Amid rape fears, Indian party gives knives to women

A far-right political party is distributing thousands of knives to women in a western Indian state to help them protect themselves after a fatal gang-rape last month alarmed the country.

Shiv Sena, a party with a reputation for intimidation and unrest, began handing out the weapons to women at a function in Mumbai late Wednesday on the birthday of the group‘s late founder Bal Thackeray, who died in November.

“The way you cut vegetables, cut the hand of the person who touches you the same way,” local party official Ajay Chowdhary told supporters, saying women should keep the three-inch (seven-centimetre) blades in their purses.

The party intends to distribute 21,000 of them across Maharashtra state, their main base, of which Mumbai is the capital.

The brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in the capital New Delhi in December outraged the nation and sparked protests over the lack of safety for women. The student later died in a Singapore hospital.

Her father told AFP on Thursday she had “successfully cleared” her final exams at the end of her physiotherapy studies, which she saw as her ticket out of the poverty of her parents.

“My daughter has secured a first division in the final examination. I plan to go to her college, meet her teachers and collect her certificates soon,” said the father.

“I will keep her certificates. She studied very hard to obtain good marks. Her certificates are a final gift to my boys.”

The dedicated student had been studying physiotherapy at the Sai Institute of Paramedical and Allied Sciences in the northern city of Dehradun, a popular tourist destination in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The victim’s parents sold their small piece of land in rural Uttar Pradesh in order to fund their daughter‘s education, often limiting their own meals to little more than bread with salt.

“I gave her all the freedom after she had promised me that she will never let me down. It was difficult to finance her education and convince my wife to let her study away from home,” said her father, who works as a baggage handler at the New Delhi airport.

On Wednesday, a panel set up after the attack recommended new, tougher penalties for sexual crimes but stopped short of calling for the death sentence. (AFP)



<관련 한글 기사>

성폭행이 얼마나 심하면 여성에게 칼까지


인도의 우파성향을 가진 정당이 여성들에게 보호용으로 칼을 나눠주고 있다고 확인됐다. 이는 지난달 버스 집단 성폭행 사건 이후로 여성들이 자신을 보호할 수 있게끔 내려진 조치이다.

열성적이고 협박하는 것으로 이미지가 강한 ‘쉬브 쉐나(Shiv Sena)’ 정당은 창립자 발 떼커리의 생일인 수요일 오후부터 뭄바이에서 여성들에게 칼을 나눠줬다.

“채소를 자르듯이 당신의 몸에 손을 대는 사람의 손을 자르세요” 정당 관계자 아제이 차우해리가 지지자들에게 말했다.

정당은 마하라시트 전역에 21,000개의 칼을 배포할 예정이다.

지난 달 뉴델리에서 일어난 23세 여성의 버스 집단 성폭행은 인도 전역에서 강한 반발을 불러일으켰다. 여성은 싱가폴 병원에서 사망했다.

그녀의 아버지는 딸이 물리치료 기말고사시험을 무사히 잘 통과했다고 AFP에 전했다.

“그녀의 수료증을 간직하고 있을 것이다. 그녀는 굉장히 열심히 하는 학생이었다. 그녀의 좋은 성적은 나의 아들들에게 남겨진 마지막 선물이다”고 전했다.

그녀의 부모는 시골 땅의 일부분을 팔아 딸의 교육재단에 기부하기로 했다. (코리아헤럴드)