So Angry. 15 Year Old Rape Victim Punished in The Maldives

Trouble in Paradise

A View By Daphne and Dorothy

I was reading the newspaper yesterday and there was a tiny little article dedicated to something that I think needs a lot more attention. The case of rape in the Maldives of a fifteen year old girl by her own step father, where she under the national law, which has elements of Sharia law, is being sentenced to 100 lashes for pre-marital sex.  The claims that she has admitted to having pre-marital consensual sex with a man beside her step-father, don't seem to stand up at all, as he remains undiscovered, identity-free and really it would not be enough evidence to convict someone of anything in any court of law. Basically it appears the girl is being punished for being a victim of sexual abuse. I also think that it is damaging that Sharia Law is being used to support this disgusting abuse. Sharia Law is  connected with the Islamic faith, and some see it as the Islamic justice system of course most (sane) people will completely disagree with the way this girl has been treated, and I think as a result this could cause an amount of animosity towards other Muslims, who may be tarred with the same brush, so to speak.

To me this is like putting someone in prison because it rained yesterday or someone halfway across the world got diagnosed with cancer. IT WAS NOT HER FAULT. Rape is rape. She had no choice in the matter, how this could happen on this wonderful, mystical planet we inhabit is beyond me. I thought that society had evolved one tiny iota beyond this, beyond drowning women in the duck pond because she had a cat and was therefore a witch. I hate the fact that there seems to be 'levels of rape', like certain types are worse than others. Like Daphne said, RAPE IS RAPE, the level of violence used may cause more scars (physically) but it doesn't lessen the situation. It's like the whole  'legitimate rape' scenario in America, where some dumb-ass American politician suggested that because the victim became impregnated the rape wasn't legitimate  This was based on every weak, and unjustified theory that on occasion when violated the female body rejected the pregnancy, these claims are founded on absolutely nothing worth any form of consideration. Ever.

Amnesty international have done their bit to try and change the verdict, but the fact of the matter is this poor girl has gone through something incredibly traumatic, not to mention giving birth to a child fathered by her step father at such a young age, which was then killed. All this being known to her own mother, who allowed it to occur. To put her through anything more seems inhumane on so many levels. She has had so much taken from her already how they can further degrade this girl is really beyond comprehension. Yet I don't feel like there is enough outrage. Where is the outcry? I am outraged, I want to fly to the Maldives and smuggle her into my own home. I want to start a campaign to get holiday makers boycotting the Maldives until something is done to help this poor girl, CANCEL YOUR HOLIDAY TO THE MALDIVES PEOPLE. Hear Hear.

Until the international community stands up and recognizes that rape is one of the most serious crimes someone can commit, it is a violation of everything intimate and personal. Women world over are subject to this atrocious and heinous act, many unreported. The recent documentary about the hidden rape scandals in the U.S army is just one representation of how nothing has really changed, these men are getting medals. We are rewarding rapists.

Sometimes, well most of the time I feel completely powerless, and it depresses me that I get so worked up about something like this, and I want to change the world and I can't, because I know that no one will listen to my voice. I feel ashamed for getting excited about trivial things such as leather look nail varnish when we see the pillaging of peoples souls happen all around us. And I don't just mean this particular rape, but all the acts of violence, such as the epidemic of rape hitting Syria, for more go to this great article:

War rape: The forgotten pandemic sweeping Syria

This seems to be ignored by the media, instead there are currently are 1600 more articles on the Kardashians than Syria on the Daily Mail website. Vomit. 

For more on the Maldives case
http://minivannews.com/society/raped-victims-punished-failed-by-law-in-the-maldives-53760

Really Great Things: One Billion Rising

On Febuary the 14th, instead of feeling sorry for yourself, like I most probably will be, how about getting involved with this, there are 'Risings' going on all over the world, and both men and women are welcome, although it tackles issues dealt with by women:

ABOUT ONE BILLION RISING

ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.

ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY

ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION

On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 14 February 2013, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.

What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.

ONE BILLION RISING IS:

A global strike
An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers
A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given
A new time and a new way of being

READ: EVE’S LATEST HUFFPOST PIECE: “DEAR MR. AKIN, I WANT YOU TO IMAGINE…”

August 20, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/todd-akin-rape_b_1812930.html

Dear Todd Akin,

I am writing to you tonight about rape. It is 2 AM and I am unable to sleep here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in Bukavu at the City of Joy to serve and support and work with hundreds, thousands of women who have been raped and violated and tortured from this ceaseless war for minerals fought on their bodies.

