I’m one in a billion rising up on V-Day

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, joining together to rise up, sing and dance, is a revolution.

I will rise up, sing, dance and be part of the one billion demanding an end to violence against women because:

I am privileged not to have endured this kind of abuse and violence at home. I cannot begin to imagine what living with an abusive father or brother or relative must be like;

I started out my career in journalism in the 1970s and it took a lot of battles to be accepted as a professional, in many cases it still is so many years since; and

Just last week, a former co-worker verbally abused me.

Violence, abuse and rape against girls and women are a sign of ignorance, cowardice and weakness and should no longer be tolerated.

Hopefully, strength in numbers, we will get the message across to abusers, assaulters and rapists that their actions will no longer be tolerated and their cowardly and barbaric acts will diminish and become a shameful part of our history.

So this Valentine’s Day is not only about buying chocolates and roses but enlisting as many people – women, girls, men and boys -- as we know to walk out, dance, rise up and demand an end to violence against women.

This day’s events are organized by V-Day on its 15th anniversary.

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

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. It is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

Eve Ensler, the playwright, performer, feminist, activist and artist best known for her play The Vagina Monologues, created V-Day in 1998.

In their own words:

• V-Day is an organized response against violence toward women.
• V-Day is a vision: We see a world where women live safely and freely.
• V-Day is a demand: Rape, incest, battery, genital mutilation and sexual slavery must end now.
• V-Day is a spirit: We believe women should spend their lives creating and thriving rather than surviving or recovering from terrible atrocities.
• V-Day is a catalyst: By raising money and consciousness, it will unify and strengthen existing anti-violence efforts. Triggering far-reaching awareness, it will lay the groundwork for new educational, protective, and legislative endeavors throughout the world.
• V-Day is a process: We will work as long as it takes. We will not stop until the violence stops.
• V-Day is a day. We proclaim Valentine's Day as V-Day, to celebrate women and end the violence.
• V-Day is a fierce, wild, unstoppable movement and community.

In Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, V-Day commits ongoing support to build movements and anti-violence networks. Working with local organizations, V-Day provided hard-won funding that helped open the first shelters for women in Egypt and Iraq; sponsored annual workshops and three national campaigns in Afghanistan; convened the "Confronting Violence" conference of South Asian women leaders; and donated satellite-phones to Afghan women to keep lines of communication open and action plans moving forward.

V-Day was instrumental in the founding of Karama, a program working in Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that strives to consolidate efforts to end violence against women by bringing together local women organizations and other civil society groups in collaboration, analysis and advocacy at national, regional and international levels.

Oh, and by the way, the 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

What will you do today?

Global outcry against rape in Egypt

"We will not stay silent. We will not be broken. We will not be ashamed."

Today, February 12, 2013, at 6 p.m. local time, people all over the world will gather in front of the nearest Egyptian embassy to say these words to protest the rape of, and violence against, women in Egypt.

The message is: “We, citizens of all nationalities, all around the world, will not watch in silence the spreading epidemic of sexual terrorism. We want to show our support, solidarity and admiration for the assaulted who paid the price of the ongoing Egyptian revolution with their own flesh, and to the heroic volunteers who are risking their lives for a safe Tahrir [Square].”

The global protest, planned by the ‎The uprising of women in the Arab world  and several other groups, is against “sexual terrorism, a technique recently used extensively by organized mobs in Egypt aiming to injure, undermine, humiliate and scare female protesters in Tahrir Square, during the ongoing Egyptian revolution.”

What is it about violence against women in general, and rape in particular, in Arab Spring states?

Is the current focus on countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere highlighting this mounting problem?

Was it always there, but concealed from public view?

Women protest in Egypt

Are women more daring and courageous in speaking about their horrific experiences, whether because of a shift in attitudes or the support they are getting?

Has Social Media in any way helped abused women? Is it thanks to the various Social Media platforms that we are made aware of the violence against women -- not only in Arab Spring countries, but also in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali, Europe, the United States…?

