Rape Victim faces a purification ritual

A woman in Gujarat who was abducted and gang-raped was told she could not end her resulting pregnancy — courts refused to allow an abortion because the fetus was too far along — and then told she would have to pass a "purity test" before being taken back by her family.

Her in-laws would not take her back. Her husband stood by her, leaving his parents' home to live with her and their two children. The price of return to the family home was the purification ritual.

The ritual, known as agnipariksha — "test of fire," after Sita's trial in the Ramayana — is still practiced in some villages when a woman's "purity" is questioned. As the BBC reported, it takes the form of a lie-detector test run by a tantric: he asks the woman questions, then takes a pinch of barley seeds from a bag and asks her to say whether the number in his hand is even or odd. If she guesses wrong, her answers are declared lies. She must then repeat the test with a 10-kg stone balanced on her head — until the tantric is satisfied she is telling the truth. Only then is she considered "pure," and nobody is allowed to trouble her again.

As if enduring rape were not enough, she now faced a baseless purification process that could drag on for months or even years — because the entire verdict hangs on correctly guessing the number of barley seeds in a stranger's fist.

And it is only the women who go through this. Men are not subjected to these rituals.