Female tourists abused in Rajasthan

Aishah

Depends where you are - short skirts and tank tops would go down like a lead brick here. Mind you, I'm starting to modernize a bit myself , trying to just have the kurta, pants look without the dupatta - shortening the skirts a little!! Since it's wintr most people are into jeans/pants and t-shirts or kurtas around here. Look fine to me. I should think your outfit most appropriate for warmer climes down that way, Yogagal, it sounds very nice to me!

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

desertrose

Another incident happend in Pushkar few days ago but reported yesterday. A Swiss woman reported to S.P city of Ajmer about the incident yesterday that she gor raped by the hotel owner and the guy(married earlier to a ausrtalian woman and has 2 children with her)was arrested right away and now in Jail.

Aishah

Horrible, desertrose, this is a very depressing thread..

Nick-H

It can get worse...

Not tourists, but a guy got killed for trying to rescue a woman.

The mob followed him to his house and set him on fire.

Sama

what I ended up doing in cochin was buying a few short sleeveless/tank top dresses and wearing them over my baggy cotton pants as a long top. wearing a salwar or a kurta over my pants absolutely made me feel overdressed and frankly I felt like I was dressed like a guy dressed like that.

from what I've seen this trip all thru tamil nadu and into kochin and back again, I also decided that I would dress the same in chennai. while I would wear dress "traditionally" (salwars, etc.) in a village or a small town (visited more than a few on this trip), no more salwars and dupattas for me in chennai. next time I'm wearing nice kurtas -- sleeveless or otherwise -- over my jeans -- and I don't wear baggy jeans either.

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MY INDIA, 2005-2008
"If you have to ask what India is, you'll never know." (apologies to Louis Armstrong)

fajitanumerouno

I noticed when I was in Ahmedabad in December there were few women with western style of dress on. There were in fact very few tourists at all. Maybe pants with the longer tops, some jeans and such and no westerners. The only people in cargo style pants were young boys. So I bought some clothes to blend in a bit more and received fewer stares. It was also getting cooler and that was nice to have the fabric and scarf when you need it.

Not that I was dressed in some kind of provocative way before, but just casual travel wear.

When we went to Cochin and Kerala it seemed a much more touristy destination and even the NRIs and Indian tourists seemed to favor pants and western style tops or shorter kurtas then in Ahmedabad. So I switched from wearing Indian dress to a modified western dress that I was used to. There are so many tourists in Cochin that the shops all sell tops and dupattas to western taste, not Indian taste so much. Jewelry stores even sell silver jewelry, not the usual selection of gold costume. There were so many tourists in Cochin I was surprised and kind of weirded out as well. So it was very nice. Travel smart anywhere you go.

All this talk of stuff happening. A year ago or so a British guy was murdered on the street outside a New Jersey beach bar. He was some sort of reality TV guy from UK apparently and was here visiting etc. Does not seem to have hurt tourism to the US. Though that spate of tourist robberies/murders on the highway in Florida a few years ago seem to have slowed the tourism to Florida a bit, but really only briefly from what I recall.

Aishah

Yogagal, many women in Delhi are dressing like you are - jeans with a nice kurta top on top. Now of course it's freezing so the jackets and shawls are there too! Also you see these days far more women with short hair - especially in the cities. Not so much out my way though.

karuna

Little more info for those who're interested: there was a conference of tourism secretaries from each state and the topic of tourist safety figured high on the agenda.

There was also talk of fast-tracking tourist court cases.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=34879

kinginexile

Just going thru the thread quickly. The hotelier is mentionned in a few cases, this seems to indicate there is premeditation maybe, and less of a provocative dress code from the women. same if it was a japanese, IME, few of them dress down like an euro/US girl.

I am afraid it is tied to the fact that women can be fair prize in India, and that a lot of guys, hoteliers at the very least, still have to understand that no means very simply: no.

IMO

qwan

I have pondered on this a lot. I may not be supporting Jivan,because I am not sure of his context. I am totally against blaming a women for not dressing up "properly" if she gets raped.

Seriously you make a good point about controlling one's sexuallity, try going and telling it to the rapist. It does not work that way.

I believe that it is the man's fault and even if a woman goes around wearing "comfortable" clothes. The man should be punished.
Some men sympathize with the rapist I am not one of those.

But wearing something that is made just to titillate. It is obvious that there is a whole range of womens clothing that is made to make a women look sexy.
Define the word sexy, it maybe an socially "accepted" word and is connected with women empowerment too.
But the words sexy means only one thing....something that arouses or makes one desire sex. That is the sexy.
So women have to be sensible. Being "open minded" doesnt mean opening your mind so much till your brains fall off.

In a public place you lock your luggage and keep. I dont hear anybody telling you that, no luggage should not be locked, men(or any person) should be responsible for controlling their own morality(or their desire to steal).
So when you go to a place where there is chance of robbery you take care of luggage, you do hide your money, you dont "flaunt it"(flaunt your money) just because you have it".

Same way in a place that is dangerous for women please dont "flaunt it just because you have it".

If you are in a private beach resort, upscale club, then wear what you want.
Otherwise i believe a woman is inviting trouble if she is wearing "sexy" clothes.
These rapists are inhuman guys you cannot reason with them, and also another major factor that many forget while trying to make such "feminist" points is that many rapist rape under the influence of alcohol.
So it is not a good thing for man to stare at a drunk guy or else it could turn into a fight, so do you think it would be wise for a women to dress "sexy"?

I remember ad campaigns that claim that their clothes are "sexy". These clothing companies take time to get the right cut and take great "efforts" to make their clothing(rather the wearer) more "attractive" to the opposite sex. and they definitely are aiming for "sexually attractive" not "marry me attractive".

Well thats what I have to say.
I still dont think that the rapist is "innocent"...they are inhuman pigs, no doubt about that, but would be foolish to cut yourself and bleed in a shark infested ocean and not expect sharks to come after you.

haydn

Namaste/Salaam Alaikum,
Sad to hear of some women's bad experiences in India. Just back after trip with my family. For what they're worth, a few observations: My partner (female) and i have always felt India to be fairly safe, especially considering the enormous gap between the haves(us) and the have-nots(many). Yes, there are lots of sleazy men out there, or rather, men to whom gora seem to represent the opportunity to be sleazy. We have often been a bit shocked at the revealing/western style of dress of some travellers. Being respectfull of dress and behaviour norms of your surroundings and firm but friendly setting personal boundaries can only help. That being said, just compare what you see on Indian TV and what is available sexually on the streets! Must make for some confused/frustrated men out there, combined with an inherently gender discriminatory society.
Hope you all have hassle free travels.
Shantih

Aishah

Well said, Shantih! Couldn't agree more, but at the same time behaviour over the bounds despite whatever a women is wearing, is just not acceptable anywhere. Glad you had a good trip!

sharkygirl

I'm hoping that my age will work to my advantage in India. It sure didn't back in the day when the male attention was enuf to drive a girl nuts! Do you think this will be the case?
sharkygirl

Nick-H

Probably depends more on how well-preserved you are than your actual age!

Aishah

Never a truer word, Nick! Generally less harassment once you are well over mid-50's but you can still expect some even into 60's!I think there's just that stereotyping of 'foreign woman' which is going to take a long time to disappear.