雅思阅读练习题:轮奸案受害者姓名应"被匿名"吗_雅思
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雅思阅读精选:印度轮奸案受害者姓名应"被匿名"吗?(From:TIME)
Should the Indian Gang-Rape Victim RemainAnonymous?
As the ashes of the young New Delhi rape victimwere scattered in the Ganges
this week, a newdebate started to take shape about the chillingattack that has
sent India into a period of deep introspection. For weeks, protesters
andnewspapers have used a series of symbolic names to refer to the 23-year-old
physiotherapystudent who died Dec. 29 from the injuries inflicted on her during
a brutal gang rape earlier inthe month. One network calls her “the Braveheart”;
another calls her “Amanat,” or treasure.That’s because Indian law prohibits
making public the names of victims of rape. The Indianpress, which has reported
extensively on the victim’s family, friends and hometown, has takengreat care to
obscure any details that may identify her.
Now some are questioning why. This week, Minister of Human Resource
DevelopmentShashi Tharoor wondered aloud on his popular Twitter feed what,
exactly, the purpose was ofkeeping the victim’s name shrouded in secrecy. “Why
not name&honour her as a realperson w/own identity?” he wrote on Jan. 1.
“Unless her parents object, she should behonoured & the revised anti-rape
law named after her. She was a human being w/a name,not just a symbol.”
Protecting the anonymity of rape victims in court and the media is a widely
practiced way togive them the space to recover and to protect them from further
harm. It is part of the Indianpenal code and has been supported in amendments to
the country’s anti-rape legislation. In1983, that law went through several
changes after another egregious sexual assault mobilizedwomen’s groups to fight
for improvements to the law. In recent weeks, the government hasagain promised
several revisions that would toughen it further, one of several measures
thegovernment has taken to improve the safety of women in India since the Dec.
16 attack. “Confidentiality is a human right when it comes to the victim,” says
Anne Stenhammer, theregional program director for UN Women South Asia. “If the
family of the victim wants toreveal the name, that is a different case.”
Evidently, at least some of the family does. Support for Tharoor’s idea has
come fromprotesters, activists and more recently the victim’s father. He said
naming the revised anti-rapelaw after his daughter would be “a step in the right
direction” in a recent interview with newsnetwork CNN-IBN. “A law named after an
individual, for whom the entire country cametogether, will obviously be much
more effective,” he said. “This will also ensure that she will beimmortalized
forever.”
But not everyone has clambered aboard. Theruling Congress party, to which
Tharoor belongs,was irked that the high-profile Minister floated theidea without
consulting the government first. Whilenot prohibited, naming laws after
individuals inorder to memorialize them and help the publicidentify with a
cause, like Jessica’s Law and Megan’sLaw in the U.S., has not been practiced in
India. Thatin itself is not much of a reason not to reconsider.But there is a
graver case to be made for notchanging India’s culture of confidentiality for
rapevictims, even with the family’s permission. Morethan in other societies,
“there is a huge stigma to the survivor and victim of rape [in India],”says
Vrinda Grover, a human-rights lawyer in New Delhi. “It is the survivor and
victim who isblamed for the sexual assault, and her life is made completely
hellish … Confidentiality allows herto move on.”
Grover feels that the anonymity of the victim may have helped people in
India wake up tothe fact that they too are not safe, making their demands for
change louder. The gang-rapevictim had just left a movie at a mall with a
companion and was lured onto a private bus whenshe was attacked for over an
hour. The banality of her circumstances has helped bring hercase home in a
powerful way and has helped sustain the weeks-long protests around thecountry.
“My sense is what drew [the protesters] to this was the anonymity of the
victim,”says Grover. “Each one of us could identify with her suffering.” Others
say the debate, whichhas gotten a lot of ink and airtime in recent days, has
simply become a sideshow. Aspokesman for the opposition BJP party called
Tharoor’s suggestion a “needless diversion”from the real task at hand — getting
changes made to the existing law that will make it a moreeffective tool in
protecting women in a nation where rape is unsettlingly common.
But the fact that it is a debate at all is yet another encouraging
indicator — like theunprecedented tide of outrage that has swept the country —
that people are rethinkingeverything at the moment. The victim has become an
unexpectedly vital symbol of just howdangerous the institutional and social
complacency over treating women as second-classcitizens has become in India.
With so many young people out on the streets, a sense of realhope is forming
that this case could stir lasting change. “There has been an earthquake,”says
Stenhammer. “The most important thing is not to lose focus — fast-track the
courts,change the law where we have found gaps, and focus on what we can do
together. There hasto be a basic systemic change, a mind-set change. There is a
lot to do.”