There was uproar at the weekend when Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said that a list given to tourists at airports advised them not to wear skirts or dresses in India or venture out alone at night in small towns

　　上周末印度发生了一些骚乱，起原因是印度文化部部长夏尔马在机场发放的旅游手册上给出了一些建议，要求游客在印度不要穿着裙子或晚礼服，也不要晚上在小城镇里独自外出。

　　Sadly， he is not the first - and he certainly won’t be the last - to deliver such advice to women on how to keep themselves safe and avoid rape。

　　可悲的是，他不是第一个这么建议妇女保护自己、避免被强奸的人，肯定也不会是最后一个。

　　Time and again， ministers， politicians and other influential community leaders have been telling women and girls not to wear jeans， short skirts， dresses or shorts。 Women have also been told not to go out after dark， date， be friends with boys， or even use mobile phones。

　　一次又一次，印度政府部门部长、政客、及其他颇有影响的组织领导人都一直在告诫妇女们不要穿着牛仔裤、短裙、裙子和短裤。妇女们也被告诫不要在天黑以后出门，不要和男人们约会、交朋友，甚至不要使用手机。

　　Since the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in December 2012 in Delhi， there is much more scrutiny within India - and globally - of what influential people and opinion makers say about violence against women。

　　自从2012年12月德里一名23岁大学生在公交车上惨遭轮奸杀害以来，在印度和整个世界都有更多的目光来监督有影响力人物和舆论家，看看他们在针对女性的暴力犯罪案件上到底是何态度。

　　The justification offered by many in India’s largely paternalistic society is that these remarks are well meaning and actually meant to protect women。

　　在印度这个高度家长式的社会中，许多人都为这些荒唐的言论辩护，认为这些言论都是善意的，其目的是为了保护妇女。

　　But women activists and commentators disagree - they say that there’s no correlation between short skirts and rape。

　　但是女性活动家和评论家们则持有不同意见--他们认为短裙和强奸案之间没有相关性。

　　“It’s very very important that these politicians stop telling women what sort of clothes to wear or what not to wear，” Swati Maliwal， chief of Delhi Commission for Women， told the BBC。

　　“德里妇女委员会”领头人斯瓦特告诉BBC说道：“应该让这些政客们不再对妇女们指手画脚，不再告诉妇女们应该穿什么、不该穿什么，这非常非常重要。”

　　“It’s time they stop trivialising issues like rape and sexual harassment and do something constructive to address these serious problems。”

　　“他们应该停止轻视像强奸和性骚扰这样的事，应该采取一些有建设性的措施来解决这些严重的问题。”

（编辑：何莹莹）