Last week, an interesting post was doing the rounds in social media: 26 questions people from India are sick of answering. In the years I have been living abroad, I have been confronted with these questions over and over again. Do you speak ‘Hindu?’ Which caste do you belong to? But you actually pray to cows right?

As an afterthought, I thought one more question could be added to the list, the question that perhaps all Indians were confronted with in the year 2013: what is wrong with the men in your country? What about the ‘rape culture’ in India?. I have been repeatedly asked this question and I am always at loss for an answer. Where do I begin?

On December 16 last year, six men brutally raped and tortured a 23-year-old girl in India’s capital, New Delhi. The incident shook India to the core. Indians finally woke up to the fact that women were unsafe. Mass protests helped in changing the laws against rape, punishing the accused and ensuring justice for the victim, but for her father, Badri Singh Pandey, time seems to have come to a standstill. DW journalist Aamir Ansari spoke to him.

We’ve been hearing a lot about abuse and rape lately, and it’s good that way because women are finally opening up, talking against abuse and demanding justice against their perpetrators. Women Talk Online presents a special collection of interviews and blogs on abuse and rape and what women can do if they encounter someone who’s been through abuse or are unfortunate enough to experience abuse themselves. Take a look at some of our stories and interviews and tell us what you feel.

How does one vent anger against rapists? Sanjay Chhel decided to make a movie which is being released on December 16, exactly one year after the terrible rape incident in New Delhi shocked India and the rest of the world.

In Bangladesh the existing legal frame work that supports a rape victim is very limited and outdated. The definition of rape itself dates back to the national penal code formulated in 1860. Now, more than 150 years later, what are the problems a victim faces and where can she seek help? Aziza Ahmed finds out.

It’s Christmas time, but slowly I’m beginning to think that it’s that time of the year when some men’s “desire to rape and molest” goes into overdrive. The question I’m asking myself now is, are rapes and protests against rape going to become a national pastime for us Indians?

Anita Cheria, activist (right) and former textile mill worker Maheshwari (left)

Since ancient times, priests and family elders have been referring to newly married Hindu women as “Sumangalis,” meaning women who still have their husbands by their side and thus lead a blessed life. Today, however, the word has taken on a sinister meaning for women working in textile mills in southern India.