Friend asks me why I'm angry about Saudi Rape

A friend wrote to me in response to my posting about the Saudi rape case and asked: "what exactly makes you angry about this? :)" He went on: "I can see why there is plenty in this case to make one angry, the mere fact that a 19 year old was savagely gang-raped 14 times is more than enough, but I still don't think that absolves the victim for her "crime." And what she did is a crime as defined by the Laws of the country in which she lives. Whether it is an appropriate or just law, and whether it accurately reflects the requirements of Islam are wholly irrelevant to the matter at hand. The fact is, she was committing a crime when she got into the stranger's car and (absent any absolving factors) she should be punished for it, irrespective of what happens afterwards. "

I have written a lengthy response to this comment (and it could probably have gone on for many, many more pages). My anger arises for a number of different reasons (as I explain). But one of the most disturbing things for me regarding this comment was the view of law as a mechanical tool that should be applied no matter what has happened to the criminal/ victim (ie the 19-year-old woman). Even if, for some reason I cannot understand, you believe that the woman should be punished for "illegal mingling", the fact that she was gang-raped and has to carry the scars of that attack around with her for the rest of the life should surely be punishment enough???

For more information about this case, see http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/16/saudia17363.htm
It turns out that both the woman and her male friend (the man who she was "illegally mingling" with) were gang raped by a group of strange men:
"The young woman, who is married, said she had met with a male acquaintance who had promised to give her back an old photograph of herself. After she met her acquaintance in his car in Qatif, a gang of seven men then attacked and raped both of them, multiple times. Despite the prosecution’s requests for the maximum penalty for the rapists, the Qatif court sentenced four of them to between one and five years in prison and between 80 and 1,000 lashes. They were convicted of kidnapping, apparently because prosecutors could not prove rape. The judges reportedly ignored evidence from a mobile phone video in which the attackers recorded the assault. "

I would be curious to hear people's response to the idea that, if a law is on the books, it should be applied regardless of the pain that might have consequently been inflicted on the individual who violated the law. I have put some examples in my comment on the original saudi rape posting (following Sage's comment). Any more comments/ rebuttals would be appreciated.

Extraordinary Rendition

Hossam el-Hamalawy on arabist.net drew my attention to an upcoming series on extraordinary rendition. You can see the preview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz80NWS9vvE.

I am continually surprised by how many people have never heard of the shocking practice of "extraordinary rendition." Basically, "extraordinary rendition" occurs when countries such as the US fly individuals to a third country to be tortured and interrogated. In this way, the US can continue to claim that it does not condone the practice of torture (??!!) and can insist that torture does not occur on its own soil. For a detailed analysis with a good account of individual experiences of extraordinary rendition, and how the practice violates international human rights law, see: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss19/weissbrodt.shtml

The second-class status of Baha'is in Egypt

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has been representing Baha'is in Egypt who are unable to access ID cards. Every Egyptian citizen over the age of 16 is required to possess an ID--without this document, you can't graduate from college, get a death certificate, travel etc etc. The problem is that you have to list your religion on the ID and you are limited to the choice of Muslim, Christian or Jew. There's no option of "baha'i" or "no religion." This leads to terrible injustice. An article in Daily News Egypt recently described the situation and mentions EIPR's role in representing Baha'is:

"CAIRO: Shady Samir, a 33-year-old business owner, lost his father two years ago. Yet, he is still paying the yearly taxes on his father’s business as if he was alive. Why? Because his father is Bahai and official Egyptian documents such as the death certificate only recognize the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish faiths.
For Samir’s father to be “officially dead” to the national authorities, he would need to convert and become a Muslim, Christian, or a Jew upon his death.
Official documents such as identity cards and birth certificates are a survival necessity. Citizens cannot enroll in school, receive medical treatment, take bank loans, or buy a car without their national ID card. Young children cannot even receive vaccinations against diseases without a birth certificate.
Those Bahais who refuse to pose as Christians, Muslims, or Jews are left in limbo, living as stateless people in their own country.
“Egyptian Bahais exist in nature but in the eyes of the state they are non-existent,” said Hossam Baghat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights (EIPR)."
See the full article at http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=10046

