Criminal law, International, Religion

British Woman Comes Forward To Report Her Gang Rape In Dubai . . . Police Charge Her With Unlawful Drinking

100px-Flag_of_Dubai.svgA twenty-eight-year-old British woman was allegedly kidnapped and gang raped by three Iranian men in Dubai. When she and her roommate went to police, they found an all-too-common hostile response from police in the Islamic state. While the police sought (and ultimately arrested two of the three Iranians), the woman was charged with “drinking without a license.”

The woman reportedly was drinking for six hours before a taxi driver said that she got into his taxi drunk. The manager with a company in Dubai tried to withdraw money from a machine to pay for the taxi but was unsuccessful. When the driver took her to her apartment building, he said that a car pulled up with three Iranian men. They allegedly told him that they knew the woman and paid her fare. They then put her in their car and drove off. The victim says that she was taken to their apartment where they took turns raping her and videotaping the assaults as she begged them to stop.

Two 20-year-old Iranian men have been charged with the assault. The defense counsel insists that the whole story is fabricated and that the victim “watches a lot of action movies”. However, police report that one of the defendants admitted that he was concerned about kidnapping a “British woman” but was convinced to do it by his friends. That raises the chilling prospect that kidnapping local women is less problematic and they may be less likely to go to police given the harsh treatment afforded to raped Muslim women. We have previously discussed the perverse attitude toward rape among some in this region.

Public interest groups have long complained of the mistreatment and even prosecution of rape victims in Dubai and other Muslim countries. We have followed these troubling cases (here and here and here and here and here and here), though at least this case involves a prosecution of the alleged culprits.

Source: Independent

20 thoughts on “British Woman Comes Forward To Report Her Gang Rape In Dubai . . . Police Charge Her With Unlawful Drinking”

  1. She is not being persecuted for being raped, she is being prosecuted for breaking the law of the land. -Elaine

    Yes, she broke the law and was fined. (See below.) But to say that “she is not being persecuted for being raped?” It’s just not that simple.

    From The Independent article cited by Jonathan Turley:

    “The woman says she drank three glasses of wine. Drinking without a liquor licence is technically illegal in Dubai, though the document is never asked for at bars and hotels. She was fined 1,000 dirhams (£169).”

    “However, the legal system’s treatment of victims of sexual crimes has drawn particular condemnation.

    “In the UAE, there have been multiple cases over the past few years where the state has charged women with criminal offences after they have reported rape,” said Samer Muscati, a researcher in the women right’s division of Human Rights Watch.

    “When it comes to seeking justice for sexual violence, women in the UAE still face formidable and often insurmountable barriers.”

    In 2010, the case of an 18-year-old Emirati – who was sentenced to a year in prison for illicit sex after she reported that she had been gang raped by six men – drew international outrage. Dr Rima Al Sabban, an assistant professor at Zayed University who specialises in women’s issues, said that the system can discourage women from reporting rape.

    “Potential rapists can take advantage of this, knowing that the woman is in a weak position and might be afraid of being prosecuted,” she said. “Women become double victims.””

  2. They went after the rapists and charged them. She was breaking the law-its against the law even if she isn’t raped and she would likely have been charged with breaking the LAW if it was known by the police. She is not being persecuted for being raped, she is being prosecuted for breaking the law of the land.

  3. A skim shows great stuff here. For new, let me comment that a raped muslim woman is damaged goods, even if married, and is likely to be thrown literally in the garbage pail (dead) to save the family “honor”.
    Bedtime. Have a nice evening all.

  4. Ok, how about this quote: East of Corfu the Ten Commandments dont apply. Who said that? Its true. Pirate territories from Corfu until you get to India, then you have to skip a lot until you hit Australia.

  5. You folks from civilized nations will just have to stop crossing the borders into these pirate countries. You can not rely on your government to advise you as to which of these splatches of land are safe. East of Corfu no one need apply. Ok, who authored that quote?

