Woman walks through market holding severed head of man who tried to rape her

UPDATE on the beheading of a 'sex pest' from BBC -- (sorry I'm not sure where to best post this update in the conversation...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7676341.stm

A woman in northern India has admitted chopping off the head of a man she says tried to rape her.

But she denies reports that she then carried the head to her local police station in Uttar Pradesh state.

The 35-year-old said she had been working in her field cutting grass when the man tried to attack her. She hit back using her sickle.

She told the BBC she had no regrets. The man had reportedly been harassing and stalking her for some time.

"He tried to rape me and I hit back with the grass-cutting weapon to save my honour," she told Ramdutt Tripathi of the BBC Hindi service.

She says she went to the police station in her blood-soaked clothes after the incident, but denied newspaper reports that she carried the head with her.

Ram Bharose, police chief of Lakhimpur Khiri district some 125 miles (200km) south of the state capital Lucknow, said they were investigating the incident.

He said the woman had a legal right to defend herself against rape and sexual attacks.

Great, thanks for the update!

Great update, RMBG, which offers some hope that she might not be prosecuted.

Absolutely, I left a message on that site with a similar feeling.

She only had 2 choices... Kill or be killed later as some sort of "honor killing"

I pray for her sanity and peace of spirit.

However, if more women in that part of the world begin to step up for themselves, we may see a new day.

However, if more women in that part of the world begin to step up for themselves, we may see a new day.

Amen

However, if more women in that part of the world begin to step up for themselves, we may see a new day.

Double Amen for this! The only way women can turn the tide in that part of the world is to stand up for themselves more. Enough is just about enough in the 21st century. :o(

It's hard to laugh reading a story about sexual assault.  And yet somehow... Jim Dent... you succeeded in the giggle elicitation.  "thanks I needed that" never felt more authentic.

Ditto @ R.B.M.G.

Someone told me about the RapeX recently.  Here's one story I found on it:

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2007/04/12/south-african-anti-rape-condom/

The adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" has taken on new meaning.

And with the RapeX anti-rape female condom, that pound is coming out of somebody's johnson.

RapeX is a female condom that damages a rapist's penis after penetration with sharp microscopic barbs that hook into the skin.

After the man is incapacitated, this ostensibly gives the woman time to escape. The condom can only be surgically removed (thereby catching the perp redhanded), but supposedly will not cause major damage if removed immediately.

Invented by Sonette Ehlers, a blood technician at the South African Institute for Medical Research, RapeX has been in existence since August 2005 and is to be inserted and worn when a woman is "on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don't know too well, going to clubs, or in any situation that you might not feel comfortable or even just not sure."

Rape plays a significant role in the high prevalence of HIV among women in South Africa.

OMG & ODG!!!!!

R.B.M.G.---- Now this is gruesome, but given the location, most understandable. I just could not fathom walking around all day with that inside of me. Fear or not.

BTW.... this should be handed out in Darfur!!!!  Now there are some scares those bastards should be waring!!!!

That should get the invention of the year award!

Aho!

and to get what that means you will have to visit the following string:

Im Afraid If Barack Obama Wins. The Blacks Will Take Over

The problem with RapeX, is marketing should be on the downlow. If the rapists find out about it, they'll just check for it first.

Reasonable point, Angelz.   

Maybe something inserted deeper, more hidden?  'Tho I can also imagine its discovery enraging the would-be rapist and exposing its wearer to beatings or worse.  

Has anyone posted a seed to the testimony of Congolese women breaking their silence?

My thought exactly Baron, "Hmm...just his head?".   I admire her restraint.

I would not have been as kind.

:)

Yea...gotta agree with you on that one.  All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't even find enough pieces to put that scumbag back together again.

But she did give him head........she just took it with her!

She graduated from the Lorena Bobbit School of Self-Defense.......

Graduated with highest honors and has the trophy to prove it.

This is what honor killings are meant for..........not women.......animals like this.

hard to see the funny side of such an incident..

an inspiration for the modern day woman, perhaps..

hard to see the funny side of such an incident..

Hear, hear. Having experienced the Indian community close hand for over 30 years, when you see the routine injustice, the callous, controlling and insensitive treatment of women, the relentless trauma and impotence in the face of simply desiring what other women have and not being able to have it, not to mention their sheer invisibility and having the highest percentage of suicides among women in Britain, nothing about their pain is remotely funny.

Not much about anybody's pain is funny, come to think of it.

Man, this is a heavy topic.  

Hey India, it's the 21st century wake up.

Clearly you are a typically xenophobic and misinformed American. Surprise! India is very aware that it's the 21st century; as a matter of fact they're a bit more awake to that fact than we are.

I applaud this woman and her actions and hope she gets treated leniently. 

Wake up India.......now that's funny.

Considering they have some of the most educated and technologically trained work force in the world?

I would hardly say they're sleeping.

Ain't xenophobia grand?

Ain't xenophobia grand?

