Indian former po*n star dragged into rape debate

While her past pursuits have been no barrier, being linked to India's rape crisis represents a new challenge.

The 31-year-old became one of the most searched names on the Internet in India when she arrived in 2011 to appear in a reality TV series and has since taken several raunchy roles in mainstream movies.

As India casts around for reasons to explain a series of horrifying sex crimes, the latest being the kidnap and brutal rape of a five-year-old girl, po*nography is under scrutiny and has led some to call for Leone to be jailed.

Recent events have galvanised anti-po*n campaigners after it was revealed, via unnamed police officers quoted in local newspapers, that the suspects in the rape of the five-year-old had watched explicit material before the crime.

Aroused by video clips on their mobile phones, they allegedly abducted the girl in a working class area in eastern New Delhi and drunkenly raped her so violently she was left with life-threatening injuries.

The po*nography claims coincide with a separate legal effort in the Supreme Court to introduce an outright ban on such material in India.

"Our children are accessing more and more graphic and brutal videos and they are imitating them and we are suffering," Kamlesh Vaswani, a commercial lawyer who has petitioned the Supreme Court to demand a ban, told AFP.

"Our laws are very vague in this area so it can be corrected in the Supreme Court," he said ahead of the next hearing in the case set for April 29.

Two Indian laws already outlaw the distribution or creation of obscene material, with the Information Technology Act (2000) prescribing up to five years in jail for anyone caught publishing "lascivious" material.

But as most of the po*nography accessed in India is on sites outside the jurisdiction of prosecutors and viewed in the privacy of homes or on mobile phones, convictions are rare and the restrictions are largely meaningless.

"It is technically possible to ban it," said 41-year-old Vaswani, who has a 10-year-old son at home in the central city of Indore. "They need to have some expert help from the IT sector."

He blames Leone, star of X-rated hits including Sunny's Slumber Party, for bringing adult material in India to a wider audience.

"She deserves to go to jail if she continues to promote po*nography," he added.

Appearing in a debate on Monday night on the Headlines Today news channel, Leone defended her dual career as po*n star and actress and dismissed fears that adult material was linked to sex crime.

"po*nography is not for people who think it's for real. It's fantasy and it's entertainment," she said, dressed in a full-length yellow outfit revealing only her lower arms.

"It's complete nonsense to blame rape on adult material out there. Education starts at home. It's mums and dads sitting with their children and teaching them what is right and wrong."

Fellow star John Abraham also defended her, saying those seeking to blame po*nography for rapes were missing the root cause of the problem in India - social attitudes to women and a lack of education.

"By banning something you're not going to solve the problem. The world over, people have access to po*n. Are there rape cases like this (of the five-year-old) that exist the world over? No.

"Did rape cases exist before po*n came into being? Yes," he said.

The debate about links between po*nography and sex crime mirrors other largely unresolved controversies globally about whether violent video games cause gun crime or if gangster rap encourages anti-social behaviour.

Some experts deny any link, pointing to stable or declining incidences of rape in some countries where po*nography has gone from scarcity to ubiquity in the last 15 years thanks to its availability on the Internet.

Others say the Internet provides a forum for criminally-minded perverts to meet and vocalise their darkest desires. It also creates an industry that produces ever more depraved and damaging material.

The Supreme Court ruling in India will set a new legally binding precedent and could force the government to find a way to ban one of the most searched for subjects on Google.

"In terms of the larger debate, whether po*n leads to violence, I don't think anyone should have a knee-jerk reaction and say it does," junior IT minister Milind Deora said Tuesday.

"We are a liberal society and we don't want to get into the space of censoring content."

Read more: https://www.news.com.au/world-news/indian-former-po*n-star-sunny-leone-dragged-into-rape-debate/story-fndir2ev-1226629020212#ixzz2ROCVvW1D

😡 THROW BESHARAM OUT OF THE COUNTRY! Can someone please explain how this 🤬 even managed to get a visa? India is exploding with over a billion people and still these losers Leone, Fakhri, Turcotte, and Jackson managed to get a visa 😡

Because its a global world...How can we NRIs live in almost every country of the world...say that India should not give VISAs to foreigners?? Really...Indians should go and explode in every country but people from other countries shouldn't be able to come to India??...wah kya baat hai...

But is there any point in blaming anyone for rapes...Only the rapist is responsible for the rape...no one else...

really?

oouch!!

then what about dalhi gang rape? or the rape of 5yr old? or read yest that 2male raped one cow n then stabbed her n left her bleeding?? what will u call that? better than sunny?🤢

..i am not blaming sunny but if you read the confession of the rapist he was watching po*n and drinking...so po*n shouldn't be encouraged in india..and sunny is doing exactly that...

i am sorry but i didn't get what you were trying to say😕 but for me i disapprove of sunny promoting po*n in india...

but burfi, sunny is not the only po*n star...even b4 she came to India, there were rapes taking place...n neithere were Indians ignorant about po*n world

nonsense getting a visa to live and work in india is hard! I have a friend who has an indian boyfriend that lives in delhi. she wanted to live there with him and get married and start a family and all. She has a degree in business and she even found a job there HOWEVER THEY REFUSED TO GIVE HER A WORK PERMIT! So she returned and indeed her boyfriend is now a NRI living here in the netherlands.

So why do those item chicks/models get work permits while people with actual master degree's are sent back home?

i know that and i am not saying she is the only reason...