Summary: Two sisters were punished for their brother’s elopement with a horrific sentence: they would be gang-raped by a group of men.
According to Jezebel.com, on July 30, 2015, Meenakshi Kumari, 23, and her 15-year-old sister were sentenced to be gang-raped by village elders in the Baghpat district in India.
The sentence would be disturbing enough, even if the sisters had committed some sort of crime. However, they are being punished for their brother’s actions—namely, the fact that he eloped.
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In a separate article, Vice reported that the pair of sisters was informed that their faces would be blackened, and they would then be raped and forced to walk naked in front of their neighbors. Kumari filed a petition with the Indian Supreme Court, begging for help. Kumari’s family is of the Dalit caste, which is at the bottom of India’s hierarchy. In fact, Dalit means “oppressed.”
Vice also added that the brother, 22, had been seeing the 21-year-old woman for three years. They had actually run away together on two different occasions, in January and March. They were caught in Meerut last summer. The woman pressed charges against the man for abducting her, and he has been in prison ever since.
Why would the woman state that he abducted her? An article from Mirror holds the probable answer—the woman was already married.
The elopement was also scandalous because apparently, the brother’s new bride is a member of a higher caste, the Jat.
The story went viral, and Amnesty International has gotten involved, filing a petition that seeks justice for the women. Amnesty stated that the sentence was given by an “unelected, all-male” council.
Although these councils have no true legal power, they heavily influence certain regions in India.
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Amnesty added that the father filed complaints with national entities as well, stating that the family has been harassed by family members of the brother’s new wife and by the police as well.
The Supreme Court of India regularly tosses out decisions made by these types of councils if they are declared illegal. Right now, the Supreme Court is the family’s best shot at protection. Amnesty said that the “government…has an urgent duty to keep this family safe.”
Source: Jezebel
Photo credit: indiatvnews.com