Part of the propaganda of NATO country governments to sell their “humanitarian” wars to their subjects is to claim that the bloody wars are “for women’s rights”.
Supposedly George W. Bush invaded Iraq, with over a million dead people, millions of wounded people and four million refugees as results, “for Iraqi women’s rights”. In fact, the situation for women in Iraq now is very much worse than before the 2003 invasion.
Supposedly, first George W. Bush, later other NATO governments, invaded Afghanistan “for Afghan women’s rights”. In fact, the new pro NATO regime in Kabul proved to be as misogynistic as their Taliban predecessors, in some cases even worse. Contrary to ads paid by Dutch taxpayers telling Dutch TV viewers to join the air force “to help Afghan girls go to school”, in fact not one Afghan girl more went to school as a result of the bombing by Dutch airplanes. Never mind the Afghan girls killed or wounded by NATO bombs.
In Libya in 2011, ultra religious militias with al Qaeda links were the ground troops of the ‘free world’. After they won that bloody war with the help of NATO bombs and British SAS and Qatari soldiers, they killed the United States ambassador and made the women’s rights situation much worse.
Somalia is another country where NATO governments invaded and waged war. Sometimes the NATO armed forces themselves; sometimes using Ethiopian, Ugandan or Kenyan soldiers as proxy cannon fodder.
This video is called Somali women raped by Ethiopian troops.
In Somalia, the invaders tried to prop a regime in parts of the capital Mogadishu, consisting of brutal warlords who during the 1990s had dragged the dead bodies of US American soldiers through the streets.
How does this pro Pentagon pro NATO government act in women’s rights issues?
From the BBC:
30 January 2013 Last updated at 13:30 GMT
Somalia: Anger over woman charged after alleging rape
A human rights group has urged Somali authorities to drop charges against a woman who accused security forces of raping her.
The woman, who has not been named, could face between three and six years in prison for insulting a government body and making a false accusation.
Four others, including her husband and a journalist, have also been charged.
US-based Human Rights Watch said the charges “made a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities”.
…
‘Politically motivated’
Attorney General Abdulkadir Mohamed Muse brought charges against the five of insulting a government body and persuading someone to give false evidence or giving false evidence, among other accusations, in a court in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday.
MapThe charged journalist, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, has been in detention since 10 January.
Two days earlier he had interviewed the woman about the rape allegations, but did not report the story.
The police allege he collected material for a news report by al-Jazeera about rape in camps for displaced people in Mogadishu. The Qatar-based news network has said Mr Ibrahim was not involved in its story.
According to Human Rights Watch, the woman retracted her allegations after two days of police interrogation without a lawyer present.
Afterwards she was released, but her husband was arrested in her place. A man and woman who helped introduce her to the journalist were also arrested.
Mr Muse told the BBC Somali service on Saturday that the accused had plotted to discredit the government and its security forces – and the woman and her accomplices had been paid by the journalist to lie.
An investigation had revealed that the police station where the woman had originally reported the alleged rape in Hodan, a district in Mogadishu where many displaced people live, had found no medical evidence to back up her rape allegation, he said.
The BBC’s Mohamed Mwalimu in Mogadishu says the woman, who is caring for a child, has to report to the police twice a day. The other four accused remain in jail.
Media organisations in the city have been outraged by the case and have held demonstrations in protest, he says.
“Bringing charges against a woman who alleges rape makes a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities,” Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“The police ‘investigation’ in this case was a politically motivated attempt to blame and silence those who report on the pervasive problem of sexual violence by Somali security forces.”
He said donor countries funding Somalia’s police force and criminal justice system needed to make it clear that “they won’t be party to injustices”.
…
When President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was asked about the case on a visit to the US earlier this month, he said it was a legal matter in which he could not interfere.
The trial will resume on Saturday in Banadir regional court in Mogadishu.
See also here.
US-backed Somalia Regime Admits Soldiers Raped Women: here.
U.S.-Backed Somalia Army Accused of Abusing Women: here.
Related articles
- Somalia: Government Charges Woman Who Says She Was Raped By Security Forces (huffingtonpost.com)
- NUSOJ Calls for the Release of the Somali Journalist held for interviewing a Woman who said that She Was raped (appablog.wordpress.com)
- Somali Journalist Arrested After Story on Rape (abcnews.go.com)
Reblogged this on Here and Now.
