Civic Artifact being used is the image above.
“Nirbhaya,” meaning fearless in Hindi. That is what she was named after she was raped by 6 men, on a moving bus, one of whom was a minor. I was just 10 when I saw this case on the new. Blissfully unaware of the grim horrors of the world I lived in. But, December 16th of 2012 forever changed me, and maybe all those little girls who trusted.
It was a normal evening for our family, just watching television when we came across the case that moved the youth of India. I was a stranger to rape. I just saw the picture of a girl being taken to the hospital and thought she met with an accident. My father immediately switched the news channel and my mom took me in a room to talk to me. She told me about “Good touch and bad touch.” What my innocent little brain couldn’t fathom was, why? Why did it happen? What did that girl do to deserve it? and most importantly, could it be me?
While I am still looking for the answers for few of those questions, I can now very confidently answer the last part. Yes. It could’ve very easily been me. Nirbhaya could have been me, you, or your loved one.
Nirbhaya was a fighter. She was used and discarded on the middle of the street. She was tortured. But she fought, till her very last breath, until she couldn’t. But then the entire nation brawled for her. She went on to be known as “The daughter of India.”
This case was different. It made an impact. It made people mad and rightfully so. People went down the streets of Delhi, and protested. They marched and they held vigils. They forced the government to mend the faulty laws, the ones that allowed an incident as such to occur. There were certain changes, but not enough.
Why am I still talking about her? I feel it is my responsibility to tell her story. The story about a daughter who fought, and the story of a mother who never gave up.
Although, I couldn’t include everything she went through because of the graphic nature of the attack, if you want to know her story, I encourage you to do so.
Attached here is the link to a documentary that BBC made on the case: https://archive.org/details/DelhiNirbhayaFullDocumentaryBBCStoryvilleIndiaSDaughter
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You did a great job at introducing this situation. I wish you had analyzed in greater depth the event and its aftermath as a commonplace, but it is a good start. It would be interesting if you worked on this in greater depth, given your unique perspective on the event relative to others in the class. Good job, just make sure to frame your work in the context of this class and the concepts in the readings!
I really like the way you chose something personally important to you and tied it into the post assignment. While this is not a story I have ever personally heard, I can see how big of an impact it has made in not only your life, but the lives of so many others, and can absolutely see the way her situation created a wave of activism in her name.
The civil artifact that you chose directly conveys the persuasiveness of a commonplace, as well as deeply delivers the rhetorical situation that it is. This story is immensely deep, and I truly admire how you chose a story that is so personal as you.
This civic artifact is very important and it seems to be something very personally important to you. This is a very deep story that has clearly had a huge impact on your home country. I admire you for talking about something that was once so traumatizing for you and your family.