Indian state mandates self-defense for girls
An Indian state has required the teaching of self-defense techniques for schoolgirls because of rampant harassment and violence against women, local media said on Wednesday.
The judo and karate training will be given to over 90,000 female students in Uttar Pradesh, the Indo-Asian News Service said.
An order was issued by the government making judo and karate training for female students in all government schools mandatory as a part of self-defense in the curriculum for the 2014-15 academic session.
The state's chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, gave the instructions to the education department a few months ago amid the rise in crime against girls and women in his state, the most populous and dangerous state for women in India.
In May, two low-caste teenage girls were raped and killed before being hanged on a tree for public display by a higher caste clan in a village in Uttar Pradesh, triggering widespread shock and protests.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, five men were hanged on Wednesday for the gang-rape of four women despite the United Nations and human rights groups criticizing the trial.
Brutal attack
The brutal attack in Paghman, outside Kabul, provoked a national outcry with many Afghans demanding the men be hanged.
"Five men in connection to the Paghman incident and one other big criminal were executed this afternoon," said Rahmatullah Nazari, the country's deputy attorney general.
"The court's verdict has been implemented and all the convicts have been executed - five from the Paghman case, plus Habib Istalifi, who was head of a notorious kidnapping gang," said Atta Mohammad Noori, the attorney general's chief of staff.
In August the armed gang members, wearing police uniforms, stopped a convoy of cars returning to Kabul at night from a wedding in Paghman, a scenic spot popular with day-trippers.
The attackers tied up the men in the group before raping at least four of the women and stealing valuables from their victims.
Xinhua - AFP
(China Daily 10/09/2014 page11)
