March 03, 2015

A girl can do anything, if she won't get raped

editor:	Murat Suner

Jyoti Singh had just completed her medical exams to become a doctor. Speaking excellent English, she spent nights working in a call centre from 8pm until 4am, slept for three hours, then studied. Her ambition was to build and run a hospital in her family’s village. “A girl can do anything,” she would say, writes Yvonne Roberts in The Guardian.

According to Roberts in India a rape "occurs every 20 minutes. In England and Wales, 85,000 women are raped every year. In Denmark one in five women has experienced a sexual assault. Sexual assault, rape, acid attacks, murder, domestic violence, the termination of female foetuses, sex trafficking and female genital mutilation are all manifestations of male power."

Leslee Udwin spent two years making the documentary "India’s Daughter" on the horrific rape and killing of Jyoti Singh, and on how for the next 30 days across India. It shows how women and men demonstrated on the streets of the country’s cities, calling for the equality recognised in India’s constitution but never delivered.

Against that background Udwin asks, has the attack really led to a change in gender equality in India?

Shockingly ML Sharma, defence lawyer for the men convicted of Jyoti’s rape and murder says in the documentary “We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman”.

Israeli-born Edwin asks “Why do men rape? I discovered that the disease is a lack of respect for gender. It’s not just about a few rotten apples, it’s the barrel itself that is rotten.”

India’s Daughter will be broadcasted on BBC4 on International Women’s Day, arch 8, and simultaneously shown in seven other countries including India, Switzerland, Norway and Canada.

According to the Guardian actresses Freida Pinto and Meryl Streep will attend a screening in New York on Monday 9 March, "launching a worldwide India’s Daughter campaign against gender inequality and sexual violence against women and girls. It begins by 20 million pupils viewing the film and taking part in workshops in Maharashtra, a state that includes Mumbai."

Watch the clip to India's Daughter here.