The Rape of the Somali Woman

[Alisomali]

I have been working with a Human Rights Law center in California. One of our biggest projects has been studying the effects of the civil war on Somalia.

In order to further our study we have also been working with detained Somalis who are seeking asylum but are going through the immigration process. Through my experience with this group, I been interviewing many detained Somali men and women, and there stories are heart wrenching.

Today I talked to a Somali woman who was raped by five men in a major Somali city, to further the barbarity of this story she was dragged from a stall at a “souk†and into a home to be sexually defiled by the savage morayaan that attacked her. This happened in day light and no one did anything to help her.

I’m still reeling from this interview, it was truly sad, she could not stop crying when she was recounting the story….and now she has tested positive for HIV.

Anyways what I’m trying to get to in this post is where has this knack for sexual barbarity come from in our society ? B/C we as Somalis like to act that we are upstanding Muslims and when we actually talk about the effects of this evil war on our beloved nation and people we talk about the killing and hunger, but never about the rampant rape that has been utilized by our men albeit a small number against our mothers,sisters, aunts, etc.

Is it that we are ashamed to discuss this issue of rape? Or are we in complete denial?

All I have to say is that thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Somali women have been raped by Somali men; and this significant subject is rarely conversed about, and my question is WHY NOT???

[Gabbal]

WHY NOT???

Simple. We Somalis are the biggest hypocrits of all. We value saving face and shy away from hurting ours and our family's reputations.

 

To answer you question: No Somali women will come out in public and say she was raped and no Somali man will come out in public and admit he raped a women. It is a taboo and the slience emanating from that delegates the subject to the far abyss corners during discussion of the civil war.

[Pacifist]

Salaam this may be help to you.

 

http://www.hrw.org/women/docs/rapeinwar.htm

 

http://www.djembe.dk/no/14/14somali.html

 

It is has more info about the war in somalia and the women that were raped in the refugee camps.

 

We are in complete denial. Rape victims if make a stand and talk about become outcast in the somali communities. Rape in the somali community is taken lightly but dealing with rape issue or talking about it is the problem. You see if the victims could come out publicly and talk about it. Then they would be come an outcast and family shame occurs.

 

We would do best at pointing fingers at them and all. The worst thing is they can't really go get help because even if she is raped it would be on a hush hush never ever mention it kinda case. So that makes them not even get counseling. Even in some cases the rape victim can not even get married. These are the reason we don't talk about it. Because no body wants to admit that there rape victim is a actual rape victim.

 

In some cases the rape victim is blamed for luring them. Some are even jailed or even killed because they would cause such shame to the family name

 

I will write more I got to sleep.

 

So the big question is who will be the one to step up and say I was raped and lets talk about what we can do so that it doesn't happen ever again.

 

okay I got to go now

[NGONGE]

RAPE! A very scary word that. Still, I’m not sure I could stick my neck out by calling Somalis hypocrites and other names because of whatever tragedies and atrocities took place in the war! Not without assessing the issue of rape first.

 

Over ten years ago, there was a court case in the UK in which a woman accused someone of rape. I don’t recall the particulars of the exact case, however, I remember the rumpus caused when the residing judge commented on the victim’s attire and hinted at the fact that her dress sense was partly to blame for her ordeal!

 

Many seemingly rational, law-abiding and educated men in the West (a supposedly civilised society) harbour similar opinions. I’ve read articles where the author though condemning rape, would still allude to the fact that the victim was at the wrong place in the wrong time, or that she knew “that part of town†was a “no go†area after a certain hour of night, or that the fact she dresses like a prostitute would, somewhat, excuse her rapist!

 

Many respected and supposedly rational people hold such opinions in civilised and organised societies! Societies that would uphold and respect the rule of law! How then could the posters above expect the savages of Africa (stop twitching please, a rapist is a savage) to behave any better?

 

Rape, murder, tyranny and human abuse of any kind are all abhorrent acts and no god-fearing society should condemn them, engage in them or let them go unpunished. However, when a society is in a state of chaos, when the basics of human behaviour are discarded and when the gun is the only arbitrator of all disputes, it’s ridicules, nay naïve, to expect such things as rape not to take place!

 

Remember those trivial desert island questions? I personally can’t say, hand on heart, that if I was shipwrecked on an Island with a beautiful female and we had no forms of entertainment, enlightenment or reflections, I can’t say that, assuming she does not like me, the thought of rape would not cross my mind (of course, I will probably rationalise it as procreation or some such nonsense). When one is reduced to the miserable status of a savage animal with none of the refinements humans acquire in organised and civil societies. No facilities for progress, thought, faith or principles, one is capable of committing all manners of crimes.

 

Such was the case in Somalia (or any other war torn part of the world) at the break of civil war. A man that can kill in cold blood but gets tormented by his conscious when it comes to rape is likely to be a very rare specimen (a one off).

 

We’re all dressed in layers upon layers of morals, rules of conduct and principles. For most, these are there because they’re told, “it’s the honourable, Islamic and right things to doâ€, yet many never ponder these doctrines, and when faced with utter bedlam (such as the one in Somalia in the early 90’s) easily cast off all these virtues and fall in line with the mob!

 

To compound such a problem, the society itself, when in peace and operating under some semblance of a structure and organisation, still downplays such acts and assumes that they’re not likely to take place (that much) because, astoundingly, we are MUSLIM!

 

Rape, that hideous style of oppression, is not really the problem; the problem is ignorance, sanctimony, self-righteousness and empty arrogance. It is probably still possible to take vengeance and punish a rapist in such conditions, but is it at all possible to enlighten a nation?

[Jumatatu]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

Over ten years ago, there was a court case in the UK in which a woman accused someone of rape. I don’t recall the particulars of the exact case, however, I remember the rumpus caused when the residing judge commented on the victim’s attire and hinted at the fact

that her dress sense was partly to blame for her ordeal!

I think I will need to rush and buy 'ringside' tickets for this

 

Adeero I hope u r prepared, this will be worse than Nintendo...

[Reality Check]

Let's not forget the young girls/women who are raped in their homes by their spouses, fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, etc.

[- Femme -]

young girls/women who are raped in their homes by their spouses,

Rape is indeed a horrible, unforgivable act. However, Ive been told that in Islam a husband is not guilty of raping his wife, because she is obliged to please him in the first place. Is that true?

[Garyaqaan2]

Rape is indeed a horrible, unforgivable act. However, Ive been told that in Islam a husband is not guilty of raping his wife, because she is obliged to please him in the first place. Is that true?

 

 

 

The prophat said scw if the woman didn't want to please her husban with out reason the whole night alaah and the angels will curse her.

 

but sister the prophat said the best of you is the one's who treats his wife the best.

 

another hadith the prophat scw said if the woman believes in alaah and she filfuls of the waajibaat diinta and she is obeient to her husban us long us the husban is obeient to alaah. she could enter any of the aight gates of haven.

[Tahliil]

Of course, plenty of bad things happened in that period of time and still goes on unaccounted but beleive it or not, compared to other nations at war, the rape cases reported in Somalia was the fewest.. West/South Afrcan wars and the Bosnian war have the highest number of rape cases reported... Still am not least excusing of what had happened to our sister, but the cases were not as much...

 

On the same token, Afghanistan was said, even though lawless and at war, as we know, for a longggg time, had accounted fewer rape cases than the cases reported in the Balkan wars...

 

I think it's got a lot to do with the structure, ties and the tribal system that women should stay behind, protected...most of the time...