Suzette Jordan, Kolkata face of hope for rape survivors, dies of encephalitis

Indeed, Suzette’s was the story of a survivor. Born into an Anglo-Indian family of educationists — her grandmother was the headmistress of a reputed missionary school, her uncles and aunts are teachers in some of Kolkata’s best-known schools — Jordan never had it easy. She refused to study after high school, getting married instead. The marriage was over in a few years. She then ran a call centre for a few years but that went bust.

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When we first met her for an interview in July 2013, Suzette had already come out as the Park Street rape survivor in a rally to condemn the infamous Kamduni rape case involving a college student. She had given a number of interviews to TV channels and newspapers. Her body language was confident, even gregarious. It was evident that Suzette refused to wear the cloak of victimhood.

“For almost a year, I chose anonymity. I felt that it would be my security. But then I realised that hiding is not the solution. People who can harm me the most, the perpetrators and their families, know my identity,” she said.

By then, Suzette had been gangraped, violated, mocked and slandered. She had also been denied a number of jobs. Suzette was angry, bitter even, but not even close to giving up. “I don’t care if they question my morality. I know I haven’t done anything wrong. Just because I am a mother of two, don’t I have the right to have any fun?” she had asked.

It was this simple wish that took Suzette to a nightclub at a five-star hotel in Park Street in February 2012. She was supposed to meet a friend in their local Anglo-Indian club. “He is one of my closest friends. He is generally never late, but that night he was. So I left the place and went to Park Street. It turned out to be the worst mistake of my life,” she said.

In the popular nightclub, she was offered a lift by one of the accused. But when she got in the car, she realised there were others in the car too. She was gangraped at gunpoint by the accused and his friends in the moving vehicle, and then thrown out.

Even as she led us into her tiny one-bedroom apartment in the southern fringes of the city, she talked about her constant fear for her two adolescent daughters. “I don’t think they are safe here. I feel they are vulnerable to any kind of assault,” she said.

A year ago, she called to inform us about a mysterious car parked outside her home. “I know you will say I am being paranoid, but I feel I am being stalked. I have asked for police protection,” she said.

Yet, Suzette became a face of something braver than bigger than the Park Street rape case. She became the face of hope in a country where the morality of the rape survivors is questioned. She organised rallies, attended news shows and took on the mantle of a counsellor for many victims of sexual and physical assault.

“Even today many women and even men message me on Facebook and call me up to share their stories. There are many who haven’t even acknowledged the fact that they have been raped. It’s painful to heard about their ordeal but it’s also a cathartic experience,” she had said.

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