In a recent article, Rachel Elmalawany points out that women of every race suffer abuse. She says, “What’s disturbing is the overwhelming idea that women in the Middle East are treated far worse than women in the United States when, in reality, women everywhere struggle every day to combat misogyny and abuse, and that includes American women…

 “The mistreatment of women is global and not a characteristic of any one nation or group of people. Clearly, abuse is as big of a problem for women in the United States as it is for women in Muslim majority and Middle Eastern countries. The myth that women are mistreated more in the Middle East is just that, a myth. What is true is that women everywhere suffer at the hands of those they trust the most.”

Yasmine El Baramawy

Yasmine El Baramawy, who was raped together with a friend in Cairo's Tahrir Square, is among the first to publicly expose the most recent outrages of rape around Egypt and during demonstrations in the plaza.

Yasmine shows TV viewers what remains of the clothing after the rape in Tahrir Square

She went live on Egyptian TV to publicly “challenge the sexual terrorism and expose the corrupt Egyptian society which considers a raped woman a shame.” Yasmine told of her ordeal and showed viewers what was left of the trousers she was wearing and the red shirt her friend was sporting.

Today’s worldwide Global Protest Against Sexual Terrorism Practiced on Egyptian Female Protestors وقفة عالمية ضدّ الإرهاب الجنسي الذي يُمارس على المتظاهرات المصريّات is to “raise our voices” because:

• We accuse the Ruling Party [in Egypt] for not taking strict measures to prevent organized thugs from attacking, stripping, raping, injuring and killing peaceful protesters;
• We hold responsible the Egyptian police and governmental institutions for not offering the necessary protection and safety to female Egyptian citizens. Furthermore, the police practice the crime of sexual harassment/assault;
• We blame past and present Egyptian governments for condoning the crime of sexual harassment/assault by not issuing any strict law that clearly provides legal consequences to sexual harassers or those that indulge in sexual violence. We demand the enforcement of a strict law against sexual harassment in all its forms;
• We condemn the social acceptability of sexual harassment, violence and rape by the Egyptian society, which puts the blame on the assaulted instead of the aggressor;
• We hold accountable irresponsible media for focusing on personal, intimate and sensationalist details of the assaulted, instead of covering the criminal act in a professional and ethical manner;
• We urge every revolutionary group, political party or individual to speak up and take IMMEDIATE action against both the sexual attacks committed by organized mobs aiming to tarnish the image of Tahrir and terrorize the protestors, and the sexual harassment targeting Egyptian women and girls on a daily basis in the streets of their own country; and
• Fighting sexual humiliation and aggression should be a TOP PRIORITY in the noble endeavor for freedom and dignity of the Egyptian people.
• We salute every hero and heroine of the ongoing Egyptian revolution! 
• You teach us courage, perseverance and determination.

By Amgad Ali

Why is violence against women still so widespread around the world?

I keep asking myself the question and wondering where the solution lies. Is it in laws, severe punishment, naming and shaming or education?

In the meantime, we protest these barbaric acts and support the victims: "We will not stay silent. We will not be broken. We will not be ashamed."

You can check out the global events being organized around the world -- including Cairo, Tunis, Aden, Ramallah and Yaffa in Palestine, Rabat, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Ko Samui in Thailand, Oslo, Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris, London The Hague, Milano, Washington DC, New York, Ottawa, Melbourne and elsewhere -- by visiting the Global Event Facebook page.

U.S. women, the Hill and Anonymous

America, Land of the Free… Or at least that’s what it was meant to be. But is it?

When developing nations are expected to look up to “democracy” in the United States, and when many of them are fighting to pass legislation to protect women and minorities, Republicans in the U.S. Congress have done it again. For the first time since 1994, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been scrapped!

Republicans claim the bill -- co-written by a liberal Democrat (Vermont's Pat Leahy) and a conservative Republican (Idaho's Mike Crapo) -- is too supportive of immigrants, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and Native Americans.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Democratic point person on VAWA, said in a statement: "The House Republican leadership's failure to take up and pass the Senate's bipartisan and inclusive VAWA bill is inexcusable. This is a bill that passed with 68 votes in the Senate and that extends the bill's protections to 30 million more women. But this seems to be how House Republican leadership operates. No matter how broad the bipartisan support, no matter who gets hurt in the process, the politics of the rightwing of their party always comes first."

