What happened to this American woman is terrible. I can relate to the outrage from my own experience of having lived in different countries as a foreigner. Willful harassment is wrong wherever it happens - Nepal, India, China or America - and I am  glad she is speaking out. I think attitudes towards harassment are slowly changing in India and I hope stories like this will accelerate the pace of that change.  Otherwise, if incidents like these continue unchecked, India's image  will suffer and so will it's ability to attract foreign tourists and investment.

However, I couldn't help notice the outsized coverage this story received in the international media. I think being American has it's privileges and one of them is the attention the media pays you when you run into a bad situation. After all South Asian visitors to America, particularly men (but sometimes women too) are also routinely harassed. Not sexually but in other ways  - starting from the often rude behavior of customs and immigration, to suspicious and hostile attitudes in public places like restaurants and tourist attractions. These incidents can be pretty degrading to the South Asian involved too. It's a pity the Western media doesn't find such incidents deserving of the same focus. Perhaps that's because there is no sexual component involved and other forms of harrasment dont make a story as sellable.