We honor a woman known simply as Nirbhaya – brave, big heart, fearless. This bright young woman was studying to be a doctor when she boarded a bus in Delhi last December.
For hours, she was brutally gang raped. She was then tossed away, along with her friend, left naked and bleeding alongside the road and left to die. But she kept fighting.
Over the next two weeks, she became aware of the growing movement that was supporting her and the outrage and indignation ignited around the world. As she fought for her life, she decided to fight for justice, too. She defied her doctors and the culture of silence, giving two detailed accounts of her attack that the police used to arrest her rapists.
Her bravery inspired millions of women and men to come together with a simple message: No more. No more looking the other way when gender-based violence happens. No more stigma against victims or survivors.
Nirbhaya’s fight survives her. For inspiring people to work together to end violence against women in India and around the world by displaying immense courage in demanding justice, as this inscription reads, and with great sadness, we honor Nirbhaya as a woman of exceptional courage, and we honor her posthumously.
Please stand and join me, if you would, in a moment of silence for Nirbhaya.
It is my honor to read part of a statement from Nirbhaya’s mother and father. And this is what they wrote:
“We never imagined that the girl we thought was our daughter would one day be the daughter of the entire world. She was meant to be the daughter of the world. This is a huge achievement in itself.
“She was always different from other children. Other children cry when being sent to school, but she was an extraordinary child who would cry when she was not going to school. She was a happy girl, and even in times of struggle she would stay cheerful. We gave equal treatment to all our three children; there was no discrimination because of her being a girl. Our daughter was made of steel – once she decided she had to do something, there was no looking back. She would work at call centers during nights, and study during day. She’d never get enough time to sleep, just about two hours at the most. And despite the odds, and our poverty, she always managed to achieve and move ahead. She had just one goal in life, to study and become a doctor.
“Today, our message to the world is: do not tolerate any attack on your dignity and honor; do not silently bear ill treatment. Earlier, women would keep silent and hide away when they were subjected to sexual misconduct. They would not report it to the police, nor lodge any complaints. They were scared of the stigma. That has changed – the fear is now gone. And while her end was horrendous, her case is imparting strength to all women to fight and to improve the system. Women, both in India and in the rest of the world, refuse to be stigmatized and will not keep silent anymore. This incident has opened their minds and empowered them. They are no longer scared of what anyone will say.”
(This is the edited text of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on the occasion of the International Women’s Day when the US honoured Nirbhaya, the symbolic name for the Delhi gang-rape victim, with a US “woman of courage” award posthumously at the State Department presentation ceremony in Washington DC March 8. Besides Nirbhaya, eight other women were given the annual award to outstanding women around the globe who have become emblems of women empowerment. They include: Malalai Bahaduri, first sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit ( Afghanistan); Julieta Castellanos, rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, president, Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria); Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist ( Russia); Fartuun Adan, executive director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre ( Somalia); Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China); Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and founder, Local Coordination Committees ( Syria) and Ta Phong Tan, blogger, Vietnam).
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