Back in August, President Barack Obama had to go on TV and denounce Rep. Todd Akin’s remarks about rape as “offensive.’

 “Rape is rape,” Obama told a White House press briefing on August 20. He called the comments by Akin, a Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, “way out there.”

Akin said in cases of “legitimate rape,” pregnancy is rare because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Although Akin lost his seat, he hung in there, offering a controversial explanation for why he is against abortion. He said he believed pregnancy from rape was rare because of biological reactions to "legitimate rape."

"It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," he said. If pregnancy did occur, he added, there should be repercussions for the rapist, but not the unborn fetus. "Let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. You know, I think there should be some punishment. But the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."

Photo via lcadv.org

Adding insult to injury, Akin’s congressional peers have now derailed VAWA!

It will be up to the 113th Congress to revive the law, but that will take time and thousands of rape victims will be vulnerable because of the GOP’s actions.

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a U.S. federal law  (Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, H.R. 3355) signed as Pub.L.103-322 by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994.

The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted.

The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.

The office of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) drafted VAWA, with support from a broad coalition of advocacy groups. The Act passed through Congress with bipartisan support in 1994, clearing the House by a 235-195 vote and the Senate by a 61-38 ballot, although the following year House Republicans tried to cut the Act's funding.

Congress reauthorized VAWA in 2000, and again in December 2005. The Act's 2012 renewal was fiercely opposed by conservative Republicans, who objected to extending the Act's protections to same-sex couples and to provisions allowing battered illegal immigrants to claim temporary visas.

In April 2012, the Senate voted to reauthorize VAWA, and the House subsequently passed its own measure (omitting provisions of the Senate bill that would protect gay men, lesbians, American Indians living in reservations, and illegal immigrants who were victims of domestic violence).

On January 2, 2013, the Senate's 2012 reauthorization of VAWA was not brought up for a vote in the House -- effectively ending the Bill after 18 years in effect.

Since its original passage in 1994, VAWA's focus has expanded from domestic violence and sexual assault to also include dating violence and stalking.

It funds services to protect adult and teen victims of these crimes, and supports training on these issues, to ensure consistent responses across the country.

One of the greatest successes of VAWA is its emphasis on a coordinated community response to domestic violence, sex dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services, and the private bar currently work together in a coordinated effort that had not heretofore existed on the state and local levels.

VAWA also supports the work of community-based organizations that are engaged in work to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, particularly those groups that provide culturally and linguistically specific services.

Additionally, VAWA provides specific support for work with tribes and tribal organizations to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking against Indian women.

The GOP has put all this is in limbo for now.

In the meantime, will rape victims be defended and supported by hacktivist groups and the online community, as is happening in the Ohio town of Steubenville?

Online hacktivist group Anonymous (@KYAnonymous on Twitter) has been holding rallies in Steubenville to protest what it called a conspiracy by some town members to protect local football stars accused of raping a 16-year-old girl last August.

Related posts and articles:

• House GOP blocks Violence Against Women Act – The Maddow Blog
• House Republicans Derail Bill Targeting Rapists – Mother Jones
• Call for zero rape tolerance in 2013 -- January 3, 2013
• I agree with Obama: Rape is rape -- Aug 21, 2012
• It takes balls, but out the rapists! -- August 2, 2012

Call for zero rape tolerance in 2013

Protests in New Delhi

Has it started at last?

Has the devastatingly poignant death of the “India Gang-Rape” young woman dubbed “Nirbhaya” -- or fearless one -- let the rape genie out of the bottle in India and other countries around the world?

Is 2013 the year when rapists are punished rather than their victims? Will it be the year when governments, politicians and people join together to abolish this beastly act?

I certainly hope so, and not only in India.

One Indian woman was inspired by the recent gang rape death to speak out.

Sonika Bhasin's tweets

Sonika Bhasin, ‏@sonikabhasin wrote December 29 on Twitter: “Have decided, I am going to call out the guy who abused me when I was just 13. My friend's father, my dad's friend. I'm going to tell everyone.”

