Cutting her nose to spite his face: Violence against women in India and the collusion of power

Here is an abstract of a paper I published recently. A big thank you to the Psychology of Women's Section who thought my work was meaningful for their readers. 

The Paper is free to read and download and the link below will let you access the full paper.


Title -Cutting her nose to spite his face: Violence against women in India and the collusion of power 

Abstract -  In the last few years crime against women in India has increased dramatically. What stands out about these crimes is how the perpetrators of these crimes use violence to disable a woman; through, for example, acid attacks, ‘honour crime’ and public stripping. The perpetrators often claim to do this in order to preserve their notion of ‘Indian culture’. These notions are tied within understandings of women’s roles as submissive, chaste, modest and ‘traditional’. Women’s bodies are the primary site for this violence as disfiguring the female body sends out a cautionary message to other women not to transgress boundaries that have been laid out by those who feel they must preserve this culture. 

These understandings of ‘Indian culture’ are often invented and are tied to nationalismwhich poses a threat to ‘Westernised Indians’ particularly women. Cases such as the Delhi Gang Rape case or the attack on pubs in Mangalore which led to the ‘pink chuddi campaign’ have caught the eye of the media, however, one sees them being justified by the perpetrators on thegrounds of protecting ‘Indian culture’. When these crimes are presented in the Western media they are often collude with the perpetrators of these crimes by using these notions of ‘tradition’. Western ideas of India and how Eastern values must be preserved from Western civilisation often undermine the victim’s ordeal. 

Keywords: Gendered violence; honour crime; India; nationalism. 

Reference-  Soans, S (2015) Cutting her nose to spite his face: Violence against women in India and the collusion of power. Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 17 –pages 52-65


Here is a link to the paper https://www.academia.edu/12092328/Cutting_her_nose_to_spite_his_face_Violence_against_women_in_India_and_the_collusion_of_power