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In a police station in New Delhi, two officers are apologising to their superior. A young woman was brutally raped, and the police failed to take it seriously. A video showing their rudeness and reluctance to seek medical help has gone viral, sparking widespread criticism. “Sorry, sir,” say the policemen, “we thought she was a randi [prostitute].”
In December 2012, American journalist Lyndee Prickitt was living in India’s capital with her Indian partner and their new baby daughter when she heard about the horrific gang rape of Jyoti Singh (the subject of a recent controversial BBC documentary, India’s Daughter). The attack on the 23-year-old medical student, who died of her injuries, provoked outrage and soul-searching in India and around the world, with calls to reform a deeply misogynistic culture.
Prickitt’s response was to do what came naturally to her: write. Having worked as a multimedia journalist for Reuters, she also understood how digital media could lend impact to her storytelling. The result is an interactive “born digital” story, We Are Angry, which fuses fact and fiction, prose, audio and video in a devastatingly powerful way.
The story – which is fictional, but has parallels with Singh’s – is engagingly narrated by the victim, a 27-year-old entrepreneur. As we read or “experience” it, we watch the “viral video” of policemen prodding the victim, read fictionalised news reports about the case and hear the voices of real Indians debating sexism. The experience flows seamlessly, even when we stop to click on the helpful integrated glossary of Hindi words.
Prickitt’s aim is to fuel the righteous anger she feels is necessary for change. She certainly achieves that, despite a tiny budget and reliance on volunteers. If an organisation were to lend funding to polish it, translate it into Hindi and take it into schools, We Are Angry could have an even more profound impact.
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