India Woman Stripped, Paraded On Donkey As Punishment

A woman was partially stripped naked and paraded on a donkey through
her village in northern India after being accused of killing her
nephew, police said Monday.

Members of the village also blackened her face with coal dust and cut
her hair following orders from a local council of elders in Rajasthan,
the police officer said.

Thirty nine people, mostly members of the village in Rajsamand
district, have been arrested over the incident that took place on
Saturday night, additional superintendent of police Sudhir Joshi said.

The woman was accused by the village council of killing her nephew who
had died some time earlier, the officer said.

"The woman aged around 40 years was in her house when some villagers
stormed into the house and pulled her out on Saturday evening," Joshi
told AFP.

"They cut her hair, blackened her face and stripped her half naked.
Then they mounted her on a donkey and paraded her in the village for
ten minutes," he said.

"It was after a meeting of the panchayat (village elders). The cruel
punishment was meted out to the woman just on a suspicion," he said.

The woman was now being cared for by family members, the officer added.

Councils made up of village elders, usually known as "khap
panchayats", are common in rural parts of India, especially in the
north, where they are often accused of dispensing "Taliban-style
justice".

Their diktats are often unconstitutional and illegal, but they
continue to hold sway with rules seen as regressive by women's rights
activists.

In September this year, 13 men were jailed in West Bengal state for
gang-raping a woman who was accused by the local council of
"dishonouring" her village.

The council ordered the attack against the 20-year-old woman for the
perceived offence of having a relationship with a man from a different
community.