Hotel owner held as Briton jumps off balcony to escape rape bid

[alp227]

Source: Hindustan Times

A 25-year-old British national jumped from the second floor of a hotel in Agra on Tuesday to save herself from sexual assault by the hotel owner. She managed to escape with minor injuries.

The dentist from Greenwich was the third foreigner to face sexual assault within the last 10 days. On March 13, a sadhu attempted to rape an Italian woman in Varanasi and on March 15, a Swiss national was gangraped in Madhya Pradesh.

Read more: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Hotel-owner-held-as-Briton-jumps-off-balcony-to-escape-rape-bid/Article1-1028824.aspx

---

Just...no...words...

[ReRe]

1. Shame

The only thing worse than rape is gang rape. Don't ask me what I think should be done to rapists. And I'm not talking prison sentences and rehab. After a few of my choice of punishment and advertised in the newspaper, there would be NO rapes anymore.

[aquart]

3. There would, but I'm still fine with vicious retribution.

[riqster]

33. I'm right there with you both. nt

[UnrepentantLiberal]

2. What's worse than that is that the police don't care

and won't pursue the rapists unless these rapes are publicized and they're forced to.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

23. You're sticking up for Indian cops not pursuing rape allegations?

That is widespread and well known in India.

[RILib]

4. from now on, any informed person who voluntarily goes to India

is out of their mind.

[tclambert]

5. Sadly, the effect on the tourist trade might make some effort at law enforcement take place.

When did money become an acceptable substitute for morality?

(Oh, got the answer from Wikipedia: It was in the seventh to sixth century, B.C., most likely on a Friday.)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Not needed. Law enforcement in India got a boot in the balls over this and is changing.

Also, many bills are moving through legislatures in India to fight the problem. It is number one news there and has been for a while now.

There is no going back. However, the effect on tourism is over-estimated and the effect any drop in tourism would have on law enforcement is over-rated.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Wouldn't surprise me if there are more rapes of tourists in the US than in India

Out of their mind? Hardly.

The rapes in India are getting lots of attention lately because the topic is (finally) front page news in India. It's a real problem there, but that doesn't mean it isn't a problem elsewhere. It is still really bad in South Africa and that is not news. It is still bad enough in the US, but that is not news either.

The Swiss cyclists were in a known high crime district where the ratio of men to women is 85 to 15. It is not their fault in that they didn't cause the rape, but they might have been able to avoid it if they didn't camp there by doing a bit more asking around and research.

[arely staircase]

7. 17-3 eom

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Wow, so it was their fault for being there?

Three people I know who have gone to India previously have cancelled this year's trips already. Your notion that the victims should not have been there and yet your view that all tourists will go there anyway is contradictory as well as blaming the victims.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. What part of "It is not their fault" did you not comprehend? Let me help you.

When I wrote "It is not their fault" I meant that it is not their fault. It means that they did not commit the crime. It is not blaming the victims. One can state that there are clear and obvious steps that they did not take.

When a person fails to lock their door and then they are robbed, it is good commentary to suggest they should have locked their door and it is not "blaming the victim".

You go counseling people to cancel their trips, which is just the same kind of proactive steps, though I think that is going overboard and is a gross over-reaction.

Re the three cancellations your friends made: Americans are notoriously nervous travelers and ready to cancel at the drop of a hat.

[cartach]

24. It's just common sense

that you don't take chances when travelling in a foreign country,you make yourself aware of dangerous areas by doing some prior research. I know of a few areas in my home city where I wouldn't go during certain times and any visitor would well advised to avoid them as well.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. +1.

[Exultant Democracy]

16. +1

[Earth_First]

8. Sounds like more victim blaming to me...

Just saying.

[In_The_Wind]

10. This is not the answer.

Why are you implying that it was somehow the victims fault.
Is this the way of the world. Expect to be raped. I Think Not!

[get the red out]

30. Agree

It is very sad, but people need to put personal safety first.

[valerief]

11. Is this common in India? Raping foreigners? nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

25. Apparently rape in general is and

for those of the mindset they can talk what they want when they want it I can't imagine they would restrict themselves to exclusively local victims.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. I think it is time to end Western tourism in India

The EU and the U.S. should issue travel advisories telling people, especially women, that unless they can afford an armed escort (not hired locally) they should spend their money someplace where rape is not a spectator sport.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Utterly nonsensical over-reaction.

Rapes in Australia and Sweden run about three times the rate of rapes in the US. So you think the US and EU should issue travel advisories against Sweden and Australia and the UK?

[Kelvin Mace]

35. I think the issue would be "reported" rapes

Given the police attitude, I think rape is VERY under-reported in India.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

38. Sure. But tourist rapes are widely reported and even so are not common. nt

[Turborama]

40. Why did the UK get thrown into the mix at the end?

You're stats at the begining were about Sweden and Australia, did you forget to add the UK there?

