Iraqi Women and Torture, Part One Rapes and Rumors of Rape

[Whoa_Nelly]

The issue of rape becomes one of perception here. (10) The facts don’t really count because even if no one can find the letter-writer, the photos from Abu Ghraib are going to be used by the Arab rumor-mills to flesh out the most insubstantial hearsay. But what is glossed over is that there is more to the story than the rumor-mills. Earlier in the article, the author has conceded that the prison photos do include photos of women being assaulted:

mong the 1,800 or so pictures taken by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib, there are others, viewed by Congress but not released to the public, of at least one Iraqi woman forced to bare her breasts. And a Iraqi Women and Torture, Part One
Rapes and Rumors of Rape

by Lila Rajiva
www.dissidentvoice.org
July 27, 2004

By now, everyone has heard of the ghost detainees of Abu Ghraib -- the prisoners who were never processed into the system and were kept out of sight of the Red Cross so that they could be whisked from prison to prison unaccounted for. But what about the other ghosts detainees -- the women? Where are the women of Abu Ghraib and why have they been kept out of sight?

<snip>
US military investigator, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, cited at least one case of a military police guard “having sex with” a female prisoner.

Yet, in spite of this concrete photographic evidence, the author, Annia Ciezadlo, and one of the experts she cites, Manal Omar, the Iraqi-American coordinator of Women for Women both give primacy to rumor-mongering in their accounts of rape.

As much as one tenth of an article of only 1344 words is made up of words, phrases or sentences that suggest falsity and credulity in some way or focuses on the risk of honor killing, or the use made of the allegation of rape by “anti-US” forces and the article itself is subtitled: “Photos -- even if fake -- spark rumors that hit family honor.”

more...
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Rajiva0727.htm

[DrWeird]

1. We've all seen pictures of the men being raped.

It's a shame some people consider it not that bad because they haven't seen pictures involving women yet.

[soothsayer]

2. many women released from US custody kill themselves because

of the PERCEPTION that they must have been raped, according to Haifa Zanaga, Iraqi novelist, painter, and former political prisoner.

Listen to her in this compelling interview (it's the July 8th one).
http://www.visionaryactivism.com/radioshow.htm

[JSJ]

3. International Red Cross Estimates Between 75 and 90% of...

...detainees were innocent of any charges. That's false imprisonment on top of assault- sexual or otherwise- on top of murder, on top of torture and murder. People of the Middle East have it right when they call the US the 'Great Satan'. Indeed, the troops have definately earned that sobriquet.