WOW... J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide - Naomi Wolf

[WillyT]

J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide
Naomi Wolf - Bestselling Author, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Posted: December 13, 2010 12:40 PM

<snip>

How do I know that Interpol, Britain and Sweden's treatment of Julian Assange is a form of theater? Because I know what happens in rape accusations against men that don't involve the embarrassing of powerful governments.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is in solitary confinement in Wandsworth prison in advance of questioning on state charges of sexual molestation. Lots of people have opinions about the charges. But I increasingly believe that only those of us who have spent years working with rape and sexual assault survivors worldwide, and know the standard legal response to sex crime accusations, fully understand what a travesty this situation is against those who have to live through how sex crime charges are ordinarily handled -- and what a deep, even nauseating insult this situation is to survivors of rape and sexual assault worldwide.

Here is what I mean: men are pretty much never treated the way Assange is being treated in the face of sex crime charges.

I started working as a counselor in a UK center for victims of sexual assault in my mid-twenties. I also worked as a counselor in a battered women's shelter in the US, where sexual violence was often part of the pattern of abuse. I have since spent two decades traveling the world reporting on and interviewing survivors of sexual assault, and their advocates, in countries as diverse as Sierra Leone and Morocco, Norway and Holland, Israel and Jordan and the Occupied Territories, Bosnia and Croatia, Britain, Ireland and the united States.

I tell you this as a recorder of firsthand accounts. Tens of thousand of teenage girls were kidnapped at gunpoint and held as sex slaves in Sierra Leone during that country's civil war. They were tied to trees and to stakes in the ground and raped by dozens of soldiers at a time. Many of them were as young as twelve or thirteen. Their rapists are free...

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/jaccuse-sweden-britain-an_b_795899.html

:wow:

:kick:

[asdjrocky]

1. The lunatics are in control of not just the asylum... nt

[EFerrari]

2. K&R

For my two friends, whom sh!t like this made it so much harder to get help.

:kick

[hlthe2b]

3. K&R

[coffeenap]

4. Is it no wonder that some women have a very difficult time feeling

sexually free when knowledge of this horrific use of violence pervades her conscious and subconscious mind? I clearly remember when I learned of the extent of rape across cultures and across continents--it changed me forever and took me a long time to regroup. I am sure I am not the only one. Her article is important.

[Odin2005]

5. K&R

[closeupready]

6. Sure - it's the same story with Pakistan - nobody cares about women's rights except

as a sort of 'last resort' when all the other justifications for continued warfare in the tribal areas fail to work. Unfortunately, women still don't count for very much.

[PDJane]

7. Yes.

She is overwhelmingly correct. I've heard it before, I've known it happens, and god help you if you are a prostitute; you will never, ever, get justice.

If this shocks you, you haven't been listening.......or you are incredibly sheltered. When this first came over the news, I looked up at mother, she looked at me........and we both concluded the CIA was involved.

[pitohui]

8. every rape/sexual assault victim knows this is bogus

i am so angry i can't trust myself to post rationally as a violent crime victim myself

this is so damn bogus that even knowing v. little about assange and wikileaks i have to give him the benefit of the doubt if this is the best his opponents can come up w.

put MY attacker in prison, put the violent attackers of other members of my family in prison...and then come back and if you still have room in the prisons then arrest some guy for being a dog whose rubber broke

they really do think women are stupid, don't they? they don't respect us at all, we're just "tools" in their eyes

[snot]

9. She is really hitting it lately. K&R'd.

[Hydra]

10. We all know this is a joke crime

As usual, Naomi gives a complete and devastating repudiation of their behavior.

[Kaleko]

11. The masks are finally falling -- I've been waiting for this time all my life. n/t