Black Eyes, Blue Tears – Violent and sexual crime against women in Asia
The Asian Crime Century 2023 briefing nine
Women are disproportionally more the victims of sexual crime than are men everywhere around the world.
For instance, in the USA 90% of adult rape victims 82% of juvenile rape victims are female, and 1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. However, data of cases is based on reports made and there are social and cultural reasons in many parts of Asia that influence women from reporting crimes of sexual violence. The number of reported cases is likely to be proportionally higher in the USA and Europe, but the nature of cases of violence against women in Asia raises increasing concerns. In major countries in Asia there are high profile cases that indicate the prevalence of the prioritisation of men over women. The cases are worth reviewing and asking if they reflect the society where they occur.
China
In Hong Kong, a wealthy 28 year old woman was murdered by her former husband’s family in a gruesome crime that led to the culprits dismembering her body, presumably to dispose of the parts. The police have arrested and charged the victim’s ex-husband, his father and older brother with murder, and also found a meat grinder, an electric saw and two pots of soup containing human tissue, alongside two types of choppers, a hammer, face shields, black raincoats and a purple handbag that belonged to the victim. News reports in Hong Kong have suggested that the murder was believed to be linked to a dispute between the victim, her unemployed ex-husband and his family over a property worth tens of millions of dollars.
Also last week, in Henan Province a man stabbed his wife eight times in the neck leading to her death, drawing attention across China. The Weibo hashtag “24-year-old woman died after being stabbed eight times by her husband” recorded over 200 million views on one day.
The prioritisation of men over women in Chinese society has been questioned for many years as there is a significant imbalance in the numbers of males (722 million) and females (690 million), partly due to gender selective abortions as families have traditionally preferred a male child and the state one child policy has reinforced the imbalance.
In 2020, the debate regarding violence against women in China was spurred on by reports of a mother of eight found chained in a shed in Jiangsu Province as well as the widely shared video of a group of female diners being beaten by several men in the northern city of Tangshan.
Data on violence against women is not easily available in a society such as China where civil society is restricted by the state. However, in 2013 a survey by the United Nations Population Fund in collaboration with Institute of Sexuality and Gender Studies of Beijing Forestry University, and Anti-domestic Violence Network/Beijing Fan Bao found that one in two men interviewed reported using physical and/or sexual violence against a female partner during lifetime. Traditional patriarchal values in Chinese society are likely to be related to such treatment of women, with 73% of male interviewees stating that men should be tough, 52% that they would use violence to defend their honour; and 72% that men have decision power over major issues within the family.
India
In India there is a recent history of horrific gang rapes of women. Such cases continue with alarming regularity, suggesting a deep cultural issue with how women are perceived and treated.
In the past week a court in the Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh sentenced one man to life imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder relating to the gang rape and killing of a 19 year old Dalit woman in September 2020. The conviction was under the Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act, a law that seeks to protect lower caste groupings. The other three accused were acquitted after trial. The case has aroused continued anger. Soon after the attack, the police cremated the victim’s body in the middle of the night, allegedly on the orders of the district magistrate without the consent of the family. The victim was from the lowest of the Hindu castes whilst the rapists were upper caste. In her "dying declaration", the victim told a magistrate that she had been gang raped and strangled and had named four of her neighbours as the culprits.
The Delhi police have reported that a refugee from Myanmar was abducted and gang-raped on 22 February. The woman told the police that she was abducted and sexually assaulted before being abandoned the next day. The woman, who lives with her 16-month-old daughter and husband in west Delhi area, told the police that she was returning home after visiting a medical centre in Kalindi Kunj around 9pm. When her husband left her holding the child near the Kalindi Kunj Metro station and went to the toilet she was approached by a male who used a cloth doused in a chemical to subdue her. The victim alleged that she and her daughter were driven to an unknown location and four men took turns to rape her in a room. The next day they abandoned her at an unknown location where strangers fed her and helped her get back home.
Also in Delhi, a 3 year old girl was allegedly raped by two men. The girl went missing in the morning and her mother found her crying near an area of jungle. Two men are suspected of carrying out the attack after drinking alcohol.
The Calcutta High Court directed police investigators to record the statement of a woman who claimed to have been raped ten days ago, and expressed surprise that the police had failed to do so already. The court also directed that a senior officer be assigned to lead the investigation after the current investigating officer said that he only has two years of experience. The court also noted that the victim’s clothes had not been seized for examination, and when the victim made her report to a police post only a general diary entry had been made as no woman officer was available.
In Agra in January, a 15 year old girl was allegedly “auctioned” by her boyfriend and gang raped, leading to the police to arrest seven men and two women. The victim was “sold” by her boyfriend to a woman in Agra involved in operating brothels, and she in turn “auctioned” the girl to prospective customers with the highest bidder carrying out the first rape followed by the men who offered lower prices.
Japan
The dismembered body of 33 year old Ms. Ayumi Ito was found in the home of a married man who she was having an affair with. The suspect, 31 year old Yuki Tsuchiya, was arrested by the police and has confessed to chopping up Ms. Ito’s body in his home, reportedly after hitting her on the head and then strangling her with a cord.
Illustrating the confusing social attitudes to women, a law subcommittee of the Legislative Council has recommended increasing the legal age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age. The outline calls for stipulating that, as in the current law, sexual intercourse with a person under 13 is illegal regardless of consent, while intercourse with a person aged 13 to 15 will be punished if the perpetrator is five or more years older. The narrower scope of punishment for intercourse with 13- to 15-year-olds reflects the subcommittee’s aim to decriminalize intercourse between those of the same age group. The legal proposals also include recommendations for extending the statute of limitations by five years for all sex crimes (as it is recognised as difficult for people to speak out about being victims of sex crimes), the establishment of the crime of secretly photographing and filming victims’ sexual body parts and underwear, punishing the grooming of victims under the age of 16 for acts of obscenity, and clarifying that forcible sexual intercourse can be committed between spouses. The recommended changes to law are long overdue and reflect how slow Japanese society is to establish stronger legal protection of women that is long established in most Western countries.
Pakistan
In Islamabad the police are under public scrutiny after two suspects who were arrested in connection with the rape of a woman in a park were shot and killed after being taken into custody. The lawyer for the victim claimed that her client had identified the two suspects whilst they were in police custody on 15 February, that the police had also Tweeted that the suspects had been arrested and then deleted the Tweet, after which they issued a story about an encounter during which the two men were killed. The rape occurred on 2 February when the two men stopped the victim and her male friend in a park at gunpoint, then took the girl to a jungle area where she was raped.
The case has highlighted what activists are calling a “rape epidemic” in Pakistan. Conviction rates for rape are low and rape victims often settle cases out of court because of the stigma associated with the crime. Last year it was reported that a woman is raped in Pakistan every two hours and the conviction rate for the crime is only 0.2%. The data in the survey showed that 21,900 women were reported to have been raped in Pakistan from 2017 to 2021 (i.e. around 12 women were raped daily, or one woman every two hours).