The recent gang rape of an eight-year-old girl by four boys — aged 9-14 — was shocking enough. Now, police have stated that the girl’s father — who is from Liberia — blamed the girl for being raped and told that police “Take her, I don’t want her.”
As we have discussed on this blog in different stories, cultures in the Middle East and Africa often treat rape victims as shamed and guilty — sometimes even making the women and girls marry their rapists, here and here and here and here and here. India also has displayed such ignorance and prejudice, here.
In this case, the girl was reportedly tricked into going into a shed with the promise of some gum. The police have charged the 14-year-old boy as an adult while charging the other boys — 9, 10, and 13 — as juveniles. This will result in a huge difference in sentencing if convicted and could raise questions of fairness given the the one-year difference between two of the oldest boys.
The police said that the father blamed the girl and said that she had shamed the family.
Rape is almost an epidemic in Liberia where rapists are rarely prosecuted and victims are shunned, here. A recent report out of South Africa also shows a shocking level of rape, here.
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently tried to combat the shaming of rape victims by announcing that she was the victim of an attempted rape during the country’s civil war. President Sirleaf has spoken out against the family’s treatment in Arizona, here.
For the full story, click here.
And another atrocity to add to the list of Arizona failures is this story:
“The girl was taken into custody by Arizona’s child welfare agency after the police accounts saying her parents were ashamed of her.”
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/07/29/liberia.sex.crimes/
This sad story is just one more horrible example of the triumph of dogma over common sense and decency. As John Mueller wrote, “If people wish to love a 7th century prophet more than their own families, that’s up to them, but nobody else is obliged to take it seriously.”
In the Atlanta airport last week, for the first time in my life, in person, I saw a living woman entombed in a burka. She was shrouded in black from head to toe, with not an inch of skin showing. My first impulse was to wonder how in hell she got through security in such an outfit — I mean, if the male guard saw her face couldn’t her husband have had her stoned on the tarmac under suspicion of adultery? My second reaction to this jarring scene was abject anger.
Do devout Muslim men truly revile and fear females so deeply that the only way their wives can safely appear in public is in this grotesque and dehumanizing costume? The woman at the airport was accompanied by her husband and young son; neither, of course, was obliged to conceal his face. The husband was not exactly handsome, and I had the rather uncharitable thought that HE, in a perfect world, would have been the one covered from head to foot.
It is time to repudiate our self-imposed ban on rationality in matters of religious belief and practice. Even the Christian scriptures encourage us to “try the spirits.” There are far too many unexamined and unchallenged spirits running amok these days.
Deport the asshole father.
Mike S:
All’s fair in love and war–and during argument on the Turley blog! I think JT has that carved over his threshold.
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”
—G. K. Chesterton
“Not always true, but certainly so in the extreme.”
Mespo,
You see there you go being erudite again, if Emerson wasn’t enough, you go to Chesterton. How can a poor old man such as I compete?
“Life Ain’t Fair”
http://www.elyrics.net/read/p/puddle-of-mudd-lyrics/life-ain_t-fair-lyrics.html
Mike A:
“Even in a society which welcomes diversity, there are certain cultural practices which are so loathsome and incompatible with the principles underlying the Constitution that they cannot be tolerated.”
********************
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”
—G. K. Chesterton
Not always true, but certainly so in the extreme.
I agree with Mike S. I’ve been a volunteer guardian ad litem here in Florida for over 20 years. In my opinion this child has been abandoned, which is a sufficient ground for termination of parental rights. I would also suggest, however, that if her father is not a U.S. citizen, there should be an investigation to determine whether his actions are legal cause for deportation proceedings. Even in a society which welcomes diversity, there are certain cultural practices which are so loathsome and incompatible with the principles underlying the Constitution that they cannot be tolerated.
Buddha,
While I try to live my life by the “Golden Rule,” in my heart I would want to beat this bastard within an inch of his life. If I was Protective Services on this case this family would never see this child again and I would be in court terminating parental rights on what I think would be a prima facie case. I
have stated that on matters of child abuse and neglect my theories on punishment run somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. The mantra from my childhood, which remains with me in a deeply emotional way in my sixties is “Don’t hurt little people.” The corollary for many years was “Or you’ll deal with me.”
There seems to be some cosmic game going on where some people think being the most stupid is the best possible choice.
You can’t call this inhumane as her father is indeed a human, but cultural gap aside, just not a very good one. “I have no use for damaged goods. Let’s throw the baby to the dogs.” Well, maybe he isn’t human after all, because that sounds more like something a Klingon would do.
This kind of stuff makes me almost ashamed to be male and human. We can be a heartless species. There are two kinds of animals: ones that care for their young and those that don’t. The choice is that simple. What kind of animal do you want to be? I am certain that Mike S. (a paragon of compassion and as fair minded man you are likely to meet) can explain how this applies to the good Rabbi’s take on the Golden Rule in a much more dignified manner than I am capable of at this instant. Because right now I am having a moment over the thought of abandoning a child. Pardon me while I burst into flames.
She’s EIGHT, for God’s sake. How could she have led her attackers on?
The little girl will probably, in the long run, be better off away from these people. I read this morning that people from 8 or 9 different states have asked how they can contribute to her care, or are even looking to adopt her.
This is a cultural bias that I do not understand. I question what benefit the child would have being left in the care of her father. What kind of treatment would she have?