A woman who resists rape is a heroine of sorts. It can be risky, but the resistance makes it easier to catch the rapist(s) and bring them to justice. That makes other women safer. (Men too, perhaps; what else will a rapist do?)

A woman who does not resist is not a coward. There is a time and place for everything, and the main thing is to get out of it alive. In some situations, resistance would be suicidal, and suicide is the absolute last thing we want as women’s response to rape.

I will not detail what was done to Pandey, but will only note that she was in a situation where getting out of it alive had become pretty much impossible. May as well fight. In the Sci-Fi world of Gordon Dickson, Shai Dorsai.