[randome]

17. In a perfect world, women wouldn't run. They would beat the shit out of their attackers.

I think if that occurred more often, the incidence of rape would go down more than legislation after the fact.

And yes, I know, women are often 'outgunned' in terms of sheer strength. Maybe that needs to change, too, but I don't know how we would go about doing that.

[noiretextatique]

19. self-defense, weight-training

are a few things i advocate for girls. many girls are still not taught how to dfend themselves...i certainly wasn't. but i took some self-defense and trained with weights. now i can defend myself, when necessary.

[tclambert]

27. It's not ladylike to learn self-defense . . .

unless you've already been raped. Sadly, I have seen this scenario repeated many times, where women take self-defense classes after suffering a sexual assault. And when they tell people they signed up for classes, people tend to act like "Why would you do such an unladylike thing?" "I was raped." "Oh, well, then, it's OK, I guess."

Why was it not OK before?

I suppose when some teenage girl pokes the eyes out of a promising high school football star who tried to rape her, the community will come down really hard . . . on the girl.

[randome]

28. That's what I meant. How can we get away from that awful 'un-ladylike' designation?

Hell, when Sigourney Weaver took on the alien queen, I thought she was magnificent! Why aren't female media heroines promoted more? They seem to come and go.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

29. I'm 5' 3" and 105lbs

I'll never be able to go toe-to-toe against an average-sized male.

[noiretextatique]

31. you probably won't...but that's not the goal

the goal is to get away and stay alive. you can definitely learn some self-defense techniques.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

32. mah Lover Boy is taking me and his sister shooting this weekend

So that's something.

[noiretextatique]

34. excellent

not a big gun advocate, but i am all for women learning how to protect themselves...by any means necessary.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

36. "My body, my choice" means more than just making myself sexually accessible. n/t

[noiretextatique]

39. absolutely! nt

[Posteritatis]

41. In a perfect world, they wouldn't have to do either in the first place. (nt)

[Beacool]

18. note to self, avoid traveling to India.

Which is a shame, I would like to visit India at some point in time.

[oberliner]

45. Sweden has a higher rate of rape than India

India is definitely as safe as most other countries for tourist travel.

[cabot]

20. Horrible - I'm glad she's all right.

To be honest, I don't think I'd visit India or China. As a woman, why spend money in a country where they don't value women? Look at the rate of sex-selective abortions and female infanticides in both countries.

Nowhere is perfect and women face discrimination in many countries but I can spend my tourist dollars in a country where female infanticide isn't commonplace.

[oberliner]

46. India has had a female head of state

Still waiting for the US to catch up on that one.

[idwiyo]

21. WTF? Is it some kind of mass psychosis? Or was this under reported before?

Really, WTF is going on there?

[PDJane]

37. It's been under-reported for years.

Women are under-valued in most of the world; when only boys are valued, women are used and abused. Rape has been under-reported because the Powers That Be make the woman responsible for her own rape and use everything they can to discredit her. This is the patriarchal system, backed by the misogynistic values of the religions of the God of Abraham.

It will continue to be underreported until women manage to teach their sons and daughters that rape is the violent and obscene act that it is.

[oberliner]

42. "backed by the misogynistic values of the religions of the God of Abraham"

Try again.

[yodermon]

43. "backed by the misogynistic values of the religions of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Ishmael"

ok how's that.

[oberliner]

44. No different

Still leaving out adherents of the third largest religion in the world, and the most popular religion in India, the country in question.

[PDJane]

47. If you are speaking of Islam, Islam is one of the religions of Abraham.

If you are speaking of Hindus, the Hindu belief system has a pantheon, there are several sects and varieties, and the place of women varies, depending on the text, from total submission to absolutely equal. The role of the woman as chaste vessel is a modern invention that has little to nothing to do with the place of women in tradition. I suspect that this is an offshoot of the British Raj; the God of Abraham moved with empire, as did the definition of the ideal woman.

Strictly speaking, there is some discussion about whether the Hindu path is a religion at all. It is one of the oldest belief systems in the world, and it is as varied and lovely as the Pantheon of Gods it worships. Like all religions, it has changed over time; the current demand for dowry is one of those perversions; orthodox Hinduism frowns on that particular custom, probably for the reasons that it has become popular.

[oberliner]

48. I'm not

I'm saying that rape occurs extensively among people who are not followers of the religions you mentioned.

[PDJane]

49. Oh, for.........sure it does. It really occurs because of the attitude of those followers, however.

When women are considered occasions of sin, temptresses, or sub-human, rape happens.