Okay, I try to be open to the idea that Islam is not necessarily more oppressive of women than other religions (in other words, extremely, infuriatingly oppressive of women), but this is today's version of This Absolutely Takes the Fucking Cake.
The story is that a woman in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, was raped. Unfortunately for her, she reported it to the police, so as a consequence she was prosecuted and sentenced to prison for eighteen months.
Bad enough, right? Like unimaginably bad. But it gets worse.
She doesn't have to go to prison for eighteen months. She's been released, her passport's been returned, and she gets to go home.
How is this worse? Because she gets to do all these things because she has been granted a pardon! A pardon for the crime of being raped!
Yes, that's right. A woman is raped, is discouraged from reporting it to the police, is eventually taken into custody and sentenced to prison, and the people who run the place think they can make it all better by granting her a pardon.
You commonly hear people say “There are no words,” and in this case I pretty much have to agree.
All those tourists we see in the news clips,frolicking in the sun and shopping ’til they drop?
If they would just fold-up their wallets and take the first plane outta there, I guarantee that would “encourage” UAE officials to join the 20th century (never mind the 21st) with regard to basic human rights for women.
It is outrageous that people patronize a place like that.
…our ‘fundamentalists’ of the Christian Republican Right called all the shots.
Jack, it’s all right to nail the Muslim world on its injustice to women, most of which is a ‘religion’ to them. They shot that 15 tear-old girl in Pakistan; they’ve been treating women like ‘property’ forever. They are EVIL RIGHT-WING FUNDAMENTALIST ASSHOLES. They and the Westboro Baptist Church people would get along just swell.
Rape in the Muslim world sort of ‘doesn’t exist’ because Good Muslim Women cannot be raped if they ‘cover-up’ and toe the line.
‘Corrective’ rape has been used against gay women in both the Muslim and non-Muslim (South Africa, etc.) world.
And right here at home, we use prison sentences to control women, especially women of color. You’ve probably been following the story of Marissa Alexander, the Florida BLACK woman who got a 20 year sentence from a Florida court for using a gun to fire ‘warning shots’ at her husband when he threatened her with physical abuse. Although the husband had a past record of abuse, and Marissa claimed the STY defense, well, tough lady, you ain’t no George Zimmerman.
HILLARY IN 2016! Unless there’s a younger, tougher woman out there.
The ‘alleged’ rapist (a colleague the the woman) was PARDONED too.
These assaults are happening all over the world in many cultures hosting various religions.
Here’s one from the USA.
It’s not about Islam, or fundamentalist Christianity, or Hinduism, or Sikhism, or Shinto, or any particular nationality or religion.
Men should be out there making a culture where it is totally uncool for other men to perpetrate such crimes.
Jack, I know you do exactly that whenever possible. But rape culture really is everywhere, although perhaps hardest to confront in our own neighborhood.
NanuqFC
… rape is a form of mass terrorism, for the victims of rape are chosen indiscriminately, but the propagandists for male supremacy broadcast that it is women who cause rape by being unchaste or in the wrong place at the wrong time – in essence by behaving as though they were free … ~ Susan Griffin: “Rape, the All-American Crime” 1975