Sonika, a media professional from Mumbai, so rightly added: “It's going to take a lot of courage and strength, but I will do it. And I wish all girls do, so that sexual abusers don't get away.”

I am of course talking about the student gang-raped and brutally beaten on a bus in India's capital New Delhi on the night of December 16. The Times of India refers to the woman, whose name has not been released to the public, as “Nirbhaya,” or the fearless one.

Nirbhaya's body beings its sad journey home from Singapore

Lilies surround Nirbhaya's body in the ambulanceas it is driven home in Delhi

She died on Saturday, December 29, at a Singapore hospital where she was airlifted two days earlier, after three operations in a Delhi hospital. She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body.

There are mounting appeals to the family to release her name, allowing the general public to honor and remember her.

The 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist was with her boyfriend, who she was due to marry in February. They had just been to see the blockbuster movie “The Life of Pi. They were attacked when they boarded a bus in the Munirka area of Delhi, intending to travel to Dwarka in the city’s southwest.

Police said men on the bus gang-raped the woman for nearly an hour and beat her and her male companion with iron rods as the bus, with curtains shut, drove through the city for hours, even passing through police checkpoints. The assailants eventually stripped the pair and dumped them on the side of a road.

"Rapist are like cancer, crush them!!" sign on the streets of Delhi

The Indian government has tried to halt rising public anger by announcing a series of measures intended to make Delhi safer for women. These include a greater number of night police patrols, checks on bus drivers and their assistants, and the banning of buses with tinted windows or curtains. The government has also said it would post the photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists on official websites to shame them.

Protesters in Delhi call for the death sentence for rapists

But the protesters say the government's pledge to seek life sentences for the attackers is not enough. Many are calling for the death penalty, including for the six suspects who were arrested by police following the attack. Some of the protesters carried placards reading "Save women. Save India" and "Hang the rapists."

Rape victims, in India and most other countries, rarely press charges because of social stigma and fear they will be accused of inviting the attack. Many women say they structure their lives around protecting themselves and their daughters from assault.

But in India, as elsewhere, it is often the women who are blamed after a rape, not just by ordinary people but by politicians and other influential figures who claim women are at fault because they go out wearing clothes that might be perceived as provocative.

This is the attitude that needs to change.

It was clearly illustrated on December 28, when lawmaker Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of India's president no less, apologized for calling the protesters ''highly dented and painted" women, who go from discos to demonstrations.

''I tender my unconditional apology to all the people whose sentiments got hurt," he told an Indian TV station.

Official figures in India -- the nuclear weapons state, the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people and the most populous democracy in the world -- show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in the country were against women. The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

The Legally India website quotes The State of World Population Report suggesting that in India:

• A Rape is committed every 54 minutes
• Molestation every 26 minutes
• Kidnapping or abduction every 43 minutes
• Eve-teasing every 51 minutes
• Dowry death every 1 hour 42 minutes
• A criminal offense against women every 7 minutes.

The Times of India quotes Home Ministry data showing there was only one conviction out of 635 rape cases in Delhi last year. As many as 754 accused were arrested in the 635 cases reported to Delhi Police between January and November 2012, the highest in past five years, Home Ministry data confirmed.

Statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau show that between 1953 and 2011, the incidents of rape in India went up by 873 percent.

In a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters' Trust Law Women, a hub of information and support for women's rights, India ranked with Afghanistan, Congo and Somalia as one of the most dangerous places for women. 

Amongst the metropolitans, it said Delhi topped the list of rape incidents. From 2007 and 2011, Delhi saw 2,620 rape cases. Comparatively, Mumbai had 1,033, Bangalore 383, Chennai 293 and Kolkata 200 cases.

Rest in Peace Nirbhaya

Will “Nirbhaya’s” death, brave actions like those of Sonika Bhasin, and the protests taking place in Delhi lead to the much-needed sexual revolution in India and spread elsewhere?

How many more victims must rapists claim? How many more rapists will go unpunished?

Would 2013 be the year where we move from victim blaming to rapist naming, shaming and punishing?

Rest in Peace “Nirbhaya.” We won’t forget you and your death won’t be in vain.