  6. Darren,

    I agree with you on some levels. Not all wife abusers are cowards at heart. There are some things that are societal and learned reactions, throw in a dose of alcohol and the field is even wider.

    With respect to individuals sleeping with different partners there are as many theory’s on that as well as partners, the striking one is low self esteem and dominance, regardless of how you get there.

  8. Time to issue a travel warning for these countries and see how the lack of tourist dollars helps. -Darren

    Won’t happen. Listen to the Scahill interviews.

  9. The military is ground zero for rape of women:

    He hit me across the left side of my face … and my face hurt so bad. He screamed at me and he grabbed my arm and he raped me.” Kori Cioca’s heartbreaking account of her rape by a commanding officer while serving in the US Coast Guard is not the most shocking part of her testimony. Following the attack, Cioca was told by her superiors that if she went forward with her case she would be court-martialed for lying; her assailant, who admitted the attack but denied rape, then received just 30 days of base restriction and loss of pay and the US Department of Defense continues to refuse to pay for the surgery she needs for the nerve damage to her face.

    (Guardian, emphasis added). Like I said up-thread, there must be some reason USCENTCOM moved to that area.

  10. Can someone explain to me why people visit these countries? And, if you had no way to avoid being in a place like that, why would you go drinking?

    That in no way suggests it is this womans fault. To me these countries are like child molesting uncles, why would you visit them? Isolate & rebuke them.

  11. You are right in what you mentioned about oppressive men. I’ve noticed at least on a personal level a significant number of wife abusers are cowards at heart.

    1. “I’ve noticed at least on a personal level a significant number of wife abusers are cowards at heart.”

      Oh Darren,

      How right you are. Prior to my marriage I had a rather active sex life. This was not due to my career prospects, good looks, or even sexual prowess. Rather it was the fact that I always looked at women as equals and perhaps even more perceptive than I and treated them accordingly. I never saw sexuality as a means of proving my manhood and since it is such an intimate pleasure was always discriminating in my choices. The women in my life broadened me as a human being and this is especially true of my wife. The idea of “dominating” a woman is both abhorrent and foolish in my estimation. Forget the culture that these three men were raised in, their actions bespeak people who are essentially loathsome.

  13. The oppression/repression of women by certain males, religions and ethnicities reflects the insecurity of certain men when it comes to sex and other men when it comes to women. Any man who would even consider raping a women is pathologically flawed and insecure about his own perverse notion of manhood. It is not enough to conclude that the attitude is merely cultural, since in truth we are birthed and raised by women and in almost all cases our love for our mothers has a genetic component. It may be hard to define but a “real” man, secure in his person-hood can only treat women as they are, his total equals. Anything less reflects his own failings.

  14. Time to issue a travel warning for these countries and see how the lack of tourist dollars helps. I don’t know what the appeal there can be for women or men for that matter from the west to travel to these countries.

  17. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

    “Sahinal Monir, a slim 24-year-old from the deltas of Bangladesh. “To get you here, they tell you Dubai is heaven. Then you get here and realise it is hell,” he says. Four years ago, an employment agent arrived in Sahinal’s village in Southern Bangladesh. He told the men of the village that there was a place where they could earn 40,000 takka a month (£400) just for working nine-to-five on construction projects. It was a place where they would be given great accommodation, great food, and treated well. All they had to do was pay an up-front fee of 220,000 takka (£2,300) for the work visa – a fee they’d pay off in the first six months, easy. So Sahinal sold his family land, and took out a loan from the local lender, to head to this paradise.

    As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised. If you don’t like it, the company told him, go home. “But how can I go home? You have my passport, and I have no money for the ticket,” he said. “Well, then you’d better get to work,” they replied.

    Sahinal was in a panic. His family back home – his son, daughter, wife and parents – were waiting for money, excited that their boy had finally made it. But he was going to have to work for more than two years just to pay for the cost of getting here – and all to earn less than he did in Bangladesh.”

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