Rape In America Essay

Rape culture extends across the globe. In 2012, a group of men gang-raped a young woman and assaulted her friend aboard a moving bus in New Delhi, India. The crime was horrific. And yet, there were some within the country who chose to blame the victims instead of the perpetrators. Asaram Bapu, a self-realized saint from India with approximately 40 million disciples said, “The victim’s daughter is as guilty as her rapists…She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop…This could have saved her dignity and life. Can you clap with one hand? I don’t think so” (Herald). Then in 1995, during the Bosnian War and the Bosnian genocide, the violence assumed a gender-targeted form through the use of rape. It is estimated that 50,000 women were raped. A year prior during the Rwandan genocide, known as the 100-day genocide, it is estimated that 500,000 women were raped. During the times when these genocides were taking place, rape and sexual violence was seen as just another part of war, but not seen as a crime. Thousands and thousands of women were raped and will never obtain the justice they deserve for their perpetrators’

“Rape is as American as apple pie,” says blogger Jessica Valenti. She and other feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is almost invisible. According to feminists, films, magazines, fashion, books, music, and humor cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited.(Kitchens, 2015)

Women and their children are in poverty and denied basic rights due to gender discrimination, domestic violence, religious beliefs, and illiteracy. A 2011 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation found Pakistan to be the third most dangerous country for women across the globe, citing more than 1,000 women and girls murdered in "honor killings" every year (Jamal 2011). 90 percent of Pakistani women were also found to be victims of domestic violence (Jamal 2011). Up until 2006, rape used to be under Islamic Law of Evidence where if the rape victim could not provide four male eyewitnesses to the crime in question, she could be severely punished (Ahmed 2008: 55). According to Pakistan’s National Commission on Status of Women in 2003, 80% of women in jail were there because “they had failed to prove rape charges and were consequently convicted of adultery” (Malik 2013).

On October 30th, 2014, over 220 women were raped in less than 36 hours in Tabit. The HRW (Human Rights Watch) had been following the case with caution. Although the Tibet government has been trying to hide this terrible case, a man told the HRW, “They said if I talked about Tabit again that I was going to be finished. They kicked me. Tied me and hanged me up. They beat me with whips and electric wires” (Human Rights Watch). This mass rape was claimed to be a “deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town’s women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur” (Human Rights Watch). The Sudanese armed forces caused a mass rape of over 200 women as a political statement in war. One of the soldiers told a mother “You killed our man. We are going to show you true hell” (Humans Right

Even though, Kristof realizes the complexity of the problems, the authors still develop on practical ways to aid women. The authors stress the involvement of individuals in human rights matters. To emphasize their point, Kristof interviews a light-skinned black girl from Ethiopia, Woineshet. Woineshet tells the authors that she lived in a rural area where if a young man wants to marry certain girl, but does not have the “bride price” at hand, or the family won’t accept him, he could just kidnap the girl, and then rape her – it is the tradition, says Woineshet. Because women are raped, they will have difficulty marrying anyone else. To make matters worse, Ethiopian law

During the Rwandan genocide, some rapes occurred recurrently throughout a timespan. “Sexual enslavements occurred when a woman was detained, typically in the house of an Interhamwe, and subjected to repeated sexual assaults over a period of days,” (Mullins 727). These kinds of rapes belong in their own category because of the added element of confinement and intent to continually rape and therefore, harm. An Interhamwe soldier named Rafiki, personally sought out one Tutsi woman whom he had

Wartime rape is a topic that should have international attention and perpetrators should be held accountable. That should be obvious, however, that’s my opinion generated from growing up in a “first world” (developed, capitalist, with an industry based infrastructure) country, with work and education opportunities, predominately Christian ideology and with structured rules defining what’s illegal. Inhabitants of “third world” or developing countries have a significantly different environment and a low level of accountability to established governmental control. They face high levels of poverty, low economic development, and inadequate healthcare, prone to an unstable government, have high birth rates and lack a middle-class population.

17.7 million: The number of women who have been involved in attempted or completed rape. 293,066: The number of rapes in the U.S. a year. 284,275: The number of sexual offences that result in no conviction or jail time. 49,013: The number of repeat offenders still on the streets, most committing around 6 rapes. 4,000-17,000: The range of pregnancies resulting from rape. 107: The number of seconds between rapes in the U.S. 35: the percentage of men that would rape if they knew they could get away with it. 3: The number of rapes, out of 100, that will result in any prison time at all. 1: the number of likely victims that will seek help or justice for what happened. The statistics show that a woman is more at risk of sexual assault in the U.S. than in any other developed nation. The United States has one of the highest rape rates in the world. Yet there are still those out there that don’t believe that rape actually exists. Victims of rape are forced into a societal confinement that encapsulates them in their own self solitude.

