Sidster,

If you could see how devastated the victim was over the whole situation, if you could see how hard she cried, and how humiliated and exposed she felt... She is utterly incapable of lying or manipulating another person, and even after Ajay's conviction, she felt terrible that a son would most likely have to grow up knowing that his father was a convicted rapist.  Even though she knew that the well-being of the child was not her responsibility but rather that of his irresponsible parents, she still worried about him.  If anything, her reaction showed that she, despite the horrible things her adoptive father put her through, is a very compassionate person.  Throughout the trial, she never had anything bad to say about Ajay or Peggy, or even their families, even though they caused her so much suffering.   Multiple times, many of her friends (myself, included), voiced our opinions about Ajay.  We all thought that he deserved to rot in hell for all eternity, and we called him every terrible name in the English language we could possibly think of... But, not the victim.  The only thing she ever said was something along the lines of, "I'm relieved that I got justice for the horrible things that he did to me, but I don't take pleasure from it.  Both of our families were destroyed by what he did." 

The sad truth with many rape victims is that they feel like they could have prevented the attacks if they had done something different, if they had covered themselves up literally with clothing from head to toe, or if they'd been a better person.  They feel like they were punished for something that they did wrong, and yet, they can't figure out what their transgression was.  Could you imagine feeling this way?  The fact that this victim has a hard time blaming anyone but herself is a classic sign that she, indeed, has been raped.  It also says something about extremely patriarchal societies where women are seen as nothing more than chattel.  I am not here to debate the intricacies of racism, but it is a very well-known fact that, in many Asian cultures (especially in the rural areas of countries such as Nepal), women are seen as little more than farm animals--completely utilitarian baby-making machines with no real capacity for intelligent thoughts.  Again, I'm not creating a bias in saying this.  I know that some form of this male chauvinistic thinking exists even here in America, among Caucasian males, but it seems more prevalent in countries who perpetuate the need for said patriarchal communities. 

I firmly believe that the lesson to be taken from this tragic story is to take in as much information as humanly possible.  Start with the facts, and only the facts, and refrain from jumping to conclusions, assumptions, or emotions.  Perhaps if many of Ajay's supporters had read up on the behaviors and emotions of rape victims, they would have been a little more cognizant of what was going on right under their noses.