On 16 December 2012 six men abused and raped a female student in New Delhi. Their victim is now dead. The unbelievable brutality of the attack has unleashed a nation-wide debate. But that’s not enough. Now, after the death of the 23-year-old student, the young, urban middle class in particular is out on the streets. Many are demanding the death penalty for the six imprisoned rapists, one of whom is a minor. And many are also urging the state to finally do something to better protect women. India’s urban middle class views the state as void of ideas, deeply corrupt and unable to act – as a way for those in power to enrich themselves. 

There is a lot common between Pakistan and India, after all the two nations have hundreds of years of shared history. But while partition of British India in 1947 gave India and Pakistan separate identities, 65 years later, the two nations are still striving to achieve a major goal: the protection of their women citizens from rape.

While activists in Pakistan mourned the recent killing of nurses carrying out a polio vaccination programme, the gang-rape of a 23-year-old medical student in a Delhi bus on December 16 has shaken the Indian nation and touched what the International Herald Tribune called the “deepest chord of discontent”.

In the second part of her interview with Sharmeen Obaid and Daniel Junge, Roma Rajpal asks some very fundamental questions about violence against women. It took 18 months to complete the film, after which the filmmakers launched a separate campaign to spread awareness about acid attacks and help the victims.

How much courage and determination does it take for a woman who has been scarred by an acid attack to get back on her feet and fight for justice? Women Talk blogger Roma Rajpal spoke to Oscar-winning filmmakers Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid about their work on the subject.

The brutal incident that happened to the 23 year old paramedical student and her friend shocked the entire nation called India. For a few days from Sunday to Wednesday the Indian media clamored about the need for stringent laws to ensure safety for women and speed up the justice process for the victim! But it fizzled out in a few days.

The Haji Ali shrine in Mumbai has banned the entry of women

Darul Uloom Deobandi, an Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh, India, recently warned Muslim women not to work as receptionists by issuing a Fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) that terms of the the job are un-Islamic and against the Sharia (Islamic law).

I was traveling to Nepal from Pakistan and attending a conference on gender integration in the cultures of South asia, but an incident made me extremely pessimistic.  Women Talk reader Sidra Saeed describes her experience.