In the wake of a brutal gang rape in New Delhi, Western commentators have criticized the way Indian society handles cases involving violence against women.
Emer O’Toole, a post-doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, agrees that Indian law enforcement and the country’s judicial system — as well as the society at large — should take this opportunity to examine the adjudication of rape cases, and how victims are treated in the press and in the street.
Yet, O’Toole says, commentators in the West, “are using the event to simultaneously demonise Indian society, lionize our own, and minimise the enormity of western rape culture.” Citing the alleged rape of an underage girl by football players in Steubenville, Ohio, O’Toole argues that the West needs analyze its own treatment of women victims of violence.