The Rape of Dr. Shazia Khalid
I don't know if any of you have heard the horrowing story of the rape of Dr. Shazia Khaled in Pakistan, and what she had to endure for actually reporting it. The Pakistani government and officials tried to stick her in a psych ward and claim she is crazy, then confied her to her home for 2 months, then started spreading allegations that she is a loose woman and then deported her out of her country without her son for doing nothing more but insisting on reporting the rape to the Pakistani Police and demanding Justice. She now lives in a one room apartment in london with her husband who refused to divorce her-despite his family pressuring him- or blame her for anything and thus cost himself his job, his family and his life. I don't think , even when i am writing those words, that I have allowed myself to fully comprehend her story and what it says about the world we live in. It personally sickens me that the Pakistani government and officials would do that to her. I mean, don't those people have sisters or mothers or daughters? In a country where a woman is raped every 2 hours, wouldn't they want laws in place to protect- at least- their own women? Who am I kidding? They are the ones probably doing the raping. Of course they wouldn't want such laws to be in place. This story is not the first of its kind it seems. To the women who read this blog: Count your blessings and thank your gods for not being born or living in Pakistan. Seriously.
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 8/02/2005 01:44:00 AM
6 Comments:
الحمد لله
I'm going to try to find or write some letters. I'll be posting on my blog. Since this is an ally of the US, I think a letter-writing campaign to the White House may be worthwhile.
Pakistani women need to think like THIS:
http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=1409
Notice that Sergeant Bushra Jabar keeps her pistol in her hand at all times. It's hard to rape a woman when she's pumping bullets into your ugly face.
Believe me, Sam, I know how fortunate American women are in their men. (and vice versa)
You certainly have a modern and progressive view of women and relations between the sexes....what did your momma do right?
Bridget
It wasn't my momma or my Dad. It was my granny! God only knows what view I would have of women based on the things my aprents thought me!
The U.S. has a higher per capita rape rate than Pakistan. It's a problem everywhere. Not just Pakistan. The problem has some cultural aspects, especially in the tribal areas, but it is more so institutional in nature.
Nationwide, Pakistan's police forces are undermanned, underequipped, underpaid, and undertrained. The country is also dominated by feudalism. Others in position of authority, the wealthy civilians and some powerful military ppl, take advantage of their power to the max. No one can check them. One solution would be U.S./international financial and expertise aid for improving the quality of the police there, and providing them, for example, with supplies such as rape kits. There should also be more female police officers.
As for the U.S., don't forget to count date rapes and then more "subtle" things like your Average Joe buying drinks for a woman till he can take her home and have his way. That stuff happens everyday, and unfortunately we tend to relegate them to the Lifetime channel.
It might make you feel better to shit on someone else's country and forget about it the next day, but it certainly won't help improve the lives of the women--and men--there.
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