more about Abu Ghraib

[low_delta]

"We believe she was raped and that she was pregnant by a US guard. After her release from Abu Ghraib, I went to her house. The neighbours said her family had moved away. I believe she has been killed.

"Honour killings are not unusual in Islamic society, where rape is often equated with shame and where the stigma of being raped by an American soldier would, according to one Islamic cleric, be "unbearable". The prospects for rape victims in Iraq are grave; it is hardly surprising that no women have so far come forward to talk about their experiences in US-run jails where abuse was rife until early January."

What About The Women Prisoners?
By Luke Harding
21 May, 2004
The Guardian

Comments

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Every time I read about rape, my eyes just shake in their sockets, it makes me so angry.

I'll stop there.

[the-99th-aisle.livejournal.com]

Give it time, and somebody will probably come forward with the same old bullshit about "it's war, and soldiers do bad things in every war." That still doesn't make it all right. As for honor killings, they are not compatible with Islamic teachings, but would be more of a cultural thing. Suicide is a more plausible possibility in my mind, despite being against Islamic law as well.

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

People have already said it. Hell, I've already said it. But it never, ever, ever excuses it. Never. I don't understand the mentality that allows for that. I don't understand it one bit.

[marswalker.livejournal.com]

Two sides to this... - one side, we'll hear about enough from the press, about war, war horrors, etc. "Not excusable" is my angle on it.
The other side - is the "life is cheap" side of it.

If life weren't regarded so casually, on both sides of the fence, our soldiers wouldn't be commiting such crimes, and various societies / cultures wouldn't be so quick to damn the victem for the crime and/or kill them. It's not uncommon throughout the world that females are held responsible for things done to them and treated unfairly. This is one example. The middle- and far- east are rife with examples. Remember burkhas?

In Beijing there are rows of display cases along the sidewalks in popular parts of the city. When I was there, the cases contained occasional bills about various performances, etc. My friend who was there in the late '80's said they used to contain newspaper pages, with pictures and lists of folks who'd been recently put to death for various crimes including theft and free-speach. This is a part of the world where citizens are openly harassed for talking to outsiders, for anything more than taking their monies. Where 16-year-olds are shipped a thousand miles from their families, military trained, given machienguns, and placed as guards to subdue the natives of the occupied land. (if you've ever had a machinegun pointed at you, you know it's not a comfortable feeling no mater WHO'S holding it.)

[sigh]... this is another "infantile disease of the human race", right alongside nationalism.

[emschin.livejournal.com]

. ."if you've ever had a machine gun pointed at you". .

Your statement really conveyed the feeling because of one encounter I had with a machine gun. While in Berlin my friend and I visited the reconstructed synagogue where Krystallnacht began. It is now a museum. At the entry were four soldiers in uniform, each carrying a machine gun. They were not pointing the guns but just the sight of them sent a chill down my back. Just inside was a huge soldier with a pistol in a holster. In my mind I called him "Big Bruno" but I would never have said anything casual, let alone disrespectful to him.