I happened to read this in a newspaper but found a link here, although it is somewhat whitewashed.
cliffs:
23 year old unmarried woman accepts a lift in a car
man takes her to his friend’s house on other side of town, man plus 4 friends rape her (newspaper report said friends raped her, linked story says they “assaulted her all night long”).
woman falls pregnant, tries to have abortion, apparently doesn’t
woman “confesses” story to court, judge sentences her to 100 lashes and a year in prison for adultery. Lashes to be administered after birth of baby.
I don’t have anything to say really, other than that this makes me feel ill. And that searching for this story turned out harder than I would’ve thought, because it’s not really an unusual one. I thought it was 2009. What the fuck is going on?
I’m sure she KNOWS she is a human being and what has happened to her is unjust, tragic and hideous but Kambucta is right. People know where they live and what laws/rights that they have in that country.
Are people in Zimbabwee human beings? Do they deserve to be beaten for their political views? Obviously not! But many many Zimbabweens will not speak about the horror around them because that is the situation/country they live in. Far far from ideal, just reality.
This case is so sad. Her assailants need to be hung from their balls BIG TIME but whether we like it or not she is subject to the law of the land she lives in. At 23 years of age she should have been some what familar with not only the personal risk she was putting herself at BUT also the legal risk.
That said any country that runs on penalties based on some dusty old book (any version) needs to think again (death penalty in any form in any country is too dusty-old-book for me).
The only hope people in countries like this have is the rest of the world is watching and the hope that one day they too will have more rights.
You can’t judge other cultures! They’re all unique and beautiful and equal in their own way! Better, even! Better than western culture, which is decadent and stupid and evil.
Anyone who would assign any blame whatsoever to this woman has a supremely fucked-up perspective, IMO. Evil laws hold no weight, none, except the practical ones which people like this poor woman can’t always avoid; it’s our duty to assess them thusly.
“She should have known” is not made less stupid or reprehensible if it’s followed by a weaselly “that said, those laws are kind of dusty and overbearing.” Have the courage of your convictions! No weaselly qualifiers! She’s a slut according to her society. A criminal deserving sanction, imprisonment and a savage beating. Hell, read the cite–she actually confessed to being assaulted by multiple men! The judge’s hands were tied.
We don’t have to like it, but if she didn’t want to become an evil, criminal slut, well, it’s on her. Fuck her, she should have known better than to accept a ride. I think they should lash the baby too, for good measure.
“I should lock my car doors to give a minimum of protection.” I don’t lock my car doors, and my CDs get stolen. Am I to blame? No. Should I be punished? No.
It is remarkable to me how the plight of women in some countries gets so little attention. If you you replace all the women of Saudi Arabia with black people subject to the same conditions, the world would have long since taken significant actions to make change.
You never hear people saying that Emett Till should have known better than to have whistled at a white woman. Well, I did read in Brownmiller’s Against Our Will saying how back then that was a form of sexual harassment, but I digress.
From what I’ve read a long time ago (sorry, no cite), women are punished for being raped in strict Islamic cultures because they’re making themselves attractive to men and men can’t be held responsible for what they do when attracted to a woman.
Feminists have been campaigning against Saudi oppression for decades. No one important gives a flying fuck because they have us over an oil barrel. We also know that all democracy would bring is a bunch of lunatics to power who would make the plight of women even worse.
The very best thing we could do is become energy independent.
How stupid is the idea of punishing this woman? How fucking retarded are the men in that country? Is this a majority thing in this country and related countries? How insecure do the men have to be? Would love to knock the lights out of any asshole who harbors these opinions of women in their country. You should treat your moms and sisters with respect, and encourage them to be whatever they want to be. But no, they get raped by some fuckwits, and you punish her instead. Fuck that, and fuck the society that accepts that attitude. If 99% of the men over there, heck, 99% of men everywhere feel that a woman is less than he, I wish for death upon them by horse rape.
Our country and culture has had massive problems, no doubt. But for a young country, we’ve outpaced this kind of stupidity extremely fast. And we’re the evils ones! What a joke.
So what is the solution? Seriously, do we forcibly end all of these corrupt backwards nations? Do we ensure that Sharia Law is stomped out? We than will need to ensure that the schools stop teaching the old ways. I guess we never should have pressured the UK and others to release the Middle-Eastern States.
It sucks but there does not appear to be a peaceful solution. Iran was free of all this crap under our authoritarian friend the Shah. I guess instead of accepting condemnation for supporting him we should have supported him far more. Except for one huge problem, the people of Iran seem to actually prefer their theocracy. Saudi is our ally, it is a sad situation as their method of government and laws are reprehensible to us.
It is easy to condemn but few have the stomach for the solution, as the solution would end up starting WW III. They are not going to change in the meantime and they appear to be growing in power.
