Empowering Women Against Violence
Image courtesy of the BBC RAPE IN INDIA In 2012, six men gang-raped a young girl on a moving bus in Delhi. Many thought it was a watershed moment that started a fresh wave of anti-rape movement in the country. However, this movement has a more extended history than we assume. In pre-Independence India, the nationalist-feminist campaign often raised the issue …
**Trigger Warning** Topic: Rape My Story Just a few weeks ago, the woman that survived Brock Turner was added to the list of “well-known” rape survivors. The list included women and girls like Christine Blasey Ford and Asifa Bano. What I’ve noticed is that the names and faces change, but the stories and many of their details don’t. While I’m …
The objective of my fundraiser was to empower girls and women in India against gender-based violence My name is Yadavi Patil, I am currently a senior at New Haven Academy in Connecticut. For my Senior Action project, I decided to tackle the issue of gender-based violence in India. My interest lies in exploring why sexual assault and other gender-based violence …
“The Damsel in Distress theory” Long gone are the days of women waiting to be rescued, or are they? While the media is shedding much-needed light on issues such as rape and harassment, it’s time to start teaching our girls to defend themselves. Too long has the world relied on bystander involvement and emerging technologies to keep safe. Women and …
Raising Our Collective Consciousness Raped, raped, raped. This is what we wake up to every day. Every day, a new victim. Today it might be us, tomorrow you. In light of the recent rape cases in India, we felt we needed to do our part. We felt we needed to speak out and raise awareness. We are students at Treamis …
As I sat in one of Uganda’s most prestigious universities with my multi-cultural co-workers trying to raise awareness about women’s reproductive health, I had the most cringe-worthy moment of my life. As we answered questions about how condoms and religion don’t agree with each other, a guy in his mid-20s told us we should talk to the women exclusively. When …
**Trigger Warning** Topic: Child Sexual Abuse My Story I was five years old when I was first sexually abused. My cousin would pick me up out of bed, carry me to the back room of the basement and rape me. We were living with our grandmother at the time but when I moved with my mom to Princeton, NJ, I believed …
A few weeks ago, one of Times of India’s headlines read, “UP woman tied up, thrashed on panchayat’s order; molested”. I received this video as a part of a forward message thread. Amongst these angry and reasonably reacting people were people, who supported the panchayat’s decision. They wanted everyone to honor the decision of a panchayat since this sort of …
India is a diverse country and full of contradictions. On one side we have a long history of influential women leaders while on the other, girls and women are asked to dress in a certain way to not entice men into raping them. Women are sacred only for as long as they follow a prescribed outline of how to look, …
Six years after, men, women and kids alike protested the lax laws and their enforcement for sexual assault in India, but how much has it changed? Rape cases are reported every week, without consequences. These instances are cruel and too brutal to explain to a kid, yet girls across the country are going put through these scarring and life-threatening experiences. …