[Reader-list] A Roundtable on The Suryanelli Case: PW3, The Willing Journey of a Misguided Girl

[Meghana Arora]

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
invites you to a roundtable on


The Suryanelli Case: PW3, The Willing Journey of a Misguided Girl
Speakers: Rukhsana Chowdhari, Elizabeth Philip, Arathi PM & Poornima Joshi


Chair: Mary John
Monday, 29 April 2013, 5 pm
CSDS Seminar Room          RSVP
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054          Tel: 011 23942199
Please join us tea at 4.30 pm            email: jaya at csds.in
_____________________________________________________________________________

Since 1996, Suryanelli, a small town 27 kms from Munnar in Kerala, has come
to stand in the collective consciousness of Keralites for the Suryanelli
girl, a 16-year-old who was abducted and continuously raped for 40 days by
42 men. In 2005, in a shocking verdict, the Kerala High Court acquitted all
of the accused except one. In 2013, when the case was brought to the
Supreme Court, post the Delhi protests and the Justice Verma report, the SC
struck down the HC decision which it termed as “shocking” and ordered the
case re-opened against all the accused, including Deputy Chairman of the
Rajya Sabha, PJ Kurien.

In this context, there is a need to examine the "journey" of the Suryanelli
case as it has played out over the past 17 years in police investigation,
judicial process and media reports. This roundtable will explore the
discourses surrounding acts of gender violence, and how these impact on the
politics of public opinion and movements for gender justice. In the context
of the Suryanelli case it is important to unpack how apparently objective
criteria in the legal system for assessment of sexual assault often hide
patriarchal assumptions that not only obstruct justice but continue the
gendered assault on the victim.

Rukhsana Chowdhari will speak on ‘Suryanelli Case: Legal Questions and
Conflicting Interventions of Judiciary’, She is a senior lawyer at the
Supreme Court of India and appeared for the Suryanelli case. She is
associated with Lawyer's Collective.

Elizabeth Philip will speak on ‘Everyday Life of the Suryanelli Girl’. She
is an active participant in the feminist movements in Kerala and is one of
the founding members of 'Sahaja' (Kottayam). She assists and supports the
family of "Suryanelli girl" in conducting this case in different courts.

Arathi PM will speak on ‘Understanding Violated Bodies: The Question of
Resistance and Consent’. She is currently working with Council for Social
Development, Delhi. Her PhD titled "Gendered Bodies Medicine and Law: A
Study of selected case laws from India" at the Centre of Social Medicine
and Community Health (JNU) examined the Suryanelli gang rape as one of the
cases studies.

Poornima Joshi will speak on ‘Rape, Media and Titilation: The Growing
Business of News as Entertainment’. She is a journalist and Associate
Editor with Social Change (Sage Publications).

Mary John will chair the roundtable. She was the Director of the Centre for
Women’s Development Studies, Delhi (2006-12) and is currently a Senior
Fellow at CWDS. Her publications on gender issues include: Women’s Studies
in India: A Reader (2008), Planning Families, Planning Gender (2008), and,
with Janaki Nair, A Question of Silence? : The Sexual Economies of Modern
India (1998)





-- 
Meghana Arora,
Program Coordinator, 50 Year Events,
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
29, Rajpur Road
Delhi - 110054 India
Phone: 91-11-23942199
Fax: 91-11-23943450

Website: http://www.csds.in/