Professor stirs uproar after India ‘rape problem’ remarks

E-Paper | April 30, 2026

NEW DELHI: A professor in Germany on Monday apologised for refusing an Indian male student an internship because of his country’s “rape problem”, after the German ambassador to India condemned the incident.

Annette Beck-Sickinger, a professor at Leipzig University, expressed regret after her emails refusing the Indian man surfaced on social media, causing a wave of anger.

The incident prompted Germany’s ambassador to India Michael Steiner to write a letter objecting to her “oversimplifying and discriminating generalisation” of Indian men.

Beck-Sickinger wrote in an email on Sunday that she did not “accept any Indian male students for internships” as she heard “a lot about the rape problem in India”.

“I have many female friends in my group, so I think this attitude is something I cannot support,” she wrote to the Indian student, whose identity has not been revealed.

He replied asking for the reasoning behind her “painful generalisations “and “hurtful words”.

In a statement uploaded on the German embassy website, the professor apologised saying: “I have made a mistake. I sincerely apologise to everyone whose feelings I have hurt.

Published in Dawn March 10th , 2015

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Rajat

Mar 10, 2015 09:53am

Why apologise? She is not wrong. When we in India stop girls from meeting and socialising too much with men , why should we expect anything different from outsiders? Hope the government will now wake up and stop this rot from spreading further

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khanm

Mar 10, 2015 10:04am

how silly how can you generalize the entire nation... My dear Indians brothers and sister now you know how we feel when a Pakistani commits a heinous act of terrorism and the whole country is blamed...Crime is crime against humanity regardless of his religion, faith, cast, creed or ANY NATIONALITY...

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Sandeep Singh

Mar 10, 2015 10:07am

America, Germany, Sweden, Britian, France, Norway are top ranked rapist nations..Did they stop men's appointment.?

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Vikramaditya

Mar 10, 2015 10:16am

Lets have a look at some facts with figures: Number of rapes of women per 100,000 of the population of the country: 1) South Africa - 110 2) Australia - 91 3) Swaziland - 75 4) Sweden - 66.5 5) America - 30.2 6) Germany - 9 7) India - 1.7 8) China - 1.6 9) Japan - 1 Source: A 2010 UN Report Need I say more?

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Sunil

Mar 10, 2015 10:18am

Nothing wrong with what the professor said except not everyone is is the same but indian men do have a problem treating women the wrong way and something needs to be done than denying the facts

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Akil Akhtar

Mar 10, 2015 10:28am

India will bully Germany into an apology while ignoring the reality of how the world perceives it.

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Nikesh

Mar 10, 2015 10:35am

crimes happen everywhere in the world. terrorism is often associated with a "PARTICULAR RELIGION". Does that mean that "ALL PEOPLE" of that "particular religion" are terrorists??? definitely NOT... it's really shameful that highly intellectual people have bigoted views and they become judgemental...I thank the German ambassador for his balanced views on this incident

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Nikesh

Mar 10, 2015 10:47am

@Akil Akhtar it's not about bullying and getting an apology...US has highest number of rape crimes does that make all American rapists? everybody knows the reality but you cannot judge a candidate based on social evils prevailing in the society and more so ever you cannot generalise common people just because of the actions of some anti-social elements...

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abid

Mar 10, 2015 10:51am

Professor overdoing it.. Does not rape happened in Germany. Does that meant every German should be denied with job rest of the world?

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Abdul Khan

Mar 10, 2015 11:08am

@abid It's not only about rape, it's about the stigma of Indian women and general response of Indian society as a whole.

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Murtaza

Mar 10, 2015 11:40am

@Akil Akhtar: The World perceives much more positive things than negative about India unlike Pakistan, where it's mostly (rather only) negative! When are we going to open our eyes to that?

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Jay Patel

Mar 10, 2015 11:42am

Nothing is nothing but a publicity hungry professor wanting to get quick attention in international media. Anything against India and its progress can grab the eyeballs of people. So, just chill, there is some real tough messages given by Indian government in background. India refused to buy fighter planes from America and Britain and selected other vendors. Secondly, there is no compromised made by Modi on Nuclear safety and compensation issues as Obama might have expected. Hence, this is nothing but a chilling frustration of America which is shown by their puppet countries like British (BBC). Hence, If we see recent trades of defaming India, gives more indication of India has already emerged as a new decision maker of the world. It has courage to oppose any country for against its Interest. We saw that in WTO agreement, NTBC signature rejection and few other instance where India stood firmly and get its stance accepted by others.

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Jay Patel

Mar 10, 2015 11:45am

Raps in subcontinent including all SAARC nations are much more less than crime against women in western countries. USA is number one in rap cases in the entire world while its population is just 32 carore. On the other side, India has population of 130 carore, 4 times higher than USA but still very few crimes compare to USA.

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Mani

Mar 10, 2015 11:49am

@Akil Akhtar - In India most of the rape cases get reported unlike in Pakistan and other Islamic countries where any female would think twice before reporting such a crime when four male witnesses are not there.