2013: Bring it on!

Not one to look backwards, it is with great anticipation that I go into this auspicious-numbered New Year.

Number 13 can be a lucky number for some or synonymous with bad luck for others. It’s like the case of the glass being half full or half empty... So I say, come on in 2013 and show us what you have in store.

Looking ahead to the New Year, here are a few hopes and wishes for the 12 months ahead:

I hope, first and foremost, for family and friends to be in good health. They are what make my world go round and round.

I hope to remain employed. Work is good. I have been fortunate to always have a job I love.

I hope to read about less fatalities and sufferings in our turbulent region -- for those countries struggling against tyranny to witness a new dawn.

I hope rape and sexual violence will fade away -- that the rapist or assaulter is punished, not the victim.

I hope there will be less road victims, especially at the start of the year. Please don’t drink and drive, don’t use your mobile phones while driving. Stay safe.

I hope to be able to keep writing. Maybe, one day, Mich Café will go viral!

I hope to keep smiling and to remain positive… the rest is not important.

I wish my readers a Happy New Year. This blog is my passion and you make it all worthwhile.

May your hopes and wishes come true as well.

Angelina Jolie, William Hague to fight warzone rape

Angelina Jolie with a Syrian refugee in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley  in September

The fight against warzone rape got a big boost this week. Actress and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague have joined forces to fight warzone rape, most notably in Syria.

Speaking exclusively to Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, Jolie explains why she can’t stay silent on warzone rape as the UK prepares to send an expert team to Syria to gather evidence and support rape victims.

William Hague to Channel 4 News on why rape in conflict matters

Hague told Channel 4 News a British team will enter Syria shortly, to support the growing number of women who are raped as the country continues to fight the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said he wants to emulate his hero, anti-slave trade campaigner William Wilberforce, by embarking on a mission to stamp out sexual violence. "The team will first be deployed to help Syrian refugees, I won't say exactly where for their safety,” Hague told Channel 4 News.

"This is a team of 70 people, doctors, lawyers, forensic experts, psychologists and they will have their first deployment to help Syrians fleeing the conflict, which has included sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war, to train local medical experts to gather medical evidence that can be used so that prosecutions can one day take place."

Angelina Jolie talks to Channel 4 News on war, rape and her UN role

Angelina Jolie has campaigned against rape as a weapon of war for many years. She has visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and called for an end to the violence in Syria, now in its 21st month.

Speaking to Channel 4 News on Saturday, Jolie said: "I think it (the deployment of British experts) must be done.

"I work a lot with refugees and you meet the people and they immediately want to start talking, they want to know what's happening to their future. They want to participate and put on record what is happening in the country.

"They want things not to be missed, they want to know one day they will be able to go home and there will be accountability. It matters to them emotionally and it matters to the future of their country on a legal level that they will be able to find some justice and move forward and have their basic human rights protected."

Asked whether she was thinking of giving up acting, Jolie replied, "Of course. I think I'm going to have to give up acting as kids hit the teenage years because there is going to be too much to manage at home."

She added, "But I have enjoyed being an actress... I will do some films. I'm so fortunate to have the job. It's a very lucky profession to be in. But if it went away tomorrow, I would be very happy to be at home with my children."

Jolie said, "I wake up in the morning and turn on the TV like everyone else and I see what is happening in the world. I want to be a part of the world in a positive way."

Jolie conducted more than 40 field visits around the world for the UNHCR, starting as a Goodwill Ambassador in 2001 and now as a Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The total number of Syrian registered refugees and individuals awaiting registration is 465,823 as of November 29, according to UNHCR. They are now living in camps and temporary homes inside Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.

Jolie visited Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq in September and witnessed Syrians crossing into Jordan, becoming refugees before her eyes.

"The amount of innocent children that have been reported dead, the amount of innocent children I've met here who are wounded and unaccompanied -- with their parents being killed and now they're on their own -- it's impossible to imagine any mother standing by and not stepping up and doing something to prevent this," she said then.

Watch the video: Cathy Newman's full interview with Angelina Jolie and William Hague

Will “binders full of women” sink Romney?

From bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com

As of October 1, 2012, the United States had a total resident population of 314,592,000, according to Wikipedia. It is the third most populous country in the world, after China and India.

More importantly in 2009, there were 155.6 million females compared to 151.4 million males. At age 85 and over, there were twice-plus as many women as men.

In his second presidential debate with Barack Obama on Tuesday night, Republican candidate Mitt Romney chose to categorize this female population as “Binders Full of Women.”

Will he get away with it when American women go to the polling stations on November 6?

Every three years, we spend a fourth waiting and trying to guess who will be the next president of the United States. With just 18 days to go until we find out whether it will be Obama or Romney at the White House, Tuesday night’s debate was the coup de grâce for the GOP and their candidate, or at least I hope so.

Anyone who has access to the Internet is by now aware of the “Binder” boo-boo coming from the man who could become the leader of the “Free World.”

Romney was responding to a question about inequalities in the workplace and fair pay for women. He talked about his time as Massachusetts’s governor and how he wanted to hire some women for his cabinet:

From nydailynews.com 

“And -- and so we -- we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

You need help to find women for top posts -- in the U.S.?

His patronizing went even further: “Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort. But number two, because I recognized that if you’re going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible.”

He explained his chief of staff had two kids that were still in school and that she couldn’t work late because she had to be home “making dinner” and “being with them when they get home from school.” Romney added, “Let’s have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you.”

So, for Romney, the “binders” can be opened for women to get out and go into the kitchen to “make dinner.”

The GOP put its foot in its mouth on a number of occasions during his election campaign, even before this new “Binders Full of Women” blunder.

For instance, Missouri Senate Republican candidate Todd Akin in August said on national TV that in cases of “legitimate rape,” pregnancy is rare because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

And vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion in all instances, including in the case of rape and opposes abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

Romney’s ignorance of the region was disclosed in September by Mother Jones, which published exclusive video footage of him speaking to donors at a May 17 fundraiser. Romney pontificated that peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible, telling donors Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

With so much riding on the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections in our region, and with everyone waiting to see what effect, if any, the new U.S. administration will bring to bear on the Syrian revolution, it is frightening to think of Romney at the helm.

As an Arab woman, I have been categorized in many different ways, but never yet put in a “binder.”

Again I wonder, will America’s women accept to be put into binders, or will they make Romney and the GOP pay for such out of date, patronizing, sexist and unacceptable thinking?

Good luck ladies.

Related posts:

The Savage, Civilized Man & Mitt Romney -- September 19, 2012

 I agree with Obama: Rape is rape -- August 21, 2012

Rape and sex abuse with impunity in Syria

Fergal Keane's report for the BBC on rape and sex abuse in Syria here

Why is it that rape and sexual violence have become an integral part of most Arab Spring movements?  Why have they become reprisals so widely used in conflict?

Although rape is one of the oldest scourges of war, why did it afflict the Arab Spring countries? Is it the breakdown of all civilized forms of conduct and the release of inhibitions and hidden urges in wartime? Does being armed embolden bearers to abuse other men, women, boys and girls to cover their cowardice and their servitude to rulers and movements?

According to the latest report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, sexual violence is part of a pattern of crimes against humanity inflicted on civilians in Syria.

Also, a September 25 BBC report documents details of sexual violence against prisoners in Syria. The BBC's Fergal Keane heard harrowing accounts from a number of former detainees:

The first thing he saw was a woman in the corner of the basement. "They were raping her. It was clear that they were raping her. There was blood coming out of her body and she just stayed in the corner."

The witness was working as an activist with a church-based human rights group when he was arrested last November.

The witness says his captors demanded that he confess to smuggling weapons and sending footage of demonstrations to foreign news organizations.

The "rapist officers" behaved like animals, the former detainee says (BBC)

"They hit me, they kick me, they slap me and they (did) something unfriendly and offensive… I know what happens when they arrest someone. I feel like this is the end."

The "rapist officers" behaved like animals, the former detainee says.

At first, he says, a security official began to touch him sexually. There was also an officer who watched what was happening but remained silent. Then he was attacked by a group of three officers.

