The Indian social rebel Phoolan Devi was born on August 10, 1963, in a small village in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Her name means "the flower" in the dialect of her caste. At the age of eleven, she was forcibly married to a man 24 years her senior, who severely abused her, raped her, and later abandoned her. Upon returning to her village, she was considered an outcast, raped by several men, and her family refused to take her back. At barely seventeen, she joined a band of guerrillas and later became their leader. For three years, she led her fight against the caste system, robbing banks and stores and distributing the loot to the so-called "Untouchables" and members of the lowest castes. Her story is that of a woman who stood up against the oppressive atmosphere of sexism in a Third World country.