Unofficial council orders two sisters to be raped and paraded naked for brother's actions in India

Council members to rape and publicly humiliate the sisters

There is an ongoing rape crisis in India and things are only getting worse. An unelected council of elders ordered the rape and public humiliation of Meenakshi Kumari, 23, and her 15-year-old sister because their brother dared to marry outside his status.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The unelected councilmen ordered Kumari and her sister to be raped and walked around the village naked with blackened faces. This is a sentence given to the girls after their brother eloped with a married woman who is of a higher caste.

The young women brought their plea to India's Supreme Court, reporting police harassment toward the girls and their family.

Kumari claims she and her family "cannot return back to her village and have been rendered homeless."

The court has requested a response from the Uttar Pradesh government. The Amnesty petition reads, "Nothing could justify this abhorrent punishment. It's not fair. It's not right. And it's against the law. Demand that the local authorities intervene immediately."

A petition by the human-rights organization Amnesty International has collected over 200,000 signatures so far to save the girls from punishment, calling for law enforcement to step in and do what is right.

Village councils in northern India, known as "khap panchayats," are usually senior males from high castes within the community. Such councils have been declared illegal by India's courts, however they are still observed in many parts of rural India.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online