r@mside
Striker
You’ve completely missed the point.
The huge difference is that rape and sexual assault in general is overwhelmingly condemned in the U.K. and punished, the rapist shunned for the rest of his days, but acceptable and overlooked in Bangladesh, and deemed the woman’s fault.
Seriously, why do people bend over backwards to be apologists for this sickness? Is it something in the water?
Christ almighty, man! You can’t be that naive, surely?
I'm making no apology for rapists, that's a poor way to swerve the question.
And of course, I don't believe the numbers provided in the article reflect the true magnitude of rape in Bangladesh and that under-reporting is linked to poor rights and representation for women. I don't pretend to know the scale of the issue over there and it's obvious you don't either.
If we accept that rape and sexual assault in this country is underreported by about 80-90% and this is when it is a particular hot topic and attitudes have changed considerably, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that in a part of the world where rape victims are still outwardly blamed for their ordeal and shunned at best and murdered at worst, that the percentage of reported will be be even smaller.
I agree with the general point that there will be a higher percentage of unreported rape in Bangladesh than here.
It's also pretty obvious to me that in a patriarchal society it is going to be more difficult for women to receive justice.
I'll tell you what isn't so obvious to me though. In our progressive, secular society with one of the best if not the best judicial systems in the world and a population that rates itself high on equality, decency and fairness, with dedicated womens' support groups and outreach programs - how is it that rape is still so prevalent here?
One in eight women in the UK between 16 and 59 say they've been raped or sexually abused at some point in their lives and one in four girls under the age of 16 say they have been coerced into sex. If the reports from Asia add up to a cultural problem with rape, how are those UK figures not an indicator of a cultural problem here?
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