current events rantlet

[clauclauclaudia]

I realize this is nothing new, but damn it, it should be. This just shouldn't happen, anywhere.

Girl gang-raped as "punishment" (Girl ordered gang-raped in Pakistan is a longer version of the same story). This is awful. An 11-year-old boy was seen *walking* with a girl from a higher-caste family, and her tribe judged that the proper response was to rape his 18-year-old sister to regain status or something. I'm sorry, to "avenge their tribal honor". This wasn't a few "vigilantes", either, it was a tribal jury process of sorts.

On a different note, a pair of 16-year-olds in Georgia are being charged wtih fornication. The one hopeful thing about this is that it might lead to overturning the law in question (after all, the same state's supreme court overturned the sodomy law on privacy grounds in 1998). But the poor teens. How traumatizing.

Oh, the utter insanity.

Comments

[iamlisabee.livejournal.com]

I read about the first case last night in Newsweek, and was sickened by it. When I try to reason it out - and it's not very easy to do - I'm reminded that some cultures view a person's actions as reflecting not just on the individual, but also on the whole family - if a person does something wrong, it shames the whole family. So, if one individual shames another family, then his family must be shamed. Ugh. I so don't agree with it.

The good thing, according to the newsweek article, is that international outcry has caused the police to arrest one of the men accused of raping her.

Oh, other stupid thing, the "girl" the brother was accused of romancing was 22 - 10 years older than him...please!

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

The thing that really gets to me about the first case is that, not only is it incredibly evil to do to that poor girl what they did, in Pakistan getting raped is essentially being handed a death sentence if you try to prosecute. That whole thing about needing four witnesses to vouch that she's telling the truth or else be stoned for adultery...@#)$*@#$*(^!*$!#)*!*)#$!*)#^%@!)^@ Horrible, just horrible.