The Kolkata rape case is not a tragedy; it is systematic barbarism

Trigger warning: Multiple accounts of violence, rape and murder

On August 9, a second-year postgraduate trainee at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College was raped and murdered in one of the most horrific femicide accounts to emerge from the subcontinent in recent years.

According to her colleagues, the 31-year-old doctor had retired to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar room after a marathon 36-hour shift, given the lack of any dorms or resting rooms for medics at the premises. Her...