Our Suryanelli Sister who survived a vicious gang rape needs your support! Please Stand by her!

Dear friends,
For long Indian feminist have been fighting for justice for the Suryanelli gang rape case where a 16 year old girl was brutally raped by 42 men in 40 days. We also know the hell that she and her family have been put through by government, police and bureaucrats.

But the worst was when in 2013 one of the prime accused in the case, the politician Kurien, who Indian feminists and journalists have tried to confront, was invited to speak at the global conference by the NY based organization, 'Women Deliver.' We are angry not just because of the casual way Women Deliver brushed off our questions about why they invited this man (when the case is so high profile) but also in the way they brushed off the victim calling this "a controversy." We are angry because we know that western feminists would never treat a rape victim in the west in this way. We are angry because other western feminists who wouldn't stand for this by any women's groups in the west, defended Women Deliver or just gave the silent treatment to our questions. Here is my article on what Indian women have been saying to me: http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/indian-whispers-on-rape-raci...

Today we ALL MUST stand by our Suryanelli sister. She has been through enough pain, harassment and isolation, and yet she's still fighting for justice. She does not need this from a women's group! This is not just a slap on her face, this is an insult to the fight that Indian women (feminists, journalists) struggle with day after day against a corrupt power structure of government and police that perpetuates violence, the struggle that Justice Verma so eloquently recorded for us in his 300 page report before he died this year.

Please sign this petition demanding that 'Women Deliver' makes an official apology and show sympathy and support to our Suryanelli sister like all rape survivors deserve.

Here's the petition on Change.Org http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/women-deliver-apologize-to-the-sur...

The same petition on Causes (you have to sign in via facebook if you use this option) http://www.causes.com/actions/1754006-tell-womendeliver-disinvite-kurien...

We will be sending out this petition with a letter to Women Deliver next month. If they do not respond we will continue to circulate this on our social networks just as we are keeping the Suryanelli case alive and relevant in the domain of public awareness, till JUSTICE IS DONE!