Yes it is, Baron. I guess the people who see the world in such superior terms are making up for the fear and inadequacies they feel in themselves! :o(

I'm only pointing out that even if you have some of the most educated people or your country is "advanced" you and your country will only go so far when in this case you intend on throwing a victim in jail or again in this case you oppress women... and yes India does indeed oppress women.  In addition, don't tell me about xenophobia, my Mom is Asian, My best friend lives in Israel, my girlfriend is South African and at 35 I've been to 25 different countries so far often times living among the people of that nation.  I'm far more worldly than I bet you are.

it's that ruling class mentality...........entitlement.......

Those days ended with the Raj......and if people feel the need to continue it...I say to them......pack your Louis Vuitton trunks........head to India......and join your ruling caste.....where you can be rest assured you'll remain where you feel you belong.

Baron

Read a bit of history.  Those things started in India thousands of years before the Raj, continued through the Raj, and exist today.

Her dignity? How 'bout her life!

Take it from me, TezinD, her dignity and honour is worth far more than her life in her eyes. :o(

I agree, Cyprah, especially in India.

What struck me was that they used that phrase in the article about the incident. The idea that she cut this guy's head off in an attempt to save her dignity, but would still be charged with homicide.

He could have killed her right then and there. Or, had she survived, her dignity (and that of her family) would have been damaged, perhaps enough for an honor killing by a family member or by her.

Either way, I guess, she was saving her dignity and her life.

Either way, I guess, she was saving her dignity and her life.

So true, TezinD. Thank you.

"Culpable homicide."  I wonder if that's at all like...manslaughter.  

manslaughter.

Yep, she slaughtered a man who was going to take away from her, her life and her dignity.

That should be a warning to many.

Sounds like she was in shock to me That's not sensible behaviour.

Acting in self defense and (perhaps accidentally) killing the man who's about to rape you is one thing.Taking his severed head and marching through a public market shows that it wasn't just self defense.

Wow.  Like Ms. Cyprah said, women in those countries are treated horribly when it is found that they were assaulted, is if somehow it was their fault.  She beat him at him own brutal attack and I agree, she should not be charged with anything.  She was only trying to defend herself.

If he hadn't started . . ., she wouldn't have had to finish . . . him off.

It was perhaps a response to the trauma of imminent sexual assault.  It probably occurred while trying to fight him off.  She probably warned him repeatedly before she took action.  What would you do in her place?  It can happen to guys, too.

(You see how determined I am to be sympathetic toward the victim / survivor in this case.)

Between this, and those female sharks having young without male . . . contribution. .  by parthenogenesis, this week.  I must admit, my appreciation for what females can accomplish is heightened.

I think so. Men do more victim-blaming than anything else.

Agreed. Plus, she might not have been his only victim. Karma doesn't care if it's a bitch as long as it's effective.

Marlene G chemical castration only solves the problem of his sperm.
Rape is not about sperm, or sex. Rape is about control and violence, neither of which go away with his sperm.

Grammie's.....thanks for the add! :)

Right. It reads to me like she was much saying "I told you so" in brandishing the head of her harasser like that in public.

Blearc, that comment isn't at all funny in relation to that poor woman and her society.

I believe that she was parading around with the guy's head pour encourager les autres.

Tony Williams, don't limit yourself.
In times of extreme chaos, people surprise themselves. We're are able to do magnanimous things under pressure. You may find one day you will be called upon to step up with courage and strength. You may not have any time to think, it will just happen. There is a hero in each of us.
God bless this woman, that she survived by the grace of HER inner HERO!

She was probably in shock. Despite the amount of mocking satire on this string (mine included), wishing a woman to commit this kind of act is not high on any-ones minds.

I would never want to see a woman put into this position. I don't know what is going to happen to her, I don't know if India has therapy for this...maybe I am not that knowledgeable of these things, but the alternative for her (to live with rape) would be worse.

I don't know if India has therapy for this.

I think that she was carrying around her therapy by the hair.

Amen Grammie!!!

I would put the "rape condom" in the deterrent category.

WOW!!! Like the "serpent" on a hook.

You want pictures visit this site:

http:

//www.

blackvoices.

com/blogs/2007/04/12/

south-african-anti-rape-condom/

Just a warning... not for the squimish

I've watched beheadings in the middle east. Trust me, you don't want pictures...

NOPE!! bad enough when on a movie...never want to see it for real.

That "Chinese guy" may in fact be Canadian. He is in custody and will remain there. His victim was waked and buried and his town came out in numbers to support the grieving family.

The Globe and Mail has reports from time to time, but I expect the trial or proceedings to be drawn out.

I respect that the Canadian press did not draw undue attention to the racial angle of the attack. They presented it as what it was: a seemingly random and shockingly brutal assault and mutilation by a disturbed sole attacker.

Thought the same thing, Al 616, as I had to take a bus the next morning after that story (was it Calgary?) came out.  And ended up in hilarious conversations with everyone around me about it.  We were all a bit scared of each other.  Strange how the media "amplification" can resonate in ripples around the world.

That attack read to me like mental illness or "possession" of some sort.  This reaction struck me as a bit of triumphant, "I told you so," to her community, that had expressed skepticism about her complaints of harassment.  

For a "where in the world?" map, click to this Lucknow article (which is the same newswire report):

http://news.indiamart.com/news-link.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fap%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Farticle%2FALeqM5jyS57SqidqanM1jQVyzif%5FFTackAD93S585G0