Filmmaker's Interviews With Indian Rapists Horrify

Two years ago, medical student Jyoti Singh was brutally gang-raped on a bus in Delhi, India; she died from her injuries almost two weeks later. Now an Israeli-born filmmaker's documentary about the attack, set to air on BBC4 on Sunday and at a New York screening on March 9, reveals the internal workings of the men accused in Singh's assault and death, as well as those of other rapists and even the attorneys defending them, the Guardian reports. What Leslee Udwin uncovered for India's Daughter—which she had hoped would answer the question "Why do men rape?"—was shocking, and indicative of an overall "lack of respect of gender," she says. Some of the film's chilling responses, as per the Guardian:

• A 34-year-old man serving time for raping a 5-year-old showed no remorse during Udwin's interview, she says. After hearing the agonizing details about his attack on the child, Udwin asks, "How could you do something so terrible that would ruin a child's life?" His reply: "She was a beggar girl, her life was of no value."

• A central focus of Udwin's film is Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus on which Jyoti Singh was terrorized. "You can't clap with one hand—it takes two hands," he explains to Udwin in his jailhouse interview. "A decent girl won't roam around at night. A girl is more responsible for rape than a boy … about 20% of girls are good."

• The bus driver also has strong feelings on gender roles. "Boy and girl are not equal," he says, per the Telegraph. "Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes."

• Singh goes on to mention, per the Guardian, that Jyoti fought her attackers and says, "She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they would have dropped her off after 'doing her' and only hit the boy [Jyoti's companion]."

• Singh warns that putting him and other rapists to death for their crimes would create a backlash against women. "The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls," he says, per the Telegraph. "Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death."

• And from the lawyers for the men accused of raping and killing Jyoti Singh: "We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman," one says, while a second defense attorney adds if his own sister or daughter "engaged in pre-marital activities … in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight."

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