15 June 2015

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Gujarat Community orders Rape Victim Girl to go under Purification Ritual

Gujarat Community orders Rape Victim Girl to go under Purification Ritual

Devaliya village,
Ranpur Taluka,
Gujarat
India

A woman who was gang raped for eight months in Gujarat, western India, is now not only pregnant as a result, but has been ordered to face "purification tests" by her community's local courts.

Surat –
She was abducted last July and repeatedly gang raped by more than five men over several months.

She is now pregnant
Her petition for abortion was turned down by the Gujarat High Court because she was too advanced in her pregnancy.

Rape victim’s mother told to BBC "I have two other children both unmarried. If she delivers the baby and keeps it then no one will marry them,"
My 14-year-old son will get cast out.
The only way out is that she will have to undergo the 'chokha thavani viddhi' (purification ritual) and whatever the community decides will be final."

How the Purification Ritual will be conducted?
What is purification Ritual what will happen?

Whenever a husband has doubt about his wife, or an unmarried girl is accused of an affair, to purify a woman and free her from the wrongdoings, a purification process is conducted

A purification ritual is conducted by a tantric - a priest who practices black magic and believes in supernatural powers

In the ritual, the tantric asks the girl several questions and then checks if she is telling the truth by taking a pinch of barley seeds from a bag and asking her to say whether the number of seeds in his hand are even-numbered or odd.

If the girl gets the answer wrong then the tantric assumes her answers have been lies.

She then has to repeat the process with a 10-kg stone on her head. She has to keep the stone on her head until the tantric is satisfied that she is telling the truth.

"Sometimes it takes months to purify as people lie initially but Goddess knows it all and finally they have to speak the truth,"

What happens if girl fails the test?
If the girl fails the test and Goddess says she is impure then she gets ostracized from the community

What happens if girl passes the test?
Once the girl is purified and passes the test no-one can point fingers or banish her and her family.

Does males also go under such type of test?
No and Never
For men, the community courts conduct tests to check if they are telling lies but no purification is used
Such tests were only carried out on women

Suggested Reading –

Indian gang rape victim faces 'purification ritual


Reality views by sm –

Monday, June 15, 2015

Tags – Purification of Females in India Ritual