Therefore, the story of a young woman named Debarah sheds light on women lying about being raped to gain access to international aid. Debarah knew that raped women had access to resources, particularly food, and money. Her neighbors knew that she had two brothers for whom she was the sole provided after the deaths of her parents. Debarah neighbors told her to go to the clinic "say you were raped and you will be supported." Warner. The Congo We Listen To. (2017).

Regrettably, the Janjawid does not target males selectively. The number of women and girls that have been abducted, raped, and tortured is unknown. Eighty percent of the people in Chad refugee camps are these women. Because they have been displaced, driven from their homes by force, they are extremely vulnerable to assault. These unfortunate women and girls are most often victims of sexual abuse rather than outright murder. These women suffer from physical and mental anguish with little or no medical care and an impossibly

Beginning on October 30th, 2014, over 221 women were raped under the command of the Sudanese government in a 36-hour period. The Human Rights Watch reported 27 first hand accounts of the event, including confessions made by two Sudanese soldiers, who admitted that the government was paying them to commit rape (Dias, Rayman). Events like this one have now become common in Darfur and surrounding regions as government-backed Janjaweed mercenaries systematically degrade, rape, and murder “non-Arabs”. The ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and the surrounding regions has evolved from the complex combination of environmental, social, and ethnic factors, and has been allowed by modern civilizations through economic benefits and flaws in political

In “Rape as Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victim's’ Perspective” by Anna Maedl, It begins to describe the problems around the community and how some respond with rape to help it stop. Rape as a Weapon used against people? For me it doesn't matter if you deserve to suffer, rape isn’t something to be played with or become an answer to a problem. “Indiscriminate violence against civilians, including mass rape and sexual torture, are not an exception in so-called “new wars”18 or “complex political emergencies,”19 but are the modus operandi by which these armed conflicts are fought.” (Rape 131) Modus Operandi? Which means a new way of doing things, but why rape? During the wars they believed as something normal one could do to another country’s women, yet after the massive rapes happening many women were destroyed emotionally. Not only did they chances to marry pure has disappeared, but also they are unable to even look at their love one like they did normally. When a person rapes another person, I think of them as animal that shouldn’t be considered human. Why don’t they think, “what happens if someone was raping one of my family member? How would they feel? And what would I do?” they don’t think about the consequences of the victim and of the child they may posses in the near future. However, even though the research that was conducted knew there were massive of rapes, they were able to conclude a concise number because of the numerous women who didn’t want to be interviewed of the situation that happened to them. What makes me angered is most of the victims were unable to fight back for their freedom because about 90.9% of the attackers were carrying weapons like pistols, spears and Machetes/knifes (Rape 140). Though I was unable to get a clear picture on which side Anna was trying to argue with, I have a clear statement on how the victims felt and the massive rape that was happening during the wars like World War II.

While war in the DRC already created unpleasant outcomes, such as poverty and corruption, it also created cruel type of a weapon, humiliation and rape of women beside the guns and bombs. Meger asserts in her article that the majority of the rape crimes involve gang rapes, “with an average of 4.5 attackers per victim,” and they also tend to be systematically preplanned (127). Women depicted in Ruined are examples of rape victims. Salima’s story in particular demonstrates how violent and unforgiving it can be out in there. She was gang raped when she was in her garden and her attackers even ended up killing her infant. Not only was she brutally assaulted, but also neglected and abandoned by her husband and the village, which left her nowhere to turn to. Salima sees Mama Nadi’s bar as a place to live, but in an entirely new way of

In today’s society, people can easily know what is happening around the world and in their own backyards. It takes only a click of a button for one to learn of the recent onslaught that occurred in France or of the natural disaster in Louisiana. However, most people tend to ignore what does not concern them. In fact, many of them are just bystanders in all types of situations with knowledge of what the consequences might be. Although people may know about female circumcision—the cutting of a female’s outer genitals by force—that is happening in countries in Africa, many believe it is none of their business because it is of those people’s “cultural practice.” This belief allows the torture and injustice of females to continue in modern-day society,

There are still countries who do not have laws against rape and marital rape, which reinforces how women are view as secondary citizens. “There are 127 countries that still don’t have laws against marital rape – 2.6 billion women live in a country where their husbands can legally rape them” (Logan). Imagine being a women who is in a marriage, who is legally allowed to be raped and degraded by their husbands with no justice by the law. “In countries such as Libya and Afghanistan, female victims of rape are punished by law, and sometimes even maimed, disfigured, or killed by a family member for “dishonoring” their family name” (Logan). Which means even if the woman tries to run away from her husband, or even if she is able to escape her husband and divorce him, her family could disown her, or if captured by officials- or even her family, she could be killed for it.