As if being sexually abused weren’t traumatic enough, an Indian rape survivor from the state of Gujarat is being asked to endure a “purity test” involving her balancing an 88-pound rock on her head before she will be permitted to once again reside with her husband, reports VICE News.

Designed for women whose purity is in question or whose virtue has been purportedly tainted by sexual assault, the test is known as “agnipariksha” — “test of fire” — and is a cultural tradition in many remote rural parts of the country.

The bizarre and physically demanding ordeal will continue until onlookers receive some sort of spiritual intimation that the woman passed. It remains unclear how long that could take.

The ritual finds its roots in the Hindu epic poem Ramayana. After Princess Sita is captured by a rival suitor, her husband Rama rescues her, despite his suspicion that she is no longer chaste. Sita sits in a sacrificial fire to prove that she is, only to be protected from the blaze by the lord Agni.

Wishing to remain anonymous when speaking to press, the woman set to undergo agniparisksha lives in a perpetual state of fear and is scared to leave home because her attacker has made threats to kill her once he’s released from jail, she told India Today.

She was allegedly refused an abortion and subsequently coerced into surrendering her baby to the government.

This incident follows the Gujarat High Court reversing its initial decision to deny a 14-year-old rape survivor an abortion. Both situations shed light on just how deep-rooted backward views about women are in some portions of Indian society.

“India has global aspirations and wants to project itself prominently on the world stage, but back home it continues to face challenges that have dogged it for years, including patriarchal mentalities that have damaging consequences for women,” Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told VICE.

Though rape culture has run rampant within India for quite some time, an atrocious 2012 gang rape, which resulted in the death of a woman, ignited a global conversation about rape in India and inspired the country’s lawmakers to establish fast-track courts and stricter sexual assault laws. The government also has been handing out harsher punishments to repeat offenders, enumerated acid attacks and human trafficking as offenses and criminalized stalking.

Despite a grassroots push to educate women and children about sexual abuse, and a women’s police department having been created to make women more comfortable reporting and discussing rape, sexual assault remains an insidious danger in many parts of the country.

Following the gang rape in 2012, the Indian government established a $320 million fund to promote both the safety and dignity of women, but it has not yet been disclosed precisely how the money will be spent.

More than 300 reports of rape were registered by Delhi police in just the first two months of 2015. At this rate, India will be on track to have more than double the number of rapes this year as in 2014. The statistic may also suggest a greater willingness on the part of women to report rape to authorities.

India may be claiming to make sweeping changes to curb incidence of sexual assault, but 91 percent of women say they haven’t seen any improvements in safety since 2012, according to a recent Hindustan Times poll. And even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi, previously the chief minister of Gujarat, campaigned on the issue of women’s safety, he hasn’t discussed the topic much since assuming leadership of the country.

When President Barack Obama visited India earlier in 2015, he stressed the empowerment of women.

During his speech, he said, “Every woman should be able to go about her day — to walk the street, or ride the bus — and be safe and be treated with the respect and dignity that she deserves.”

(This article appeared in ryot.org on Aug 9, 2015)