Video of women attacked in Manipur breaks silence on systematic gang rapes in India

[Eugene]

Source: The Observer

Video of women attacked in Manipur breaks silence on systematic gang rapes in India

Indians were shocked when social media exposed a mob abusing minority Kuki women. But similar incidents have been happening with impunity for months

Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan
Sat 22 Jul 2023 17.26 BST
Last modified on Sun 23 Jul 2023 05.29 BST

As footage emerged last week of two women in the state of Manipur being forcibly stripped, paraded naked, publicly molested and allegedly gang raped, everyone from prime minister Narendra Modi to the chief justice of India publicly expressed their shock and disgust.

Breaking his long silence on the conflict that has been raging in Manipur for months, Modi declared that “what happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven” and that “the entire country has been shamed” by the attack.

Yet, as many were keen to emphasise, the horrific incident in the footage was not new, isolated or unknown to the authorities. Since violence erupted in the north-eastern state in early May, between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki tribes, activists and academics believe rape and sexual violence has been systematically used as a weapon in “revenge attacks” against women from the Kuki community by Meitei mobs.

“The narrative around what’s really been happening in Manipur – the heinous crimes committed against the Kuki community, the targeting of Kuki women, the use of rape as a weapon by Meitei mobs – all carried out with impunity by these groups, has been kept silent and concealed by the state,” said Kham Khan Suan Hausing, a professor of political science at the University of Hyderabad. “It wasn’t until this video went viral that this overzealous attempt by the state to control the narrative has finally been exposed.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/22/video-of-women-attacked-in-manipur-breaks-silence-on-systematic-gang-rapes-in-india

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[Irish_Dem]

1. I wonder what authorities would do if gangs of women were raping and murdering males?

If a man walking alone was always at risk for rape, murder, torture at the hands of women?

[Timeflyer]

2. Agree. And if women threw acid in the faces of men who pissed them off...