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Reblogged this on idealisticrebel.
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I have reblogged this because of its importance.My heart is sorrowful for any women who have gone through this.
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Thanks IdealisticRebel, Laura and andy1076 for reblogging!
The more people know about outrages like this, the more chance of stopping them.
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Reblogged this on My story to you.. and commented:
When a government that people should be able to trust, mistreats its own citizens. What message does that send to the rest of the world?
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Very true.
One should ask that about the Somali government (which controls only small parts of Somalia). And about the governments who support that government.
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You’re so welcome for the reblog, These are the voices often not heard by the rest of the world. Thank you for bringing them to light. I do hope some day that question will be asked so the mistreatment and suffering comes to an end.
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Thanks for your kind comment!
There are already demonstrations in Somalia to stop this horrible injustice. By making this issue bertter known we can help those freedom fighters.
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Cheers!
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The people that did this need to be shot
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I understand this as a first emotional reaction to this horrible crime.
However, one of the problems with the death penalty, certainly in Somalia, is that it would start a cycle of violence; eg, by relatives of executed people. And then, more revenge violence, etc. Gandhi said “An eye for an eye merely makes everyone blind.”
What should happen immediately is first, throw the prosecution of the woman in the waste paper basket, and stop all police harassment of her. Release her husband, the journalist, and the others.
Sack the rapists and the police top brass who covered up rape forever from the police force.
Establish their guilt in a fair trial. If found guilty, then jail them and make them pay indemnities to the woman and the other persecuted people.
And, most importantly, abolish all laws and rules which discriminate against women. The stronger the position of women in society, the less chance of outrages like this.
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This make me so upset … all this abuse everywhere in the world … in families .. schools … this with human trafficking … war .. hunger. Such unfair world we live in. Thanks for a fantastic post. We can’t get awareness enough and we can all do our little bit. I’m a member of Amnesty Intentional .. been since I saw the movie “Bordertown” about the town in Mexico where 400 woman has been raped and killed and nobody has been convicted yet. 300 woman still missing. Terrrible
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Thanks for this comment, and for all you do, viveka!
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My pleasure .. and thanks for raising the awareness.
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May I re blog you?
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Yes, you are welcome 🙂
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Reblogged this on The World We Live In and commented:
I am deeply saddened by this.
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Thank you for reblogging! Maybe it helps to prevent more outrages like this.
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believe it or not, i see a lot of stories like this unfortunately in Muslim countries. I am also living in a muslim country ( Malaysia) for my studies and it is a common occurrence for women to be treated like this, they are often blamed and called whores for being raped, having unmarried sex, wearing clothes which are deemed ” immoral or too slutty”.. It is just such an outrage and a shame to see people who behave like this.Just as we saw in what happened and continues to happen in India…. By reblogging this i hope to reach a few more people.
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Yes, abichica, I do hope you will reach more people!
Oppression of women is, unfornutalely not only a problem in Muslim countries.
In Israel, men who oppress women use (ultra Orthodox) Judaism:
In India, they use Hinduism. In the USA, Ethiopia etc. Christianity. In Japan, Shinto. Etc.
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you are very right… i was just sharing about the place that i have lived in because i witness such occurrences on a daily basis.. But it is a problem which is happening through out the entire world..
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Yes, I understand!
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Reblogged this on Subh Dasgupta's Blog.
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Thank you for reblogging!
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I’m shocked that my reporting on rape in Somalia has led to the jailing of an alleged victim and a journalist (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/jailing-somali-women-rape-affront-justice
Somalia: Woman Alleging Rape, Journalist Convicted (HRW)
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/05/somalia-woman-alleging-rape-journalist-convicted
Journalist arrested for interviewing reported rape victim (CPJ)
http://www.cpj.org/2013/01/journalist-arrested-for-interviewing-reported-rape.php
Somalia: Free journalist, others linked to rape allegation (HRW)
http://www.hrw.org/node/112472
In meeting with Somali President, Clinton should stand up for rape victims (New York Times Blog)
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/in-meeting-with-somali-president-clinton-should-stand-up-for-rape-victims/
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Reblogged this on Piazza della Carina.
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