"The three guys, they are like animals. I tried to protect myself but I'm just a short guy… when they were raping me, I start to say: 'Please don't do that, please don't do that.'"

As he was being raped, he says his attackers mocked him. "You want Assad to quit? This is for saying that you don't like [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad."

A teenage boy was brought into the cell. He, too, was raped. As the assault went on, the boy cried out for his mother.

But -- in the words of another survivor -- the torture cells of Syria are places where "nobody hears your voice, nobody visits you".

Rats and mice were used by interrogators to violate women.... (BBC)

Another witness, a woman, told me she had been held for two months in the notorious Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence in Damascus -- a building bombed by rebels last May.

The woman was arrested at a checkpoint in Homs late last year.

As part of the torture, she alleges, interrogators used rats and mice to violate women. She described an assault on another prisoner that she says she witnessed.

"He inserted a rat in her vagina. She was screaming. Afterwards we saw blood on the floor. He told her: 'Is this good enough for you?' They were mocking her. It was obvious she was in agony. We could see her. After that she no longer moved."

The New York-based international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the stigma surrounding such allegations means many victims are reluctant to come forward.

"In many cases… victims did not want their families or others in the community to know about the assault because of fear or shame," the group said.

HRW says sexual violence is used to degrade and humiliate prisoners. Neither they nor the United Nations have so far made allegations of sexual violence against the rebel side.

It also documented cases of sexual violence against detainees in a report issued in June titled, “Syria: Sexual Assault in Detention,” It wrote:

 “Syrian security forces have used sexual violence to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity. The assaults are not limited to detention facilities -- government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.”

HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson noted in her report:

“Syrian government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and boys detained during the current conflict. Witnesses and victims also told Human Rights Watch that soldiers and pro-government armed militias have sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during home raids and military sweeps of residential areas.

“Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 former detainees, including two women, who described being sexually abused or witnessing sexual abuse in detention, including rape, penetration with objects, sexual groping, prolonged forced nudity, and electroshock and beatings to genitalia. Many of the former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were imprisoned because of their political activism, including for attending protests. In other cases, the reason for the detention was unclear but detainees suffered the same abusive tactics.

“Human Rights Watch documented over 20 specific incidents of sexual assault, five of which involved more than one victim, that took place between March 2011 and March 2012 across Syria, including in Daraa, Homs, Idlib, Damascus, and Latakia governorates. The majority of cases were from Homs governorate. Interviewees described a range of sexual abuse by Syrian security forces, the army, and pro-government armed militias referred to locally as shabiha.

“Human Rights Watch interviewed eight Syrian victims of sexual violence, including four women, and more than 25 other people with a knowledge of sexual abuse -- former detainees, defectors from the Syrian security forces and the army, first responders and assistance providers, women’s rights activists, and family members.

“The full extent of sexual violence in and outside of detention facilities remains unknown, Human Rights Watch said. The stigma in Syria surrounding sexual violence makes victims reluctant to report abuse. Survivors also may face dangers when they make crimes public, and researchers have had limited access to the country to document abuses. In many cases interviewees told Human Rights Watch that victims did not want their families or others in the community to know about the assault because of fear or shame. In one case, a female rape victim who was willing to be interviewed was not permitted by her husband to speak to Human Rights Watch.

“Even when they may wish to seek help, Syrian survivors of sexual assault have limited access to medical or psychological treatment and other services in Syria. Survivors who have fled to neighboring countries also face obstacles in seeking treatment, including limited service options and inability to access services that are available because of social taboos surrounding sexual abuse, families restricting their movement, and the fear of being subjected to so-called ‘honor’ crimes.

“It is critical that survivors of sexual assault have access to emergency medical services, legal assistance, and social support to address injuries caused by the assault; prevent pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections; and to collect evidence to support prosecution of perpetrators, Human Rights Watch said…”

Although UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called for the allegations against the Syrian government, including sexual violence, to be referred to the International Criminal Court, the license to rape and kill goes on unabated.

And as I have written many times before on this blog: Rape is rape is rape…

How long will the “culture of impunity” be allowed to carry on in Syria?