In India, a state where the rape of women is common and there is no legal recourse, women are often afraid to report their rapes or face the consequences of prosecution.
Women in India are even told that they are not worthy of sexual intimacy, as they are either “sluts” or “rape victims”.
The recent rape case of a woman who had been raped in a hotel room in India’s capital, New Delhi, has brought a new wave of violence against women, in an age when India is seeing its first wave of protests over sexual harassment and violence against men.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, says she was groped by a man and had his semen on her face.
She was then attacked in front of her family.
She told her story to the New Delhi Police.
“He was a stranger and the next thing I knew, he was raping me.
He was raping my family.
I was so scared,” she told the BBC.
In the latest incident, a woman was raped in the same hotel room where the man had been arrested.
A few days later, a similar rape occurred in a different hotel, but it was not reported.
The police told The Times Of India that they do not know the details of the alleged rape, and did not comment on the case.
But the incident in the New South Wales city of Perth is a chilling example of the rape culture prevalent in India, according to police and rights activists.
A group of activists has called for an investigation into the alleged rapes.
In a statement, the Perth Rape Crisis Centre said the case of the young woman’s rape should be referred to the Indian police.
The centre’s director, Susan Goll, said the group was calling for a probe into the incident, and urged authorities to take steps to curb the rape.
“I am concerned that we may have lost some of the most vulnerable women, and we have seen a rise in rapes,” she said.
In April, a 19-year-old student was gang-raped in a bus shelter in Delhi.
Her attackers are still on the loose, but authorities have vowed to find the perpetrators.
Police said the Delhi rape was a “gang rape”.
But campaigners say the number of reported rape cases is likely to increase, with many women unwilling to come forward.
“We have a huge problem with rape and we should be trying to tackle it in a way that we are comfortable with,” said Rishi Gupta, an activist with the Women’s Commission for Reform, a Delhi-based women’s rights organisation.
In response to the rise in reported rapes, police and activists have started to put pressure on women to report the attacks, including by posting a sign at bus stops and at railway stations warning women against travelling alone.
India has one of the highest rape rates in the world.
More than 1.4 million women were raped in 2015, and another 2.4 millions were raped last year.