Irish Examiner view: Indian barbarism clouds International Women's Day

India's chief justice told an accused rapist to marry his schoolgirl victim to avoid jail

Sat, 06 Mar, 2021 - 08:59

Monday will mark International Women's Day, a global event intended to "celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women".

Looking ahead, the day will "raise awareness about women's equality, lobby for accelerated gender parity, and raise funds for female-focused charities".

In the west, the day will be marked with myriad Skype events.

The authenticity and importance of the occasion will go all-but unremarked which is, in a country that so recently regarded some babies as commodities easily disconnected from their mothers, a greater achievement than we might care to acknowledge.

Progress has been made; a lot has been done but there is much more to do.

We might also be slow to acknowledge that many gender issues persist.

The publication yesterday of PwC’s annual Women in Work Index confirms this in the plainest terms; it measures female economic empowerment in 33 OECD countries and recorded that more women lost jobs because of the pandemic than men.

It is not to diminish that problem to call it a first-world one, as the fate of women in other societies confirms.

There are far too many examples but a court ruling in India this week is beyond Western comprehension. The country's chief justice told an accused rapist to marry his schoolgirl victim to avoid jail.

Activists circulated a letter in which the defendant is accused of stalking, tying up, gagging and repeatedly raping the girl and threatening to douse her in petrol, set her alight and have her brother killed.

Even in a country with an appalling record on women's rights, this seems a new low as it suggests the girl, who has attempted suicide, is incidental to proceedings.

Imagine, even for a moment, what that "marriage" might be like.

Women now make up 30% of the boards of top Irish firms