NEW DELHI (AP) - When a condemned killer said the woman he and others brutally gang-raped on a New Delhi bus was responsible for what had happened to her, his comments were shocking in their callousness and lack of remorse. But the underlying view has wide acceptance in India.
Blaming women for rape is what hundreds of millions of men here are taught to believe.
And the code for women in this country is simple: Dress modestly, don't go out at night, don't go to bars and clubs, don't go out alone. If you break the code, you will be blamed for the consequences.
When one of the four men sentenced to death for the high-profile gang rape of the woman in 2012 was quoted in a new documentary as saying "a girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he was repeating something community and religious leaders in this nation of 1.2 billion routinely say.
"A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. ... Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes," Mukesh Singh said in the documentary, "India's Daughter," meant to be shown on Sunday, International Women's Day, in India and several other countries.
But how different were the convicted rapist's words from comments that Manohar Lal Khattar, the top elected official of Haryana state made last year?
"If a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way," Khattar told reporters, "Freedom has to be limited. These short clothes are Western influences. Our country's tradition asks girls to dress decently."
The convicted rapist learned only what he has heard leaders in his community say, said Jagmati Sangwan, a women's rights activist who heads the All India Democratic Women's Association.
"This man is just following the example our leaders are setting for our young men," she said.
In 2009 when a rightwing Hindu group attacked women in a pub in the southern state of Karnataka, then-Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said that he wanted to "end the culture of boys and girls roaming around in malls holding hands."
Women leaders are not immune.
When a female journalist was shot dead in 2008 while driving home from work well past midnight, New Delhi's top official at the time, Sheila Dixit, make clear she partly blamed the victim.
"All by herself till 3 a.m. at night in a city where people believe ... you know ... you should not be so adventurous," she told reporters.
It's a view Sangwan hears all too often.
"It's a heinous view to hold, but it's the view of our religious leaders, our community leaders, our legislators," she said.
The documentary, which includes a 2013 jailhouse interview with Singh, set off government alarm bells after transcripts were released this week. On Tuesday, India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry ordered television channels not to air the film.