French boy raped in UAE - prejudice shown against 'homosexuality' no surprise

I just read a heartbreaking story about a young French boy who was raped in Dubai that highlights the inadequacies of the rape laws in UAE--inadequacies that are certainly also evident in the Egyptian legal system. Despite the fact that he was raped by 3 men at knifepoint, the boy himself now faces charges of homosexual activity and has fled back to France. The UAE authorities also lied about the fact that one of the assailants had tested positive for HIV when he was in prison three years ago. The prejudice against homosexuals and lack of legal protection afforded to survivors of rape is unfortunately not surprising in this part of the world...
(Proviso: I am fully aware that the racial dynamics in this article might make some people uncomfortable--ie that it is a French national who is receiving all the attention while a UAE national would not get this type of publicity. I do not, of course, think that the rape is any worse because the survivor was French. UAE nationals cannot simply flee to Europe to escape these draconian laws.. and that's what's so terrible. I'm just pleased to see any publicity focusing on these issues).

You can read the story at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/world/middleeast/01dubai.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Also, his mother has set up a support group dedicated to her son at http://boycottdubai.com/. She is calling for reforms to the UAE criminal code so that child survivors of rape are better protected by the law. You can join as a member to show your support.

The effectiveness of human rights..

I am constantly questioning and assessing the role of human rights discourse, particularly in the legal field, and whether it can really make a difference to people on the ground. I think it's important that I remain acutely aware of the discord that can emerge between legal cases and people's actual lives.
I am attempting to think of ways to approach my desire to improve human relations and to reduce suffering that will really have an impact on individuals. With my literature background, I am looking at the creative projects used to promote human rights...
Today I have been reading Richard Rorty who writes:

"In my utopia, human solidarity would be seen...as a goal to be achieved. It is to be achieved not by inquiry but by imagination, the imaginative ability to see strange people as fellow sufferers. Solidarity is not discovered by reflection but created. It is created by increasing our sensitivity to the particular details of the pain and humiliation of other, unfamiliar sorts of people. Such increased sensitivity makes it more difficult to marginalize people different from ourselves... ....This process...is a matter of detailed description of what unfamiliar people are like and of redescription of what we ourselves are like. This is a task not for theory but for [other] genres..., especially, the novel. Fiction...gives us the details about kinds of suffering being endured by people to whom we had previously not attended....gives us the details about what sorts of cruelty we ourselves are capable of, and thereby lets us redescribe ourselves. That is why the novel, the movie, and the TV program have...replaced the sermon and the treatise as the principal vehicles of moral change and progress."
I have put more of Rorty's work on the bottom RHS of this blog, under 'quotations from books/articles I'm currently reading.'

DONALD RUMSFELD CHARGED WITH TORTURE DURING TRIP TO FRANCE

"October 26, 2007, Paris, France – Today, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande Instance) charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine. “The filing of this French case against Rumsfeld demonstrates that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice. Rumsfeld must understand that he has no place to hide. A torturer is an enemy of all humankind,” said CCR President Michael Ratner.“France is under the obligation to investigate and prosecute Rumsfeld’s accountability for crimes of torture in Guantanamo and Iraq. France has no choice but to open an investigation if an alleged torturer is on its territory. I hope that the fight against impunity will not be sacrificed in the name of politics. We call on France to refuse to be a safe haven for criminals.” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen. “We want to combat impunity and therefore demand a judicial investigation and a criminal prosecution wherever there is jurisdiction over the torture incidents,” said ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck."That a criminal State representative should benefit from impunity is always unacceptable. Because the USA is the super power of the beginning of this century and, above all, because it is a democracy, the impunity of Donald Rumsfeld is even more insufferable than that of a Hissène Habré or a Radovan Karadzic", underlined Jean-Pierre Dubois, LDH President. The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture – and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court – it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case. In this case, charges are brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases. French courts therefore have an obligation under the Convention against Torture to prosecute individuals responsible for acts of torture if they are present on French territory (1). This will be the only case filed while he is in the country, which makes the obligations to investigate and prosecute under international law extremely strong."
http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4829

Right to Privacy... any ideas?

It was my first day at work today. Over the next 10 months, I will be focusing principally on "the right to privacy." I want to find out as much as possible about both the philosophical and practical foundations of this right... so if anyone has any ideas or research tips, please let me know!