I am in Congo but I could be writing this from anywhere in the United States, South Africa, Britain, Egypt, India, Philippines, most college campuses in America. I could be writing from any city or town or village where over half a billion women on the planet are raped in their lifetime.

Mr. Akin, your words have kept me awake.

As a rape survivor, I am reeling from your recent statement where you said you misspoke when you said that women do not get pregnant from legitimate rape, and that you were speaking "off the cuff."

Clarification. You didn't make some glib throwaway remark. You made a very specific ignorant statement clearly indicating you have no awareness of what it means to be raped. And not a casual statement, but one made with the intention of legislating the experience of women who have been raped. Perhaps more terrifying it was a window into the psyche of the GOP.

You used the expression "legitimate" rape as if to imply there were such a thing as "illegitimate" rape. Let me try to explain to you what that does to the minds, hearts and souls of the millions of women on this planet who experience rape. It is a form of re-rape. The underlying assumption of your statement is that women and their experiences are not to be trusted. That their understanding of rape must be qualified by some higher, wiser authority. It delegitimizes and undermines and belittles the horror, invasion, desecration they experienced. It makes them feel as alone and powerless as they did at the moment of rape.

When you, Paul Ryan and 225 of your fellow co-sponsors play with words around rape suggesting only "forcible" rape be treated seriously as if all rapes weren't forcible, it brings back a flood of memories of the way the rapists played with us in the act of being raped -- intimidating us, threatening us,muting us. Your playing with words like "forcible" and "legitimate" is playing with our souls which have been shattered by unwanted penises shoving into us, ripping our flesh, our vaginas, our consciousness, our confidence, our pride, our futures.

Now you want to say that you misspoke when you said that a legitimate rape couldn't get us pregnant. Did you honestly believe that rape sperm is different than love sperm, that some mysterious religious process occurs and rape sperm self-destructs due to its evilcontent? Or, were you implying that women and their bodies are somehow responsible for rejecting legitimate rape sperm, once again putting the onus on us? It would seem you were saying that getting pregnant after a rape would indicate it was not a "legitimate" rape.

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes and imagine that you are on your bed or up against a wall or locked in a small suffocating space. Imagine being tied up there and imagine some aggressive, indifferent, insane stranger friend or relative ripping off your clothes and entering your body -- the most personal, sacredprivate part of your body -- and violently, hatefully forcing themself into you so that you are ripped apart. Then imagine that stranger's sperm shooting into you and filling you and you can't get it out. It is growing something in you. Imagine you have no idea what that life will even consist of, spiritually made in hate, not knowing the mental or health background of the rapist.

Then imagine a person comes along, a person who has never had that experience of rape, and that person tells you, you have no choice but to keep that product of rape growing in you against your will and when it is born it has the face of your rapist, the face of the person who has essentially destroyed your being and you will have to look at the face every day of your life and you will be judged harshly if you cannot love that face.

I don't know if you can imagine any of this (leadership actually requires this kind of compassion), but if you are willing to go to the depth of this darkness, you will quickly understand there is NO ONE WHO CAN MAKE THAT CHOICE to have or not have the baby, but the person carrying that baby herself.

I have spent much time with mothers who have given birth to children who are the product of rape. I have watched how tortured they are wrestling with their hate and anger, trying not to project that onto their child.

I am asking you and the GOP to get out of my body, out of my vagina, my womb, to get out of all of our bodies. These are not your decisions to make. These are not your words to define.

Why don't you spend your time ending rape rather than redefining it? Spend your energy going after those perpetrators who so easily destroy women rather than parsing out manipulative language that minimizes their destruction.

And by the way you've just given millions of women a very good reason to make sure you never get elected again, and an insanely good reason to rise.

#ReasonToRise

Eve Ensler
Bukavu, Congo

Follow Eve Ensler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/eveensler

“IF YOU WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE THAT NIGHT, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU.”

September 11, 2012

That's what Arizona trial Judge Jacqueline Hatch told a woman who had been sexually assaulted in an Arizona bar. 

Police officer Robb Gary Evans was convicted of sexual abuse. The felony carries a two and half year maximum prison sentence but Judge Hatch instead reduced the sentence to probation and 100 hours of community service before transferring responsibility to the victim of the crime.

Another reason to RISE - for a justice system that works to protect victims and not criminals.

To find out more go to: http://onebillionrising.org/