rape in the developing world

[campanula]

apols if my terminology is a bit dated and incorrect.
It seems as though violence against women is some particularly vile power play gaining traction across continents, regardless of religious affiliations (ie. not some new Muslim atrocity). I find this deeply distressing and worrying - that oppression of one group (disenfranchised males) so easily translates into further oppression of women.....with almost tacit consent on the parts of authorities.

 

[trabuquera]

it's not the terminology, it's the ideas that are dated and incorrect, sorry mate.

Rape is no more (and probably no less) common than it ever was

I don't know why you're dragging "Muslim atrocity" (sic) into it

There are places where everyone's oppressed and rates of rape are low, and freer places where rates of rape are high.

I can't see what you are tring to say really.

 

[Mation]

What has made you think that this is something 'gaining traction', campanula?

 

[campanula]

I dunno whether I am just getting a bit more sensitised to it or there has been a lot more reporting of it....but it has been certainly been coming to my attention in a particularly shuddersome way. Nothing to do with categorising Muslims as being capable of any 'atrocities'....which, given many of my colleagues garbled fantasies about Sharia Law and marauding gangs of Asian youth, I actually wanted to pinpoint that I did not see this as being any sort of contributory factor and separate myself from that kneejerk reaction. Guess I am just feeling a bit over worried for my daughter, grandaughter and young women in general......there has been a couple of hideous cases reported in the Guardian this weekend and in the Mirror today (13 year old raped and buried in shallow grave) ....and have wandered through the whole false rape allegation thread, am feeling a bit....depressed.

 

[camouflage]

I dunno whether I am just getting a bit more sensitised to it or there has been a lot more reporting of it....but it has been certainly been coming to my attention in a particularly shuddersome way. Nothing to do with categorising Muslims as being capable of any 'atrocities'....which, given many of my colleagues garbled fantasies about Sharia Law and marauding gangs of Asian youth, I actually wanted to pinpoint that I did not see this as being any sort of contributory factor and separate myself from that kneejerk reaction. Guess I am just feeling a bit over worried for my daughter, grandaughter and young women in general......there has been a couple of hideous cases reported in the Guardian this weekend and in the Mirror today (13 year old raped and buried in shallow grave) ....and have wandered through the whole false rape allegation thread, am feeling a bit....depressed.

Yeah, tell me about it broth'r. Children being gang raped and burnt or buried alive or some other vile hideous thing. Or the acidings, or the nieces or sisters/daughters being repeatedly stabbed until dead for saying good morning to a boy on the way to the shops (as a joke this is called 'honour killing') or girls being blown-up or shot in the head for going to school...

The depressing fact is this sort of stuff is just being more reported than usual, or in order to assist the condemnation of islamic cultures that like to make a lot of the idea they have that they respect women because they cause them to hide their faces whereas in the West women are all sluts because they don't cover up. Bollocks all round in other words.

Try not to think about it all anyway. I've decided to donate to that girls charity, fat lot of good it'll do obviously.

 

[Mation]

The bare depressing fact is this sort of stuff is just being more reported than usual,

Did you just say 'bare'?

 

[camouflage]

Did you just say 'bare'?

Fixd

 

[trabuquera]

I dunno whether I am just getting a bit more sensitised to it or there has been a lot more reporting of it....Guess I am just feeling a bit over worried for my daughter, grandaughter and young women in general.......

fair enough, but what does any of that have to do with "the developing world" ? still not really following your line of reasoning tbh.

fwiw: personally I think the best way(s) of reducing rape rates lie in teaching men not to rape, rather than any "self defence" education / action for women. So if you are teaching your "sons, grandsons and young men in general" that rape is dead wrong and never ever excusable, and (if you feel like it) you donate a bit to organisations which help women in places where rape really is at epidemic levels (like the Panzi hospital in DR Congo, or fistula hospitals elsewhere, or to women's groups in S Africa for instance) then your conscience is clear. Not trying to slap you down for caring, but making a u75 thread is probably not achieving real change on this issue.

