( CNN ) '' India 's Daughter , '' the BBC Four documentary about the infamous 2012 gang rape in Delhi , premiered in the U.S. last week . If you have n't seen it , you have likely heard selections from the film 's interview with Mukesh Singh , who is on death row for the crime . `` A decent girl wo n't roam around at nine o'clock at night . A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy , '' he says . `` When being raped , she should n't fight back . She should just be silent . '' Certain other men interviewed for the documentary say such things as , `` In our culture , there is no place for a woman '' and that if a daughter or sister `` engaged in pre-marital activities ... I would put petrol on her and set her alight . '' Note : Those men are not rapist-murderers . They are their lawyers . Many ( I 'd like to think most ) of us cringed at these comments and their garishly clear misogyny . But these words were not just a window into one uniquely deranged soul . Let 's be clear : Singh is just reading -- perhaps more loudly and cruelly than others , but still -- from a cultural script we all share . Yes , we all . Perhaps your first thought when you heard or read those words was , `` Violence against women is really bad ... in India . '' And in many ways , of course , it is . Reports this weekend of a robbery at a Christian school in eastern India , in which , officials said , one of the assailants allegedly raped a 70-year-old nun , add to the narrative . But as unfathomable as this brutality is , we must resist the temptation to presume some sort of American violence-against-women exceptionalism , making others the bad guys while crowing about `` how far women have come '' in the United States . Or to say , `` Sure , we still have issues , but not like that . '' I know that temptation is there . Our global human rights organization , based in the U.S. and India , works to inspire individuals and institutions to drive the culture change needed to make violence against women unacceptable . When I describe our work -- including our campaigns and issues in both countries and beyond -- the questions people ask often reveal their at least initial assumption : that we here in the U.S. are working solely to stop violence against women in India . Yet we do have issues in the U.S. , issues `` like that . '' We have mass murderer Elliot Rodger , who before he killed six people and injured 14 others in Isla Vista California last year , wrote his own 137-page version of that same misogynist script . We know from `` The Hunting Ground , '' documentarian Kirby Dick 's film about sexual assault on college campuses -- also now in theaters -- that multitudes of women , and many men , have had violated their right to an education free from violence . We know that women are leaving the tech industry , Wall Street , and Internet feminism in droves due to untenable discrimination and violence . We know that women ( and people of all genders ) are assaulted by strangers and intimates every day . And what of the response ? As Zak Cheney-Rice noted , discussing `` India 's Daughter '' in Mic.com , `` from India to the U.S. , citizens and officials alike display a troubling inclination to sympathize with rapists and vilify their victims . '' A United Nations report released last week , marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark women 's rights conference in Beijing , confirms that ( as The New York Times put it ) `` violence against women -- including rape , murder and sexual harassment -- remains stubbornly high in countries rich and poor , at war and at peace . '' Everywhere . We ca n't relegate such violence to `` the other , '' to the `` not here , not us , not me . '' To do so is not only incorrect , it is damaging . Yes , we must be concerned for the human rights of all the world 's citizens . Yes , violence against women varies in form and degree . But to imagine that violence against women happens only , or mostly , `` somewhere else , '' is exactly what keeps the culture of violence alive at home . Concern for others does not absolve us of responsibility for ourselves . Likewise , the extreme actions or words of a few marquee misogynists , wherever they live , do not absolve us . We must all ask ourselves : To what degree do we repeat those scripts , or stay silent when we hear them from others ? Our actions , and inactions , fuel the culture from which both extreme and everyday violence and discrimination emerge . We can not furrow our brows about India , or any of those `` others '' -- abusive men in fraternities , for example -- and be done . Indeed , `` India 's Daughter '' premiered in the U.S. with the intent of drawing attention to gender inequality and sexual violence worldwide . So let 's bring about the day when the next buzzworthy documentary is about the women and men and allies of all genders who have stepped up , together , to say no more : not in my home , not in my school , not in my country , not anywhere .
Kirby Dick 's : We react in horror at comments in BBC doc where India rapist says women err in fighting back . But she says Americans should look inward at their own tolerance for violence against women , demonstrated in sobering assault stats . Schreiner : We dodge accountability for misogyny and sexual abuse in our own culture by focusing on countries that are `` the other ''