Indian-Americans hold candle light vigil for Delhi gangrape victim

Braving chilly weather, Indian-Americans gathered at the Gandhi Statue here to hold a candle light vigil for the 23-year-old Delhi gang rape victim, who died after battling for life for 13 days, as US media slammed the "reprehensible crime" saying half of India's population "lives in fear of unspeakable violence."

"Delhi bus incident is our 'Rosa Parks bus incident'. Hopefully we will discuss gender violence more and do some...thing about it," a group of Indian-Americans, who held the candle light vigil last night, said on their Facebook page, especially created for the occasion.

The group organised the candle light vigil to mourn the death of the girl -- who was brutally gang-raped and assaulted by six men in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16 – at the Gandhi Statue despite very cold weather with temperatures below freezing level.

Meanwhile, mainstream US newspapers continued to give prominent coverage to the death in Singapore of the gang-rape victim, whose body was cremated in Delhi this morning.

"The event has shocked Indian society, and many women in other parts of the world are also finding themselves compelled to speak out," wrote Jamila Bey – a journalist based in Washington, DC, where she hosts the weekly radio show 'The Sex, Politics And Religion Hour' – in The Washington Post.

"In India, the fight today is in the streets. But the fights and the protests must continue to be waged in the voting booths, on the editorial pages and even by leaving the venerated institutions, from churches to Congress, that frequently treat women as inferior to men," Bey said.

The case of the gang-rape victim "has seemed to snap India to attention about its endemic sexual violence problem," The Washington Post said.

The CNN reported how law enforcement authorities tried to prevent demonstrations.

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