Oh, Well That's All Right Then

By AR - A hideous attack on a girl in India leaves her fighting for life.
The police have recovered charred clothes of the girl and a bottle of kerosene from Saleem's shop. "We have recorded the statement of the girl and her relatives who alleged that Saleem tried to rape the girl. However, he probably could not commit the act as the girl fought back. We have booked him under section 354 (molestation) of the IPC," Asharma Chaudhary, circle officer (Adarsh Nagar), said.
But Saleem has a defence for why he might have set the girl on fire:
Investigators say the 55-year-old man, a conservative Muslim, told the police he was enraged at the girl wearing lipstick and being scantily dressed.
The way it's reported it almost seems normal for a conservative Muslim to burn a young girl for wearing lipstick. AAP helpfully reports :
Among conservative Muslim communities, women are required to observe hijab, which means wearing clothing that covers the head and the body.
The SMH left that line out, perhaps understanding that the girl was the victim of this crime.

With his line of defence, the perpetrator hopes to position himself less as a depraved, murderous pervert and more as a martyr and hero defending social standards. Surely such a stance couldn't possibly work? With these sort of headlines to the story, I'd say it already is working: "Girl set ablaze for wearing lipstick" from LiveNews, and slightly less sensationally, "Girl set alight for wearing lipstick" from the Sydney Morning Herald. At the very least "wearing lipstick" should be in quotation marks.

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