"Please, please, please let me reach safely" - Exploring the fear of sexual violence in Delhi

Abstract: Since the gang rape of a physiotherapist student in Delhi 2012 the media reporting on sexual violence has increased by 30 percent. Several studies have looked at how media report on sexual violence in India, but very few have looked at the increased news reporting from a critical point of view. This thesis draws upon interview narratives collected in Delhi in February and March 2016 and looks at how the increased reporting on sexual violence influence young female students ́ fear of sexual violence in Delhi and how this in turn produce and reproduce a discourse of women as vulnerable and in need of protection. In turn, this results in women restricting their mobility which is to be seen as a way of controlling women. The narratives were analyzed through a thematic narrative analysis which was centered around masculinities, femininities and bodily experiences expressed in relation to fear of sexual violence in public space.