Punishing the Hapless Victim

From Hijabi Madness comes this story:

"They told me to be quiet and not to tell anybody because it would ruin my reputation," Dr. Shazia remembers. One official warned that if she reported the crime [of rape], she could be arrested.

That was a genuine risk. Under Pakistan's hudood laws, a woman who reports that she has been raped is liable to be arrested for adultery or fornication - since she admits to sex outside of marriage - unless she can provide four male eyewitnesses to the rape. . .

"When I treat rape victims, I tell the girls not to go to the police," Dr. Shershah Syed, a prominent gynecologist in Karachi, told me. "Because if she goes to the police, the police will rape her."

[Emphasis mine]

Rape victims are punished in Muslim countries. For example, in Saudi Arabia women who've been raped are punished by lashings. In Iran if a married woman cannot prove that she was indeed raped, then the charge of adultery is levied on her. The punishment for which is death by stoning.

Their is this sick mentality in large parts of the Muslim world: women are largely, some say completely, responsible for their and their family's honor. That honor is violated when they're raped. Hence, they deserve harsh, and sometimes deadly, punishment to cleanse the dishonor.

Comments

[Ann]

Actually, tribesman in Baluchistan - defending this woman - clashed with Pakistani government forces for months, after the government refused to punish the rapist. (See the next post on hijabimadness.) Apparently Nicholas Kristof has the same bias as you do, since he neglected to mention this part of the story.

And I don't know where you get your information, but in Saudi Arabia, rapists are executed.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

"Apparently Nicholas Kristof has the same bias as you do, since he neglected to mention this part of the story."

That's rich. I have a bias for not knowing and not mentioning a part of the story on July 31, 2005 which you posted on August 2, 2005.

Think Ann, think.

"And I don't know where you get your information, but in Saudi Arabia, rapists are executed."

Re-read my post. Where exactly did I specify the punishment of rapists in Saudi Arabia? I only mentioned the punishments of the rape victims NOT rapists. Anyway, whatever the punishment for rapists in Saudi Arabia, my point still stands: women who're raped are flogged in Saudi Arabia.

Read Ann, read.

[Ann]

The bias I mention is the one that shows up clearly in the last paragraph of your post. This story is only useful to you if it confirms your ideas.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

The 'honor' issue isn't an idea. It's reality. Muslim women who refuse the orders of their elders (to marry a cousin or wear an abaya for example) bring shame upon their entire family. Most of the time threats or beatings are enough to force the women into submission.

However, some women are stubborn and some Muslim families decide to have such shameless women killed to cleanse the dishonor. Read the papers in the Middle East, the Asian subcontinent, and Europe. Everyday, an innocent woman is killed. By her own family.

How does the state punish the murderers? In Jordan, they get 2-3 years in jail.

I am not the one who is biased.