Development Studies student, Anushna Jha, shares a few lines in response to the horrific news of the brutal death of an 8 year old girl in her home country of India:

An 8-year-old was raped, tortured, killed

Because we let this happen

Because we have reduced cases of sexual violence to breaking news and primetime debates

Because we have normalised sexism and misogyny and harboured an ethos of victim-shaming

Because we have equated domination and violence with being male

Because we have let our ‘representatives’ subvert the voice of our collective conscience

Because we have silenced our souls to allow falsities of ‘honour’ and ‘pride’ to reverberate

Because we continue to bring up boys teaching them fake notions of masculinity

Because we continue to allow humanity to be violated and shamed

Because we continue to protect the perpetrators, alienate the parents, communalise the crime, and destroy humanity

And we continue to let all of this happen

Anushna Jha (@anushnajha), MSc. in Development Studies, The London School of Economics and Political Science. She blogs at anushnajha.blogspot.com.  

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.