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crew

Mar 10, 2015 11:51am

she is not wrong though

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Rogue

Mar 10, 2015 12:01pm

Shocking generalisation from a highly educated mind! I am not too fond of all things Indian, but this kind of labelling of the whole country is loathsome, to say the least. This is the kind of labelling Pakistanis have dealt with for quite a few years now. No one can appreciate better than us how distressing, disgraceful, and misleading such mindsets can be.

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Jay Patel

Mar 10, 2015 12:05pm

@Vikramaditya Well said you put the real picture to all.

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Jay Patel

Mar 10, 2015 12:06pm

@khanm Is it regret or disappointment of other's impression of Pakistan?

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Rogue

Mar 10, 2015 12:30pm

Shocking generalisation from an educated mind! It is loathsome to label a country this way. No one can appreciate the curse of labelling more than we Pakistanis can. It is distressing, disgraceful, and misleading to lable a whole population a certain way just because you are seeking an easy black and white view of complex issues for yourself. Not very impressive coming from a professor.

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Rajat

Mar 10, 2015 12:32pm

@Vikramaditya these figures are reported rapes, which in India are just the tip of the iceberg. Unreported rapes are way more than these, imagine places like UP and Bihar where Police instead of filing FIR, rapes the victim again in the station.

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indiconda

Mar 10, 2015 12:41pm

this is another fine mess we've got ourselves into. the sooner we realize and tackle the problem the better.

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chiru

Mar 10, 2015 01:01pm

india has 30 states, diff states hav diff cultures.... dont blame entire country, the problem of rapes is because of mainly 2 states of north india consists most uneducated people n full of caste feelings.... remaining states r free states n people in peace.....

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Mau Mau

Mar 10, 2015 01:01pm

She has done the right thing. Shook the backward mindset of South Asian society. Men are weaker sex, rather than the women. They are obsessed, they are dependent, they work much less hours, they are lazy, they give up easily, they are destructive and emotionally unstable. It is women that make homes and society. By denying the Indian man an internship (though she apologised it later on) she has send the right signal to men and women folk alike. It is a wake up call, change your mindset or live in your frog-well, do not venture into modern civilization and values.

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Indian Diplomat

Mar 10, 2015 01:08pm

Wow! It's great! Looks like they will do their best to Insult Us. By making documentry, Columns, Reports about Indian Rapes. Yes Rapes Happens here, so does everywhere the difference only is We protest, we Oppose, we come out on streets against Rapes, we wanna change The situation of our society. And we seem succeeding in our efforts. Sorry for that guy but we still need others to show us our truth. It is good when people criticize you, you must Introspection your self. And Bring the change within your self then the White world will Respect you. They won't miss a chance to make you look down. We as Asians need to Grow our selves not look white but to Regain out historical values. She must been wrong in someone's view but according my point of view she did the best job by denying. Now or later we have change our society, it's better as soon as possible we do that. Thank you For Dawn. Please publish my posts

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Akash

Mar 10, 2015 01:13pm

@Jay Patel : come on guys, it is a shame even debating that we are less rapist nation than other. We have a problem. that became bigger problem after porn became freely available on Internet. India needs to fix rape problem by passing stern laws against the rapists.

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MAH

Mar 10, 2015 01:36pm

how about first addressing the issue of Indian Muslim youth being denied admission in Indian universities 'on fear of being terrorists'? Indians have proven that they are masters of opinion engineering regardless of facts!

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Citizen

Mar 10, 2015 02:19pm

its good that media in India and world over is highlighting rape crime in India . it has resulted in a huge debate across the country i am hopeful that it will result into some thing significant .no harm in accepting our problem . yes there are many developed countries where the number of rapes are even higher than in India but why would one want to compete with them ,

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Citizen

Mar 10, 2015 02:31pm

@khanm how silly how can you generalize the entire nation... My dear Indians brothers and sister now you know how we feel when a Pakistani commits a heinous act of terrorism and the whole country is blamed...Crime is crime against humanity regardless of his religion, faith, cast, creed or ANY NATIONALITY... my friend if terrorism is state sponsored and used as strategic asset than the problem becomes really dangerous more so for the country using .if any one Generalises or commitis a mistake of blaming India for the problem of rape sooner or later he /she comes with an apology accepting their mistake

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Citizen

Mar 10, 2015 02:36pm

@Abdul Khan well she has apologised for what she said may be she was high when she said that same implies for you it seems

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ziavrep labqi

Mar 10, 2015 08:01pm

@Vikramaditya But still the government needs to take prompt action against this increasing menace by making it mandatory for courts to decide rape cases within a specified period. The sentence for this offence should also be reviewed to make the same harsher so that the intending rapist think twice before committing the crime. The law should be swift, unforgiving and harsh for the convict, commensurate with the physical and psychological scar that the victim suffers.

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Aamchi Mumbai

Mar 11, 2015 03:15pm

@Rajat so dear as per your assumption what should be the number. Please educate us with the data you have in hand.

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Zak

Mar 15, 2015 12:57pm

She spoke the truth, why she apologies. Imagine when she hear of the poor 71 year old nun being raped in Kolkata church!

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