In yet another instance of extreme sexual violence against women in the nation of India, a 70-year-old Catholic nun was raped while she attempted to prevent a gang of bandits from robbing a convent school in the Nadia district, about 50 miles north of Kolkata.
Initial reports were that the nun had been gang raped by the marauding mob of men, but authorities are now saying just one of the men committed the heinous act.
A local police official said that the robbers tied the school’s security guards up with ropes and then entered the nuns’ room, where the women were sleeping. One man then proceeded to take one of the nuns to another room when she tried to block his way and raped her. P.B. Salim, Chief Administrator of the district, when asked about the condition of the nun, said she had been hospitalized and added:
“Physically, she is better. But the mental trauma will take its own time to heal.”
The robbers escaped with a few thousand dollars, laptop computers, and holy objects, officials said.
An official with the Catholic church,?Father Dominic Emmanuel of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese called the attack “shameful” and added:
“But this one becomes even worse because, first of all, she is an old lady and then on top of it, she is a nun. She is a religious [and] has consecrated her life to God and all her life she has remained a virgin.”
As word of the attack spread, a crowd of enraged students and teachers blocked a nearby highway and railroad tracks for several hours. They said they were demanding swift police action leading and the immediate arrest of the culprits. Police officials said no one has yet been taken into custody for the crime.
India is known for being tolerant of sexual violence against women, but in recent months the government has taken some measures to provide harsher punishments for those convicted of rape, voyeurism, stalking, and the sexual trafficking of women.
The fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman aboard a bus in New Delhi in 2012 led to nationwide outrage and a call for stronger legal measures. The four men convicted of that crime were later sentenced to death.
