Bikinis Blamed for Rise in Rape in Goa, India

The bikinis made them do it.

That’s the defense Goa, India’s state ministry of tourism responded with after a series of sexual assaults against tourists vacationing in the area, topping off most recently with the alleged rape of a 9-year-old Russian girl last week.

“You can’t blame the locals; they have never seen such women. Foreign tourists must maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing. Walking on the beaches half-naked (how else are you suppose to walk on the beach? Fully clothed?) is bound to titillate the senses,” said Pamela Mascarhenas, Goa’s deputy director of tourism.

Let me get this straight. Women (in some cases young girls) wearing bikinis in a tourist destination known for its renowned beaches are to blame for the rapes and sexual assaults on the rise in Goa, not the perpetrators – the “locals” – themselves who are committing the attacks. So women wearing bikinis at the beach are just asking to be raped?

This is victim-blaming – in this case bikini-blaming – at its worst. Not all together surprising in a highly patriarchal country that continues to devalue women, but nonetheless shameful.

“In India they still morally land the responsibility on the victim if the victim is a woman, because of cultural conditioning,” said 35-year-old Anurashi Shetty, a resident of Donapaula Goa. “[The impression is not always that] she must have done something to provoke it. It’s a national mindset.”

Making excuses for the men who commit rapes and blaming women for the violence committed against them is infuriating and moreover does absolutely nothing to address the problem of sexual assaults in the first place. Placing blame isn’t going to protect women vacationing in Goa or future beach-goers. Either is banning bikinis for that matter.

The notion too that “locals” cannot control themselves in the presence of women or young girls in bikinis is ridiculous, not to mention untrue. Seeing women and girls in bikinis may “titillate the senses” of some locals, but that does not give men the knee-jerk response to rape and it should not be used as an excuse for those who rape.

In the case of the most recent young Russian girl who was raped, her attacker had a calculated and planned attack, using an accomplice to distract her mother so he could lure her away and rape her behind a nearby rock. He did not spring into action at the sight of her in a bikini – he waited for the opportune moment, a moment that presented itself as a result of his planning.

Let’s face it. Bikinis aren’t going anywhere in Goa’s beach town, either are the tourists who visit every year for its renowned beaches.

What we do need to say bon voyage to is the victim-blaming mentality that leaves rapists absolved from punishment and with the freedom to rape again – that goes for Goa and the rest of the world.

Read more: beach, bikini, goa, india, rape, sexual assault, tourism, vacation, womens rights

Punit Paranjpe/Reuters - http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/100131/goa-sexual-assault-bikinis?page=0,0

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Re S.

6:42PM PST on Feb 27, 2010

Are there any open petitions to Pamela Mascarhenas or Indian officials regarding this issue?

send a green star

Connie W.

7:49AM PST on Feb 17, 2010

What a woman is wearing or not wearing has no bearing on a man decision to rape her. It's a poor excuse because if he's going to rape someone, he's going to do it regardless of what she is wearing. Blaming bikinis is a cop-out.

Past Member .

12:48AM PST on Feb 17, 2010

I wouldn't worry too much about the comments made by Pamela Mascarhenas, minister of tourism in Goa, India. The uproar in India over her comments has been enormous, and most people have banded her as a "close -minded lunatic".

Plus, in India, 100% of politicians are never shy of media publicity, and 99% of politicians are short of intelligence and compassion.

The inane ramblings of a corrupt politician out to create waves must not be taken seriously.

Lisa B.

2:44PM PST on Feb 14, 2010

Sorry for the repost. There seems to be a delay on Care2 at the moment, and the first hadn't showed up after 15 mins.

1:26PM PST on Feb 14, 2010

Sarah said I “keep defending a culture” that uses clothing as an excuse for rape.
And you defend a culture, and I use the term loosely, that bought us the nuclear bomb, Hollywood and Guantanemo Bay. Every culture has good and bad points, yet you seem to see only the bad points of other’s culture and only the good points of your own. I choose to view all points, and judge them separately. They are separate issues. Clothing is not an excuse for rape. And being a westerner is not an excuse for being culturally insensitive.

As for your second point, it is equally culturally insensitive for a person from another culture to insist that people within western countries cover up when at home. The point does not make it acceptable for westerners to assert that they can wear what they like when they like including when they travel, and that includes speedos.

1:08PM PST on Feb 14, 2010

2:59AM PST on Feb 14, 2010

I don't think that the statistics are necessarily accurate when it comes to the number of rapes in India. Because any nation where women know they may encounter very negative consequences for having been raped will likely have an underreporting of actual rapes. That would definitely be true for many in the Moslem population there as well as among other groups where a woman's rape brings shame upon her and the family. And is sometimes cause for the committing of an honor crime.

So I don't necessarily believe that the number of 'reported' rapes in India actually reflects in any way the actual number of rapes and that the disparity between the two is likely much higher than it would be in the U.S., where (although some rapes are definitely not reported) women are more supported in general when raped.

Jack T.

2:41AM PST on Feb 14, 2010

Fay T: "I don't think you really understand just how detrimental rape can be especially to a 9 year old child!"

That thought horrifies me and I would willingly be the one to pull the trigger on someone committing such a crime. But rape happens around the world and, as I said earlier, in a country the size of India, with a population of over 1,000 million, there were just over 20,000 rapes in 2008 whilst in the US, with a population of just over 300 million. there were over 92,000 rapes. In which country do you think you should feel safer? My argument is against the hysteria of many on this thread calling for a poor area's main source of income - tourism - to be killed off, not really because of rape but because of what some stupid Indian official said about Indian men. Maybe she just does not like men!

Fay T.

1:29PM PST on Feb 13, 2010

"Personally, I do not think Goa's beaches are that great and I find the toxic Portuguese Man O'War jellyfish and the venomous sea snakes in that area a bit off-putting!
But on this thread I can't help feeling I am in a hen house when there's a fox about! Some people are calling for one of the world's poorer country's tourist industry to be ruined. And for what?"

It is not just because of the rapes. It is the fact that nothing seems to be done to prosecute the men committing the crimes, or to make the area safe for the tourist and the fact that they are blaming the victims for the crime. Don't invite people from other parts of the world to visit your beaches, put them in danger and then blame them for it! It is sick and I don't think you really understand just how detrimental rape can be especially to a 9 year old child!

Sarah D.

12:16PM PST on Feb 13, 2010

" I do not think inappropriate dress is an excuse to be raped"

Yet you keep defending a culture that uses women's clothing - bikinis as the article states which are worn on beaches - as an excuse to commit rape and then blame the victim.

If men wore speedos or really short trunks on beaches where the cultures are ultra-conservative, this discussion would be non-existant.

"But it is “inappropriate” and culturally insensitive."

But it's not "culturally insensitive" when other more conservative cultures visit or move to Western Countries and then throw a hissy fit and say that Western Countries should be more like countries where women have almost no voice or little to no rights, and wear full-body veils or long dresses to cover their bodies because the men from those cultures feel the need to jump a woman if they see her feet, hands, hair, naval or an inch of cleavage and or want to control women in general because they consider women to be lesser than they are.