Shershah Syed Quotes

Pakistan follows a version of Islamic Law—Sharia—which provides that a man can be convicted of rape only if there are at least 4 male witnesses. Since it is virtually impossible to ever get 4 witnesses to a crime like that, there will never be a conviction. However, the complaining victim runs two additional dangers. First she is admitting to fornication and or adultery and can be jailed or even killed for that. Further, Pakistan males regard her as a prostitute and the police will also rape her very often.

The Minister was commenting on a case where a 28 year old Punjab woman of low family status was sentenced by a Pakistani court to be gang raped in front of her father. The offence for which she was punished was that her younger brother age 11 had been found in the presence of a 20 year old daughter of a wealthy and high status family. The male members of the high status family beat and sodomized the young boy and then appealed to the tribal court for justice and defense of their family honor which the court granted by sentencing the daughter so the other family’s honor would be besmirched. The Pakistani national government, after outcries throughout the world, declared the punishment illegal. They named a school after the victim, Mukhtaran Bibi, and arrested the rapists. However the rapists were not charged with a capital crime according to Pakistan law and traditional Muslim law, Sharia.

In much of the Islamic world if a woman commits adultery or becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she will often be killed by her own father or brothers who perceive that this is the only way to maintain the honor of the family. The primitive custom really becomes gross when a woman who is the victim of rape, ends up being killed by her own male family members. In some Muslim countries honor killings are against the law but that prohibition is rarely legally enforced.

This statement is believed by many people who would blame the female victim of rape for the way she dressed. Rape is a heinous felony, and it is never excused by the way the victim dresses. Few who hold this view publicly will state it, but this public statement triggered a set of demonstrations throughout Canada which spread to the United States and Europe. See {623723}.

The Armed Services had then a terrible problem of sexual assault on female troops with an attitude on the part of many officers and commanders that would tolerate these assaults and not treat them seriously. The situation was so bad the the General repeated that he was not kidding about the major priority in that he realized a large number of senior officers would find it surprising the the Chief of Staff would make the issue the number one army priority.

This quote illustrates how ignorant some members of Congress are about basic science and human reproduction. There is absolutely no physiology whereby the trauma of rape can cause a contraceptive effect. Akin was in the midst of a Senate race, and his opponents and the press pilloried him for his ignorance. The previous year there were about 32,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in the United S tates. Worse for Akin, his use of “legitimate rape” got him into trouble with the voters also. His implication that there were some rapes that were NOT legitimate infuriated many voters. He lost the election in a state where the Republicans were predicted to win.

This proverb which actually has the force of de facto law in much of the Arab world, while detested by many sophisticated Westerners and Americans in particular, was actually a custom in America for many years. Under the principle, a rapist is not a rapist if he marries the girl. A seducer is not a seducer. In the Bedouin culture there is no difference between the rapist and the seducer. The reason that the practice is so hateful is that it assumes that when a woman is raped or seduced the damage is to the woman’s male relatives—to their honor. Therefore, the “crime” can be remedied by marrying the girl and satisfying the male relative’s sense of honor. Then no harm has been done, except of course to the woman who often becomes the double victim, first of the rape or seduction and then of a forced marriage. In modern America the honor of the male relatives has no standing in law, yet even today some judges and prosecutors will go easy on a statutory rapist or worse if he marries the girl and the girls family goes along with the arrangement. The term “shotgun wedding” stems from a time when family members would force the alternative on seducers.

There are over 600.000 reported rape cases in South Africa each year. Since most rape goes unreported the real total is much larger, making South Africa the worst country in the world on a sexual violence scale. There are many reasons suggested for the South African extreme. However, since apartheid was overthrown, all ANC Governments had had a reluctance to have heavy police action for anything and there is a general reluctance to imprison people as this was what the apartheid regimes did. So all criminal activity is relatively high in South Africa.

At the time, the Congo was notorious for the huge number of rapes and the fact that rape was being used as a tool of intimidation by the government troops who the government claims are there to protect the public and also by the rebel forces who claim to be fighting for the people including the women they rape. In reality, the Congo is very rich in natural resources and the battles for control of the country are all really driven by the money to be made from the resources. The absurd denial by the ambassador has got to be one of the more hypocritical denials in diplomatic annals.

Mourdock, defeated Richard Lugar in the Republican Senatorial Primary election. Lugar, one of the most respected and effective Senators was a statesman who worked with any and all to find effective compromises to reach national solutions. The nation was so politically polarized that the Republican Indiana voters ousted one of their most senior senators because he was effective at developing national For most Indiana voters the thought of electing a man who believed that rapes were the will of God.was too much. See {626717} and {626716} for other Mourdock’s outrageous comments. While this rhetoric won in the Primary, it lost him the general election in a state where Republicans had a strong majority and should have had the seat. Mourdock had intended to reiterate his opposition to abortion even in instances of rape. However, his ideology and religious fundamentalism got the better of him and he alienated not only the people who favored woman’s choice but many abortion opponents as well.

The overwhelming majority of Canadians and the Canadian legislators do not agree with this position, and Day and a few others represent a small minority view.

Note that in pre-Muslim Arabia, a woman was not punished if she was raped as is currently done in some Muslim countries.

Goodman is citing the 2003 poll conducted by the pro-choice Center for the Advancement of Women, who found that the majority of women believe abortion should be legal only in three cases -- rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.

See {623723} & {623724} for the origin of the demonstrations. Women demonstrated for the right to be safe from sexual assault regardless of how particular men perceived they were dressing.