From Genocide to Gendercide
I am an Armenian, born and raised in America. And like most first generation children, the term “genocide” has been a part of my vocabulary for as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember the vivid descriptions and horrific details my grandmother would recount of her own childhood, her family slaughtered at the hands of the Turkish government. April is a sober month for all Armenians as we remember the beginnings of what would become the Armenian Genocide of 1915, resulting in over 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey being massacred at the hands of unjust leaders.Fast-forward to 2013: A synonymous term has tainted my heart – GENDERCIDE. The killing, aborting, and abandoning of girls simply because they are girls. Countries such as India and China are the primary subjects of such practices. The United Nations estimates that as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of “gendercide.” Many of these girls end up in sexual slavery. Many just end up brutally raped and murdered.As the world sits by and watches (much as it did during the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust), girls’ lives are being taken, one at a time. A few weeks back, we related the news of 3 young sisters all under the age of 11 sexually assaulted, killed, and dumped in a well in a village near New Delhi. Days went by before police took the matter seriously. Two months earlier, a gang-rape and torture of a young girl on a bus captured the attention of the world as thousands of protesters rallied at the Indian capital. The newest victim -- a 5 year old girl who was kidnapped, raped and tortured by two men in their early 20s.Forgive the gruesome details, but the nausea I am experiencing needs to be felt – police reports suggest that “a bottle almost eight inches long and pieces of candle had been inserted into her private parts.” In fact, her torture was so ruthless and barbaric that one of the suspects admitted he fled the scene when he believed that the girl had died. Some reports say the second man involved is also suspected of raping his wife when she was younger. Village leaders convinced him and the girl’s family that the “best” remedy would be for him to marry her. Suffering further abuse, she ran away a few months later and is now living with her parents.Regardless of these reports, protests arose when investigators once again delayed the search and neglected earlier complaints by her parents. As in the case of the 3 sisters, authorities allegedly made a monetary offer to the parents if they would keep quiet about the case. Here, they were offered a mere $37.In addition to this little girl, another unidentified 5 year old victim is also recovering at the same hospital, AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences). She, too, was brutally raped and brought in for treatment, only to be later abandoned there by her parents.Child rape in India has increased by 336% since 2001, say human rights campaigners. And this figure may very well be underestimated because only a minority are reported or even taken seriously by authorities. The Associated Press reports that 90,000 children go missing every year, and that on average, 18 sex crimes are reported every hour. Being a child in India, especially a female child, is a dangerous status. “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men” (Abraham Lincoln). Let us not be cowards. Voice your protest against gendercide, against sexual slavery and other crimes committed against the most vulnerable and innocent among us. The pervasiveness of the internet and social media leave us with no excuse to stand against such violent injustice.BTC courageously continues its fight to protect and elevate the lives of at-risk girls and women trapped in sexual slavery. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King, Jr.).By Lisa Haleblian