A German university professor’s rejection email to an Indian student’s application for internship citing the “rape problem in India” as reason went viral on Sunday, sparking an online furore. By Monday afternoon, German ambassador to India Michael Steiner responded to the fast-brewing controversy, issuing a strongly worded letter to the professor, condemning her action. A subsequent apology from the Leipzig-based biochemistry professor, Dr Annette G. Beck-Sickinger, was then posted on the German embassy’s website.
The professor’s emails were posted anonymously as screenshots on Sunday on the social website Quora, in a post titled “What should an Indian male student do if he is denied an internship opportunity on the basis of India being projected as an unsafe country for women?”
The email as featured here read: “Dear Sir, Unfortunately I don’t accept any Indian male students for internships.
The note posted on the German embassy website india.diplo.de on Monday read: “Ambassador Michael Steiner takes note that the University of Leipzig has just announced publicly that Professor Beck-Sickinger apologizes for her unwarranted remarks.
When TOI contacted the professor, she wrote back saying that she only rejected the candidate as her lab was full. “I cannot confirm the veracity of the e-mail circulating in the (sic) Internet. I usually select students by the criteria of excellence and the availability of positions in my lab. Currently two male Indian students do their lab course in my lab, and I had 5/30 in the last year winter course (sic). This is by far more than the average in German University (sic). I rejected the student as the lab is full in summer. He was angry about this,” wrote Dr Beck-Sickinger, who works at the Institute of Biochemistry at the university.
She did not respond to TOI’s follow-up email posing a specific query on the point of other European female associations joining in the boycott as mentioned in the email posted on Quora.
Interestingly, the professor’s response to some other outlets and individuals was differently worded, saying that the email was “taken out of context.” On Twitter, a user who goes by the handle @sandygrains shared Beck-Sickinger’s response to her, which read: “Unfortunately this mail was a misunderstanding. Of course I have nothing against male Indians and I have accepted several Indian students in the past. However my lab is full and I currently cannot take any student. This led to an unpleasant discussion with one of the Indian student (sic). I apologise if this caused any misunderstanding, but the e-mail was taken out of the context.”
By Monday afternoon, German ambassador shared the letter he had written to the professor from his Twitter handle @Amb_MSteiner. “It has been brought to my attention that you denied an internship to a male Indian student, giving ‘the rape problem in India’ as a reason. Let me make it clear at the outset that I strongly object to this,” says the letter, which then goes on to talk about the public debate on violence against women in India that started after the Dec 2012 gang rape, and a women’s day celebration held at the German embassy with several male and female activists in attendance.
“Your oversimplifying and discriminating generalization is an offense to these women and men ardently committed to furthering women empowerment in India; and it is an offense to millions of law-abiding, tolerant, open-minded and hard-working Indians. Let’s be clear: India is not a country of rapists,” the letter says.
