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Showing Original Post only (View all)The Rude Pundit: Photos That Show That India Should Probably Shut the Fuck Up ... [View all]
When It Comes to the Treatment of WomenFirst the facts of the case: When Devyani Khobragade, India's Deputy Consul in New York, applied for a visa to come to the United States, she said she was bringing a nanny with her from India. And she agreed to pay her household worker the stipulated figure of $4500 a month, which was in line with New York City's minimum wage. Instead, she paid the nanny $573 for the month or $3.31 an hour. Khobragade paid her what she might have earned in India, where you can pay shit wages because, well, hell, talk to a bunch of U.S. companies about that. Unfortunately for Khobragade, she was in the United States, and you can be pretty sure that if an American went to India and tried to get American wages for domestic work, she'd be laughed at and then probably beaten.
So Khobragade was arrested and processed for violation of a couple of laws there, including lying on her visa application and, you know, paying $3.31 an hour. As part of being processed and jailed, she was strip-searched, which, yes, is problematic on many levels and barbaric for everyone arrested, American, Indian, or whoever. She was put in a cell with other prisoners, and she was swabbed for her DNA. No different than any other prisoner in New York City. She was bailed out within 2 hours of her arrest. Sure, spreading your ass cheeks under duress for strangers is an awful experience. But so is living on $573 a month in New York City.
Indian politicians and diplomats have gotten themselves all worked up about how Khobragade was treated "like a common criminal." Actually, India's lost its shit over this, especially because Khobragade kept yelling that she had "diplomatic immunity" to the U.S. Marshals who arrested and booked her. The Indian government is taking various punitive measures against our embassy and consulate workers, who, one should note, have not been accused of a crime. The Indian government removed security barriers at the embassy because allowing a car bomb to kill dozens of people would apparently be a fair trade-off for making an upper middle class Indian woman sit next to "drug addicts" for a couple of hours. There have been protests in the streets, probably the burning of an American flag or two, you know, the usual shit that sometimes we deserve and sometimes we don't. The protesters are saying that Khobragade's treatment was "an insult to all Indian women."
And that's where you lose the Rude Pundit, India. Because, see, that picture up there is from something that actually matters. It's a demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the New Delhi gang rape and murder that so horrified the world and brought attention to just how fucked up are Indian attitudes towards women.
You wanna know what's an insult to women? "In Delhi, out of the 754 men arrested on rape charges last year, only one was convicted while the rest were facing pending investigations or trials." That's a fuckin' insult. The entire rape culture of India, while changing by baby steps since last year, is a fuckin' insult.
So between that and the sweatshops and the honor killings and the female feticide and the sexual exploitation and trafficking, you should just shut the fuck up about what degrades women, India.
And let's be honest here. If this had been some random poor woman, India wouldn't have given an elephant's fart's worth of concern. Indeed, in India, there's been more anger about Khobragade taking off her clothes than there has been at the actual charges. As Human Rights Watch reports, " M)any commentators have leapt to Khobragades defense, saying she could not be expected to pay her nanny US$4,500 per month, more than her Indian government salary."
Yeah, India, by all means, let's have a conversation about who is degrading whom.
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The Rude Pundit: Photos That Show That India Should Probably Shut the Fuck Up ... [View all]
meegbear
Dec 2013
OP
That is something I questioned too. It appears there are two laws/rules that come into play. The
okaawhatever
Dec 2013
#10
I went to India once. Women there are (mostly) like mistreated pets. What can I say??
BlueJazz
Dec 2013
#4
she owns some property in india, including getting it through fraud with her father
JI7
Dec 2013
#15
Perhaps I misunderstand. The fact that the diplomats home country mistreats women, their diplomats
pampango
Dec 2013
#17
she was not mistreated , mistreated is what she did to the woman she didn't want to pay
JI7
Dec 2013
#20
As stated in the fucking OP, there are obviously big problems with how we treat people
redqueen
Dec 2013
#28
Rude Pundit, you are one of the best voices calling out misogyny evar!
BlancheSplanchnik
Dec 2013
#21
harsh - the status of women in a country should not exempt them from complaining
Liberal_in_LA
Dec 2013
#40
The issue though atm isnt the treatment of women in india or if this women is or was a douchebag its
cstanleytech
Dec 2013
#49
If thats true then hopefully this can be used to push for better treatment for more
cstanleytech
Dec 2013
#58
So the strip search and body cavity search were justified? Is that the point here?
Xipe Totec
Dec 2013
#61