh and her friend had to take a private transport bus, aboard which the crime occurred, after an evening at the movies. This is an example of how a frequent lack of safety in populated (as well as rural) areas is a hugely important issue. From a\u00a0<\/span>Guardian story on how to make India safer for women<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

The report [Invisible Women<\/em>, by academics Shilpa Phadke, Shilpa Ranade and Sameera Khan] argues that India’s infrastructure needs to be transformed to give women an equal and safer place in cities. They write that the Delhi rape “was facilitated in part by the lack of adequate public transport, which meant that [the victim]\u00a0was traveling in a private bus.”\u00a0The women point out that transport, lighting, toilets and other public facilities are designed with an “invariably male” user in mind. As a result, women’s toilets “are dark and unfriendly” and often close at 9pm, “sending the clear message that women are not expected to \u2013 and not supposed to \u2013 be out in public at night.” This means women “have to learn extreme bladder control and to negotiate dark streets and unfriendly parks.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New cases have taken the spotlight in India, and with it their own set of outrage. <\/span>Two stories\u00a0<\/span>recently shocked the world, in which children aged five and two-and-a-half were raped by young men<\/a>. As with these other brutal stories, the cases inspired mass protests, but the question remains, is enough being done to prevent these acts of violence against women and children? If it’s systemic, if it runs deep, will change happen fast enough?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunitha Krishnan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps hope can be found\u00a0in people like Sunitha Krishnan, the (as the\u00a0New York Times<\/em> put it) “<\/span>woman who turned the tables on rapists in India<\/span><\/a>,” with a bold \u2014 some would say brazen \u2014 idea of a”Shame the Rapists” campaign, involving posting on the internet footage of men raping women. She blurred the faces of the victims, putting the act itself, and the perpetrators, front and center.\u00a0Krishnan faced a backlash<\/a>, to dangerous levels, after she launched her campaign, including having\u00a0her car vandalized by unknown assailants\u00a0near a\u00a0bus stop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every single day, for more than six months, a loose network of Indians watched scenes of women being raped by gangs of men. The videos were of low quality: grainy, shaky, shot by an excited hand trying to hold a cellphone steady. Forwarded and shared over and over again until they appeared on the evening news, the images answered a question that had been hanging in the air since 2012, when a brutal rape in New Delhi made global headlines: What does unimaginable horror look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunitha Krishnan, activist, rape survivor, and a petit woman of gargantuan strength, knows that brand of horror well. \u201cTen seconds into the video, I was overcome. I had to stop as I needed to throw up,\u201d she told news channels the night she released edited versions of the clips that had been discovered and sent to her by an acquaintance. The existence of such evidence should not have come as a surprise. In India, rapists emboldened by a culture of victim-blame frequently threaten their victims into silence by photographing or recording the crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is only recently that this narrative has begun to change, a shift that Krishnan describes as \u201cmild but extraordinary.\u201d In 2013, a woman raped by four men and a juvenile was warned not to tell anyone about the crime, unless she wanted humiliating photographs of herself plastered all over social media. The woman, a journalist on assignment, left the scene, called her editor and went straight to the police station to lodge a report.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For all the strides Krishnan helped the government make, after years of fighting various institutions, she wonders if she’s made enough of an impact. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard sometimes. It can make you question everything,\u201d she said, falling quiet for a moment. \u201cBut it takes a minute in my shelter to give me energy for one year. If you look into the eyes of a child who has been sold, raped and beaten, and you still find love, how can you stay angry with the world?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Get a deeper look at the work Krishnan\u2019s been doing with her TED Talk, which you can watch below,\u00a0<\/span>The Fight Against Sex Slavery<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n