Let me preface this news story by saying that this was reported with little to no coverage. The context of this horrendous act are not clear at this time. However, the images tell a story of human rights abuse and sexual violence and that is why it appears on our blog.
The reason for this crime DOES NOT matter. No one should be persecuted by the public, in public under any circumstance. The fact that this mob of men man-handled this women in the busiest part of the city with no police interaction shows you just how poorly women are treated and ignored by the state.
There is a small child watching the mob strip this woman. The look in his eyes is eerie. His stone cold face is the face of the future. That is the saddest part of the story. He sees this type of violence as normal, acceptable and fun (as the smiling men in the background look on). He will grow up and perpetuate the cycle of discrimination that has kept women in Nepal from achieving any remnants of equality. This is heart-breaking.
I was just there, in the place were this woman was assaulted. I rode my bike past it everyday and now to see this, from thousands of miles away I am more horrified than ever. Justice in Nepal does not exist. Lawlessness prevails and the mob rules all.
Mob parades woman naked in Kathmandu
30 May 2009, 0019 hrs IST, TNNTimes of India
KATHMANDU: Watched by fearful children and passersby, a mob of nearly 50 young men beat up a woman and paraded her naked in the heart of capital city Kathmandu with no one daring to protest even as Nepal’s political parties said they were writing a new constitution that would empower women and other disadvantaged people.
The unidentified woman, who looked to be in her 30s, was stripped of her red printed salwar-kameez and white dupatta. Then the crowd tore off her undergarments and rained abuse and blows with lathis.
The shocking incident occurred in the Ratna Park area of Kathmandu, one of the busiest spots in the capital where new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Friday laid down the foundation of a martyrs’ memorial.
The area, teeming with public transport and shops, is also close to a main police station. Though the cornered woman repeatedly cried out in fear, asking people to save her, nobody dared to intervene.
The woman could have been a sex worker, who abound the area, or mistaken as one. Though it happened on May 20, it came to public notice only this week with a passerby taking photographs of the scene and sending them to a Nepali blog site, Mysansar.com The blog is now appealing for justice, saying the attack is all the more shocking as it happened in the heart of the capital.
