Rape flourishes after Haitian earthquake

[primroselane]

"Rape has long been a scourge in Haiti. It was used as a form of political repression in 1994 and in 2004, periods of upheaval when military dictators and their brutish gangs of enforcers seized power. Men who opposed the regime were abducted and killed, women raped. An entire generation of Haitians is filled with children of rape.

Before 2005, rape was considered an offense against honor, or "crime of passion," meaning it was a minor infraction in which the perpetrator would go free if he agreed to marry his victim. Victims had to pay for the examination.

Still, victims are stigmatized, abusers rarely caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Malya Villard-Appolon, a founding member of Kofaviv, recalled how police leered at her 14-year-old daughter when the two went to a police station to report the girl's rape. One officer said girls and young women get raped because they're 'in heat.'"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2268557.story

[willow_girl]

But there are hopeful signs in that article. Women are organizing and attempting to fight back!

Remember that only a couple of generations ago, here in the U.S., rape wasn't taken very seriously, either. For instance, marital rape wasn't considered a crime until 1976!

[watcher]

When civilization breaks down the strong will abuse the weak. Its human nature.

[brreitsma]

If you think marital rape is taken seriously here let a husband come forward claiming to be a victim and see how seriously he is taken.

[Oldcountryboy]

The question I have about countries such as Haiti is how come the mothers don't teach their sons how wrong it is to rape when growing up? How come they don't teach their sons that women have just as much right as men do? Just about everywhere in the world the women have the responsibility to raise the children, why are they not teaching right from wrong to their children?

The mother is the matriarc of a good family, yet so many countries make the women out to be less worthy then any stock animal owned. When they are more valuable then all.

[naturelover]

Because in countries like that the men don't permit the women to teach those things to their sons. It's not in the best interests of the men to permit women to teach their sons that women have as much rights as men do. The women do NOT have the rights that men have and the men don't want them to have rights.

.

[Bearfootfarm]

The question I have about countries such as Haiti

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Northern Hemisphere ( was before the quake)

I doubt many of the kids get any real education at all besides what they learn on the streets trying to survive

[ldc]

Rape was one of the many reasons that the US pulled the Peace Corps out of the Caribbean, along with other political ones. ldc