WiB Vigil responding to rape, Hyderbad 6 December 2109

What is happening to the girls and women in our country? Why is so much violence unleashed on women? Why is the victim blamed? Why is clothing used as a justification to violate? Why is rape culture tolerated or even glorified? How can we put a stop to this mindless inhumanity?

The gruesome rape and murder of the 28 year old veterinary doctor from Hyderabad has shocked the entire nation. She was brutally gang raped, smothered and burnt by a group of men. What is even more saddening is the fact that in just a period of one week, seven deadly rape cases have comes to light from different parts of the country.  In one of the cases an auto-driver in Chandigarh, held captive a 11 year old girl and raped her multiple times during a period of three days. In yet another incident, a young girl was gang raped, shot and later burnt in the Kukudha village of Buxar district in Bihar. These recent cases of violence against women have astounded and worried us.

These inhumane acts have been condemned by all sections of the society as crimes like these continue to happen to children, young and even old women. However, there is an urgent need for a rhetoric which is not rooted in the concept of restitutive justice and strays away from the trajectory of Capital Punishment.

Keeping in mind, the idea of restorative justice, we would like to extend an invitation to all of you to come and join hands with us for a Women In Black (WIB) candlelight vigil, to congregate in silence and in solidarity.

We unite on Friday December 6, 2019 at the Town Hall steps between 5:30-6:30 p.m. We request everyone to be dressed in black for the WIB action.

In Solidarity,

Vimochana, Forum for Women’s Rights

At the World Social Forum

In Solidarity

Against Trafficking

Against Fundamentalism

Violence Against Women

Daughters of Fire

Events

The Women in Black, India in a quiet, sustained way has sought to make public the many forms of ‘personal’ violence against women – wife battering, dowry deaths, female foeticide female circumcision, pornography, sexual assault, rape. Everywhere, women, are unmasking the many horrific faces of more public ‘legitimate’ violences – state repression, communalism, ethnic cleansing, nationalism, nuclearisation, wars ….. violence in the name of development, in the name of reproductive technologies, genetic engineering, and the feminisation of poverty.
The issues have been many. The forms in which protests have been expressed have also been varied. Silence, posters, placards, pamphlets and some times lighting lamps, have been an expression of this collective rebellion and resistance.
While the above mentioned issues are some of the vigils that the WIB India have focused on, we have also stood in solidarity for peoples living in war and conflict zones – with people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine to mention a few.
On March 8, 2002, International Women’s Day we stood on the streets of Bangalore where over 1,000 men and women from all walks of life joined our voices in solidarity against the forces of Hindutva.
In 2002 the Women in Black in Bangalore stood in silence every week for almost three months protesting the declaration of America’s War of terror on Afghanistan.
On February 15, 2003 a day on which human rights organisations across the globe came together in their towns and cities to protest the war on Iraq the Asian Women’s Human Rights Council India and Vimochana organised a Women in Black vigil.