Teenage Girl Cut Off Uncle’s Penis During an Attempted Rape

In recent years India has come in for widespread criticism for its record on handling sexual violence against women. One young woman recently took matters quite literally into her own hands when faced with an assault. A teenage girl in the Madhepura district of Bihar, India, cut off her uncle’s penis during an attempted rape. The girl’s mother first took her to the man, a trusted family member known as a local healer or ‘tantrik’, when the girl became ill over a month ago. Claiming that she was under the influence of a supernatural power, he took her to a private room and allegedly gagged and raped her, to ‘rid her of the spirits’. The next day, the man went to the teenagers house and requested that she come to his home. She did, carrying a mobile phone and a knife. Police told media that the young woman recorded a conversation with her uncle using the phone, and when he attempted to rape her a second time, she used the knife to cut off his penis. The teenager then filed a complaint with police. When asked whether the teen would face criminal charges for her knife attack, senior officer A.K. Singh, superintendent at the Alam Nagar police station, told the Independent, “Why should we file a case against her? We should applaud her bravery and courage.”