‘Shifting the shame': the young gang-rape survivor spreading awareness on sexual violence
When three men were sentenced to 25 years each for the gang-rape of a teenager in north-eastern India in 2017, the impact on their home village was profound.
For 14 months between the attack and the verdict, the community ostracised, threatened and vilified the survivor's family as they pursued justice for 13-year-old Kiran* – a story captured in the Oscar-nominated 2022 documentary To Kill A Tiger. But the landmark ruling led to an immediate cultural shift in the rural community. Neighbours who had told Kiran's father, Ranjit, that he should marry his daughter off to one of her rapists to avoid bringing dishonour to the village admitted they were wrong; men and boys stopped taunting and objectifying women and girls.
'The severity of the sentence left the men of the village shaken; they felt it in their souls. It gave them a hard lesson in how they should behave as men and toward women,' says Ranjit, who still lives in the village in Jharkhand with his wife, Jaganti, and three younger children. 'They have changed how they are around women and how they see women and girls; the level of safety has improved.'
Seven years on from the court case, Kiran is 21 and in the third year of a five-year undergraduate course majoring in Hindi. She loves fashion and dancing – and hopes to become a police inspector. 'I would be the first woman police inspector from my village and that's really important,' she says. 'I want to give back to the community – and I want to be different.'
Her ambition and fearlessness has rippled through the village and inspired other girls to follow in her footsteps and continue their education, and dress how they want.
Now she is using her influence as a spokesperson for #Standwithher, a global gender justice initiative launched in New York this month following a screening of To Kill A Tiger, hosted by UN Women and attended by Kiran, Ranjit, the film's director, Nisha Pahuja, Ziauddin Yousafzai – the father of the Pakistani activist Malala – and the directors of Equality Now and Equimundo.
'The campaign is about being there for the survivor and listening to their story and making sure they have resources and encouraging them to speak about themselves,' says Kiran. 'I hope to reach more people and spread awareness of the issue [of gender-based violence]; and that the legal system should encourage survivors to come forward.'
Pahuja, who founded the campaign, says the goal is threefold: to support survivors and survivor organisations; to work with men and boys to understand that 'patriarchy is a prison'; and to create an anti-gender-based violence curriculum that will reach up to 50,000 schools in the US before expanding globally.
'I knew this story had the potential to unite people,' says Pahuja. 'What Kiran achieved was shifting the shame – she moved the shame to where it belongs.'
The screening was held during the Commission on the Status of Women where the UN secretary general António Guterres warned that women's rights were under siege globally. 'A surge in misogyny, and a furious kickback against equality threaten to slam on the brakes, and push progress into reverse,' he said at the opening ceremony on 10 March.
It was the first of 25 screenings to be held across nine US cities over the next two months. Pahuja says the campaign is starting in the US because 'this is a global issue. I wanted to ensure that was the messaging around it – that this happened in a small village in India but the barriers to justice and the stigma of shame, misogyny and patriarchy are all global.'
After touring the US Pahuja, Kiran and her father will return to India where Kiran will join the Orange Ribbon Survivor Coalition, a group being set up to challenge the social and cultural taboos that prevent many from reporting sexual violence in India. The name of the group is inspired by the ribbons Kiran is seen tying in her hair in the opening scene of To Kill A Tiger. In the film they are a symbol of her innocence and youth. Today, they have become a symbol of her strength.
Kiran says that watching her younger self in the film is 'difficult' but she also sees how she has grown as a person. 'All that has happened in the last eight years has helped me find a sense of identity and freedom. I know how I want to spend my time, who I want to be friends with. I feel comfort in knowing who I am.'
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Asked how she found the strength as a 13-year-old to go first to the police, and then to trial, in the face of intimidation and harassment, she says: 'The situation forces you to become strong. I realised that if I didn't take a step forward no one else would. Coming from a space of weakness I wouldn't be able to continue. My strength came from knowing I needed to protect myself.'
She adds that her parents were also steadfast in their support, something Yousafzai acknowledged during the post-screening Q&A. 'This family filled my heart with huge respect for them. Ranjit is a man all men should be proud of, the father all fathers should look up to,' he said.
Globally, 736 million women – almost one in three – have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime, and every 10 minutes, a woman or girl is killed. In India, a woman is raped every 16 minutes, and 80% of such cases go unreported.
Lopa Banerjee, the director of the civil society division in UN Women, who introduced the film, said that in this context stories of equality and justice were needed more than ever. 'To Kill a Tiger is set in India but exists everywhere.'
In one scene in To Kill A Tiger, after Kiran has given her testimony in court, the pressure and fear that have been etched on her father's face for most of the film are replaced with relief and pride. He smiles for the first time. Seven years later his pride in his daughter is just as strong, whether she is speaking on a global stage or visiting his village. 'No one else was wearing jeans [before she started],' he says, 'then the girls starting following her style. If they see her wearing loose pants, everyone else copies her. She is like an icon.'
*Kiran is a pseudonym
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