Anti-rape protests in Uttar Pradesh, India

Uttar Pradesh rape protest Jun3 5 2014

Following the rape & hanging murder of two lower-caste teenage girls in Uttar Pradesh, India, several new rapes were reported in other villages of the same state. In one case, a young girl was gang-raped & thrown in a ditch; in another case a young woman was gang-raped & killed when the rapists poured acid down her throat. The crimes are absolutely ghoulish because social hatred toward women of the oppressed castes is so profound & so malignant.

It isn’t easy to unravel the complexities of caste & class, of ethnicity & gender but that is the monumental political task imposed on millions in India & elsewhere. After the series of rapes, hundreds of mostly women protesters showed up at the offices of the state chief minister of Uttar Pradesh–not only because two policemen were arrested in connection with the hanging murders but because police have obstructed justice every step of the way by protecting upper-caste perpetrators.

Indian police used extreme force against the protesters; videos show them drowning the protesters with water cannons which are extremely dangerous assault weapons. On the part of the women protesters, defending themselves wasn’t a ladylike affair. They responded just exactly the way women around the world have to in order to put an end to crescendoing violence against women.

Our fullest solidarity with their struggle for justice.

(Photographer of protest in Uttar Pradesh not identified; from revolution-news.com)

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