A female Indian lawmaker is in jail for 14 days after she essentially tried to defend rape victims in her country.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was sent to Moradabad jail today for insulting Chief Minister Mayawati, another woman. Her sentence comes just a day after her house was set on fire, allegedly by members of the state’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who showed up with iron rods and gas cans. Joshi denied having said anything offensive.

"It was at a meeting in Moradabad that I had simply sought to draw the people’s attention to the fact that Mayawati’s dole of Rs.25,000 to every Dalit [low caste] rape victim was quite ironical as the state police chief was spending lakhs on the helicopter ride that he undertakes to hand over that paltry amount to the victim," Joshi told reporters. "My intention was to remind Mayawati that being a woman she should realize that a paltry monetary compensation cannot make up for what a woman loses on account of rape."

Joshi also said Mayawati should be raped so she can comprehend the plight of crime victims in her state. "Women who are raped should throw the money at Mayawati’s face and say to her, ‘You too should be raped and I will give you ten million rupees’," she said.

Joshi could face ten years in prison for this remark, and others. It’s illegal in India to make comments considered derogatory toward lower castes. She apologized if her remarks were "misconstrued and misinterpreted," and added, "I am myself a woman and I should not have spoken these words. I really apologize."

The Uttar Pradesh unit of India’s Congress will launch a state-wide protest beginning Friday against Joshi’s arrest and the arson.

Elsewhere in India, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, a ruckus is being raised over brides reportedly being forced to take pregnancy and virginity tests via manual examination before they are married en masse during state ceremonies. Women’s rights groups are outraged, since many of the women felt humiliated and ashamed by the exams. Some reported that if the women refused, the government wouldn’t give them their wedding money.

"Such a shameful act where girls had to reportedly undergo tests to prove their chastity to avail the government’s financial aid were sinful and could not be tolerated in a sane society," said Girija Vyas, head of the Indian National Commission for Women.