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Women in India demand action against abuse

06 Jan 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord will protect “the afflicted,” the psalmist promises this Sunday. Women in India, outraged by a recent brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student who died from injuries inflicted with a metal rod during an attack on a bus, are demanding police and government officials do more to protect them and change a culture that tolerates widespread sexual abuse and harassment of women. “That girl could have been any one of us,” said Sangeetha Saini, 44, who took her two teenage daughters to a candle-filled demonstration on Sunday in Delhi.Women at the heart of the protest movement say it was born of their outraged realization that no matter how accomplished they become or how hard they work, they will never fully take part in the promise of a new and more prosperous India unless something fundamental about the culture changes.Indeed many women in India say they are still subject to regular harassment and assault during the day and are fearful of leaving their homes alone after dark. Now they are demanding that the government and a police force that they say offers women little or no protection do something about it. On Thursday it was reported that police had arrested and charged five men in connection with the crime.Experts say blaming survivors of sexual assault is common in India. Rather than prosecute perpetrators, many say the fault belongs to rape survivors, who are shamed for, say, daring to walk alone, taking public transportation, or wearing certain clothes.“Blaming the victim has been in some way also part of the larger design of the system, where you want to push the women to say they are responsible for what happens to them,” said Ranjana Kumari, a member of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women. “It is like saying men are not responsible but it is the women who lured them into this.”Homily hint: The U.S. Catholic Bishops elaborated on the teachings of the church about the dignity of women in the document, When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women. Perhaps an adult-education effort on this letter would help raise consciousness on what is surely a widespread problem, not only abroad but here at home. Sources: Articles by Nilanjana Bhowmick for TIME, Heather Timmons and Sruthi Gottipatifor the New York Times, and Ravi Nessman and Ashok Sharma for the Associated Press

india violence against women ranjana kumari rape blaming the victim national mission for empowerment of women
Let’s take sexual assault seriously

12 Jun 2016 - Preaching the News for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

This Sunday’s first reading tells the story of a man who has abused his privileged position of power to sexually violate a powerless woman. In this case it was King David who violated Bathsheba, one of his subjects and the wife of one of his soldiers. The themes of privilege, powerlessness, and sexual violation are at the forefront of a sexual assault case that has gained wide attention, involving a Stanford University star athlete who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman at a fraternity party. A recall effort is now underway against Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Aaron Persky, who handed defendant Brock Allen Turner, 20, a Stanford University student and champion swimmer on scholarship, what many critics denounced as a lenient sentence for three felony counts of sexual assault. Persky, a Stanford alumnus, sentenced Turner to six months in county jail and three years probation, far less than the six years in federal prison recommended by the prosecution for a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in federal prison. The judge argued that Turner had no significant prior offenses, had already been adversely affected by the intense media coverage, and argued “there is less moral culpability attached to the defendant, who [was] intoxicated.” According to Persky: “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.” The young man’s father added fuel to the fire in a letter to the court asking for leniency and asserting that his son’s life already had been ruined for “20 minutes of action” fueled by alcohol and a culture of promiscuity. In court, the victim spoke out against the inequities of the legal process in a lengthy statement, arguing that the trial, the sentencing, and the legal system’s approach to sexual assault—from the defense lawyer’s questions about what she wore that night to her attacker’s light sentence—were irrevocably marred by male and class privilege. The 23-year-old victim, who was not a student of the university, was attacked while visiting the campus where she attended a fraternity party. In the statement, she spoke of drinking at the party, but not remembering the assault in January 2015. She said she was told she had been found behind a dumpster, and learned from news reports that passersby had discovered Turner on top of her unconscious, partly clothed body. The witnesses intervened and, when Turner attempted to flee, held him for the police. The victim said Turner had never acknowledged any fault in the attack, insisting the episode had been consensual. She said the court privileged his well-being over her own, and in the end declined to punish him severely because the authorities considered the disruption to his studies and athletic career at a prestigious university when determining his sentence. In a statement Santa Clara, California district attorney Jeff Rosen said the sentence “did not fit the crime,” and he called Turner, who withdrew from Stanford, a “predatory offender” who refused to take responsibility or show remorse. “Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape,” Rosen said. “Rape is rape.” In an editorial, The San Jose Mercury News called the sentence “a slap on the wrist” and “a setback for the movement to take campus rape seriously.” Stanford University said on Monday that it “takes the issue of sexual assault extremely seriously” and was proud of two students who intervened to stop Turner’s attack. “There is still much work to be done, not just here, but everywhere, to create a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with sexual assault cases,” the university said in a statement. Lessons drawn from the readings When David is confronted by God’s prophet Nathan, he does admit his guilt and thereby find forgiveness. Each of us has at one point or another acted in ways that are hurtful to others. The first step in repairing the damage is to acknowledge our own responsibility. Before blaming another, look inward deeply and see what you find there. Final thought in light of the news In his statement, the perpetrator’s father said his son planned to use his time on probation to educate college students “about the dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity.” The victim, however, rebuked that proposal: “It is deeply offensive that he would try and dilute rape with a suggestion of promiscuity. By definition rape is the absence of promiscuity, rape is the absence of consent, and it perturbs me deeply that he can’t even see that distinction.” We still have a long way to go in society to get to the point where we understand sexual assault as a crime of violence, pure and simple. Each of us can do our part to educate young people within our families, schools, churches, and communities. Let’s help make sexual assault completely unacceptable as a society.

sexual assault stanford rape sexual violence
Homily stories

28 Apr 2024 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

Down the hill from the town of Alberobello, in the farming village of Corregio rests the land my father was born on. Divided among the sons over the centuries, it no longer was large enough to sustain my dad and uncles. The three oldest came to America, leaving it all behind for their youngest brother, my Uncle Mike, responsible for it to sustain him and the family remaining. His income came mostly from an old wine/olive press. The land still had fig and olive trees, and ancient grape vines, none of which produced valuable crops for him. Most local young men and women had moved up to Northern Italy where less strenuous, better paying jobs existed or made their way to the United States. He complained to me, “Ours are great grape vines and olive trees hundreds of years old and figs that restaurants in Milan want but without help, what good are all that is in the trees and on the vines if there is no one to cultivate and pick them?” Since my uncle’s death, B&Bs are what have sprouted. Sadly, what’s left of the trees and vines, no longer pruned, have grown wild. The press sits unused as a monument to the past. Jesus promises that he will bear the good fruit that we are. But we are also needed to do the work necessary for our faith to be shared so others can bear the fruit born from 2,000 years of faith. He can’t do it alone.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

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