 

[Yossarian]

I dunno whether I am just getting a bit more sensitised to it or there has been a lot more reporting of it....but it has been certainly been coming to my attention in a particularly shuddersome way.

In Pakistan, at least, there's definitely been more reporting of it - child welfare and human rights groups have been working to get families to report rapes, and the media is freer than it used to be and is paying more attention to the issue.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/pakistan-struggles-to-combat-child-rapes-20131014-2vho6.html

 

[campanula]

OK, I was horribly aware that developing world was probably not only the wrong terminology and it was disingenuous to imply that rape is only happening in (foreign)places of intense poverty and inequality....it is just that I feel a bit battered by the particularly brutal gang rapes and other outrages happening against women.
Moreover, I posted a thread in a spirit of enquiry, not particularly to affect some sort of change (with respects, posting on Urban would not be my chosen platform if I wished to bring about effective change). I have no agenda to promote (well, obviously nothing conscious and deliberate) other than to wonder if there had been an increase in actual violence towards women and if rape, as an act of power, was increasing, globally.....or if there was an increase in reporting such incidents.

 

[campanula]

For many years, I worked for Women's Aid and probably was better informed about gender and power issues but the last 10 years of staring at the bottom of plant pots and seed trays has left me a bit adrift from the wider political picture - just trying to catch up and re-engage.

 

[FNG]

the protests against the 2012 delhi bus rape was more a case of people saying down with this sort of thing,that has gone unreported and unpunished for so long even then that didn't stop Guru Bapu from indulging in a bit of slut shaming

from wiki

Spoiler

Spiritual guru Asaram Bapu provoked criticism from the public[139] by saying that the victim was also to blame for her own assault because she could have stopped the attack if she had "chanted God's name and fallen at the feet of the attackers".

An author for the South Asia Analysis Group explained the protests as expressions of middle-class angst arising out of a collapse of a social contract between them and the liberal state.[126] New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities. Police figures show a rape reported on average every 18 hours; reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.[127] Only one of 706 rape cases filed in Delhi in 2012 ended in conviction.[64] Between 16 December and 4 January, 501 calls for harassment and 64 calls for rape were recorded by the Delhi Police, but only four were followed up by inquiries.[124] The regional program director for U.N. Women South Asia said, "There are rape cases in almost all cities and rural areas, where the victim dies immediately because of the brutality of the crime ... This time, it was like, 'Wake up.'"

 

[Vintage Paw]

OK, I was horribly aware that developing world was probably not only the wrong terminology and it was disingenuous to imply that rape is only happening in (foreign)places of intense poverty and inequality....it is just that I feel a bit battered by the particularly brutal gang rapes and other outrages happening against women.
Moreover, I posted a thread in a spirit of enquiry, not particularly to affect some sort of change (with respects, posting on Urban would not be my chosen platform if I wished to bring about effective change). I have no agenda to promote (well, obviously nothing conscious and deliberate) other than to wonder if there had been an increase in actual violence towards women and if rape, as an act of power, was increasing, globally.....or if there was an increase in reporting such incidents.

There are likely to be local and regional instances where backlashes against certain things will result in a spike of assaults, but in general as others have said it's unlikely that there is a more general upward trend in sexual assaults around the world. What I see is that there is more reporting. Why there is more reporting is an interesting one. The subject of violence towards women has been given something of a boon of late: partially perhaps because 'we' want to show how terrible 'they' are; partially perhaps because of the increased chatter and controversy in the media surrounding feminism and its vocal proponents; we are generally more aware of how gendered power works.... Either way, increased visibility is a good thing, and it isn't necessarily something in and of itself you should be depressed about, because it shows that - superficially at least - the general sense as a complete society of what is morally acceptable is in agreement on this. That won't necessarily translate into more laws protecting victims of sexual abuse, or into changing the attitudes and behaviours of many people, but it does mean there will be more pressure (be it legal, social, moral), which is better than less pressure.

 

[seventh bullet]

Hello ninjaboy.