In India, the stigma of rape victims sticks to them till their death.

No woman in India dares to come forward and tell the world that she has been raped.

But Ms Suzette Jordan, a 38-year-old single mother of two girls, is an exception. Ms Jordan was gang raped by five men in Kolkata in February last year. She had left a well-known nightclub in Park Street with a man she had befriended. He offered her a lift home, but inside the car, three men were waiting. All four took turns to rape her.

A fifth man was picked up on the way and took part in the assault. Early the next morning, she was thrown out of the car.

Sixteen months after she was attacked, Ms Jordan told the BBC she was tired of living a life where she could not talk openly about what happened.

"I am tired of hiding my real identity. I am tired of this society's rules and regulations. I am tired of being made to feel ashamed. I am tired of feeling scared because I have been raped. Enough is enough!" she said.

Hence, her decision last week to tell the world. She is one of the 68 "anonymous" women who reported being raped in Kolkata last year, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.

India's laws prohibit the disclosure of the identity of a rape victim and those guilty of doing so can be sent to prison for up to two years and fined.

Ms Jordan - who began working on a helpline for victims of sexual and domestic violence, called Survivors for Victims of Social Injustice, in April - has two daughters, aged 14 and 17. She also talked about how her life changed after the incident and the stigma faced by a rape victim.

She said: "After the incident, I had to move out from my residence and move elsewhere in the city.

Neighbours made it difficult for me to live in that area. I was made to feel like I was the one responsible for the assault. Because I had come out of the nightclub (with a man), I was made to feel that I invited rape."

Nervous wreck

She said that she became a nervous wreck and had it not been for her daughters, she would have committed suicide. Her decision to reveal her identity was prompted by what she had heard while working for the helpline.

She told the BBC: "I felt I was healing, sharing the pain (of other victims). Then I kept hearing about so many rape stories and felt suffocated by the complete silence of the victims, their families and society." But she admitted that she is still scared to go out in the dark or visit a nightclub again.

Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl who was gang raped by four teens in Mumbai early this month died on Tuesday, reported the Mumbai Mirror.

The rape occurred on June 16, but the parents and the police learnt about her ordeal last week.

The teens allegedly involved in the case have been detained. The boys, aged between 13 and 17, had threatened the victim of dire consequences if she told anyone about the rape, the police said.

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