Media

6-year-old Indian girl burned in possible caste-related violence

The story of a critically injured 6-year-old Indian girl shows the so-called Rashômon effect in action.

Here's how the same incident was reported by different news organizations:

IBN: A six-year old Dalit girl was set on fire by a man in Mathura because the girl and her mother chose to walk through a path reserved only for upper caste villagers. Even the police refused to take any action. The girl is now admitted in a hospital in Mathura and is critical.

Indo-Asian News Service: A six-year-old Dalit girl was in a serious condition in Uttar Pradesh after an eight-year-old boy pushed her into a burning heap of garbage in Mathura district. ... With her mother chasing her, [the boy] caught her and flung the girl into the fire, a police spokesperson told IANS Wednesday.

Associated Press: Police in northern India arrested a man who allegedly threw a girl into a pile of glowing embers after he caught her trespassing, an attack authorities said Wednesday may have been motivated by caste. ... [22-year-old Madan] Singh discovered the girl relieving herself Tuesday in a field he owned and demanded she immediately stop what she was doing and leave his property. "When she did not respond, he simply lifted her and threw her in a heap of embers," local police official Govind Agarwal told the Associated Press.

NDTV: A six-year-old Dalit girl in Mathura is fighting for her life after she was burnt by an upper caste man on Tuesday evening. The provocation for this brutal attack was that the child was crossing an area dominated by upper caste villagers. The attacker, Sunny, ordered her to stay away from the area and later threw her into a pile of burning waste.

Press Trust of India: A dalit girl was allegedly thrown into a fire by an 18-year-old youth who objected to her passing through a road next to his house in a hamlet, about 40 kms from this temple town. The six-year-old girl was pushed into the hot ashes of a fire on Tuesday by the youth following an altercation as she passed through the road along with her mother in Tarauli Janubi area, police sources said.


Posted by Mike Carney at 09:42 AM/ET, April 30, 2008 in Asia
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/04/6-year-old-indi.html













amytan wrote: 7h 34m ago

Nothing will come of this. As with the case in Iraq of the father killing the daughter for her relationship with a Caucasian, a UK soldier. 'operations' has it right....while Americans get all worked up and go off on moral tangents, raging about who has the "bomb", and 'savages' that don't deserve the grace of our 'help' and assistance....we are unwilling to recognize and understand the customs and mores of other cultures...and those other cultures take our moralizing, good that it be, as an affront and Western hubris. Patriarchal societies have been practicing female infanticide for centuries...India today still has many cases of wife burning by husbands and families...mostly over dowry disputes, and while there have been domestic violence laws against women, only since 2006, police rarely act on violations against women, as in many countries. China's one child policy has actually encouraged female infanticide..since amniocentesis the rate of female fetus abortions has rocketed. Americans should understand that we do not have the right to tell the world how to live...for those that think we do, we should be telling the world to live in peace...and proceed to set the example.

Iraqi kills daughter who fell in love with British soldier

Report: Iraqi kills daughter who fell in love with British soldier



Rand Abdel-Qader was put to death last month in Basra. The 17-year-old's crime? Falling in love with a 22-year-old British soldier, according to The Observer.

They met while working on a relief project late last year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The paper says Rand's father found out last month that his daughter had been seen talking to a man named Paul.

"He asked if it was true that she was having an affair with a British soldier. She started to cry. She was nervous and desperate. He got hold of her hair and started thumping her again and again," Leila Hussein, the teen's mother, tells the British paper. "I screamed and called out for her two brothers so they could get their father away from her. But when he told them the reason, instead of saving her they helped him end her life."

The Observer says Abdel-Qader Ali was not charged in connection with his daughter's murder.

"Not much can be done when we have an 'honor killing' case. You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws," police Sgt. Ali Jabbar tells the paper. "The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten. Sorry but I cannot say more about the case."

Britain's Defense Ministry tells the Press Association that it is trying to identify the soldier and confirm the report.



Jack Stilton wrote: 3h 52m ago
It's amazing that we hear about stories like this and yet all the anti-war idiots still don't "get" why we are over there.

Every single person in the west who opposes our attempt to help the Iraqi government (and in turn, the middle east) setup a more modern government deserves to be exported and subject to live the same type of life this girl was subject to.

Losers.







amytan wrote: 1h 43m ago
Jack Stilton:

Are you serious? If I am one of the "anti-war idiots", then you, by definition, are a "pro-war idiot". You are in favor of killing people in Iraq that shoot at our troops, right? That just about includes everyone in Iraq, doesn't it?

Aside from more nuanced reasons of why I think your position is grossly wrong, the glaring flaw in your premise is that when we illegally invaded Iraq ,they did not have the government of which you speak. How could we possibly "help" a government that did not exist do anything?

Further, that you would "EXport (sic) anyone, fellow Americans that believe in the very essence of democracy, which is dissent, that opposes your twisted viewpoint, to a life less than desirable, indeed, painful and miserable, begs the question of the roots of your authoritarianism.







amytan wrote: 1h 29m ago
JACK STILTON:

NEWS FLASH: 4,056 Americans have given their life in Iraq, including 4 today, HELPING a corrupt, rag-tag group of mopes that don't know what they're doing, that don't want us there and are milking us like Elsie the cow, for everything we have. But that's OK with you, isn't it Jack?



TRUTHWFREE wrote: 1h 21m ago
This is Islam at it's best. What a religion! Death to Muslim women making eyes at infidels and death for leaving Islam (no wonder few venture to leave).

We had better make sure the Islamists in this country do not gain any power and try to impose Islamic sharia law (even in their own areas as is happening in the UK). The election of Keith Ellison in Minnesota to the US Congress is scary. Swearing in on the Quran which exhorts Muslims to fight Jews and Christians until they are subdued (Sura 9-29) is equally scary. How can we allow this oath (made on the Quran which calls for fighting and subduing more than half of the population of this country)? Another Sura 9-5 calls for slaying pagans (for the non believers in this country). Bottom line, the Quran goes against the laws of our country.

I would like to see the religion outlawed in this country but I guess that's not PC (but PC will kill us).

The Caner brothers converted to Christianity in Ohio, I believe, and their Muslim cleric father would not forgive them on his death bed (see books by Ergun Caner). They got off light. The penalty for leaving Islam is death (per the Quran and hadiths). What a religion! Why can't Muslims see how EVIL Islam is and abandon it? As yes, I forget, 72 virgins.






amytan wrote: 35m ago
"We had better make sure the Christians in this country do not gain any power and try to impose Judeo-Christian law (on us)."

Abdel-Qadar Ali
Basra, Iraq