I have not seen any international petitions condemning this act of brutality and the Indian government's failure to protect its women citizens. I have not seen debates in the social or mainstream media in which Western feminists have said much at all.

Those who are quick to condemn governments which kill women and children in drone attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or who are quick to point out that Western policies have endangered lives of civilians in many parts of the world, find no words to speak out against the violence women in the Global South face repeatedly and every day.

Violence against women that is routinely normalised in certain cultures, in certain societies, in certain countries, and violence that cannot be traced to Western militarism or Western foreign policy does not find easy critics. That would not be politically correct nor would it reflect commitment to anti-racism, perhaps.

Not long ago Adele Wilde-Blavatsky wrote an article on why she abhors the burqa and thinks it is oppressive towards women in general. The article irked many Western feminists and Muslim-feminists alike. An intense personal attack followed on social media and on The Feminist Wire website where the article was published,. The attacks accused the author of simplifying the issue, of being a white middle-class racist who could not look beyond her own privilege. How dare she have an opinion on an issue that she did not understand in her Islamophobic and racist mind?

Following the backlash, Wilde-Blavatsky's article was withdrawn and a signature campaign was launched by Western feminists (mostly US-based academics) to discredit her argument and point out its flaws.

Instead of engaging the author in a respectful manner, feminists chose to censor what they perceived as an inappropriate attack on the Muslim community.

Some of us who tried to argue for reason and debate to continue were hailed as 'white supremacists' in disguise. The argument was reduced to the skin colour of its propounder. Silence and censorship became feminist tools.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4444810.html