A Disturbing Rise In The Number Of Rapes

The number of rapes in the London Borough of Sutton, in Surrey, has risen by 70 per cent in the past 12 months.
The figures, obtained from the Metropolitan Police, show the number of reported incidents in the borough rose from 37 to 63 since August 2009.
In 2008, the figure was 18, which is about half that of 2009 – meaning the number of rapes in Sutton has doubled in each of the past two years.

There has been a rise in reported rape across London, with an average 37 per cent rise – although in Sutton the increase is nearly double that.
Despite this rise, overall crime in Sutton dropped in the past year by about 10 per cent.

Cameron ‘failing on sex-trafficking law’

The Church of England have accused David Cameron of failing to clamp down on sex traffickers.
Archbishop of York John Sentamu said: “Sex trafficking is nothing more than modern-day slavery”.
Cameron has refused to comply with an EU directive which seeks to stamp out the vile trade.
The EU wants powers to prosecute offenders in one member state for offences committed in others.
Dr John Sentamu said: “I am stunned the Government is opting out of this law”.

Stonings In Iran Are Barbaric And Are Not Sanctioned In The Koran

Stonings became law after Iran’s 1979 revolution even though they are not sanctioned in the Koran.
They are carried out in public, with condemned prisoners buried up to their waists or chests before stones are hurled at their heads from 30ft away.
To prolong the torture, the stones must “not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor should they be so small that they cannot be called a stone”.
Death can take up to half an hour and the prisoners’ families are made to watch.
Hundreds of victims are believed to have met their end in this way.
The majority are poor, illiterate women – an imbalance caused by the country’s legal system being in men’s favour.
Most women who end up being stoned were forced to marry older men when they were teenagers.
In Iran, it is almost impossible for women to file for divorce while men can take up to four wives.
In courts, which are overseen almost exclusively by male judges, a woman’s testimony is worth only half a man’s.
The prisoners are pardoned if they can free themselves and flee but while men are entombed only up to their waists, with women the soil must come to their chests.
The Koran emphasises the absolute moral and spiritual equality of the sexes.
Muhammad’s Islam religion meant that Muslims had a duty to create a just, equitable society where the poor and vulnerable are treated decently.
God (al-Lah), nor the Koran, nor Islam, condones stoning.

Most Rapists Are Never Punished

One of the new government’s first proposals has upset a lot of women.
This is the idea of extending anonymity to those accused of rape.
Presumably the thinking is that men who are falsely accused will no longer have their lives ruined by lying women.
Is this the most pressing problem when we have such an appallingly low conviction rate for rape?
Not all men are rapists, but not all women are liars.
To be falsely accused of child abuse is just as life-wrecking, surely?
Why not extend anonymity to all cases. Why single out rape?
The police know that naming a defendant in a rape case may mean other victims who have remained silent will come forward.
Most rapists are never punished.
Rape is virtually legal in that, of rapes that are reported, only six per cent result in conviction.
Some women may lie. Do 94 per cent of them?
We also know that many women don’t report rape – and who can blame them, when the system ensures most men get away with it?
Men who rape already know it is highly unlikely they will be convicted.
Now they will know that if they are prosecuted and get off, they will not even be identified.

South Africa – A Child Is Raped Every 3 Minutes

South Africa has the highest incidence of rape in the world, and almost half the victims are children.
A child is raped in South Africa every three minutes,
But almost 9 out of 10 cases of child rape are never reported.
Often it is because the child is too scared of the rapist to tell anyone.
Rape is the least likely crime to be reported and victims say fear of reprisal is the most common reason for not telling anyone.
A girl born today in South Africa has around a one in three chance of completing secondary school,
But she has a one in two chance of being raped.

Over 5 million people in South Africa are living with aids,
More than any other country in the world.
So when a child is raped, the victim should automatically be given anti-aids drugs to try to stop any infection developing.
The immune system can take weeks or months to develop the anti-bodies that show a child is HIV positive.

Around one-third of child rape victims are raped by a close relative – an uncle, brother, or their father.
A woman in South Africa is eight times more likely to be raped than in the UK.
The South African Department of Justice reports that one in four women suffer violence in the home.
Lessons on domestic violence are given in primary schools.

It is estimated around 200,000 children are raped every year in South Africa.
In Port Elizabeth, the country’s fifth largest city, it’s estimated that 12 children are raped every day.
Of the cases of sexual abuse Port Elizabeth Childline dealt with in 2009, 80 per cent involved children under thirteen.
Less than one in a hundred rapes end in a successful prosecution, but for that process even to begin social workers have to be involved.

Eight million people in South Africa live in so-called ‘informal settlements’ with no electricity, no running water and no toilet facilities.

The government don’t help these children and their families,
Social services lack resources, the courts dish out soft sentences to the rapists, and the police are bloody useless.

‘Honour’ Killings

Turkey is a country mired in the dominance of a medieval, backwards-thinking, feudal patriarchy, albeit one that has been taking steps to stamp out violence towards women in its bid to be allowed into the European Union.
In 1998, the country’s supreme court overturned a law that criminalised adultery.
In 2004, it introduced mandatory life sentences for those who carry out so-called ‘honour’ killings.
But despite these measures it continues to fail to protect its women and children.

Four out of ten women in Turkey are beaten by their husbands.
Half of all murders are ‘honour’ killings.
In an attempt to circumvent the stiffer sentences, ‘honour suicides’ have mushroomed.
Batman, a town in the south-east of Turkey, has been nicknamed ‘suicide city’.
Three-quarters of all suicides here are committed by women.
Nearly everywhere else in the world, men are three times more likely to kill themselves.
Women who are told to kill themselves are usually given three options: a noose, a gun or rat poison.
They are then locked in a room until they have done the deed.

In Italy, a country where until 1981 ‘honour’ was an ‘extenuating circumstance’ for murder, a young Moroccan woman was murdered last year (2009) by her father for wearing jeans.
In Iran, honour killings are legal.
In Pakistan, a 17 year-old girl who, it was claimed, became pregnant by a man who was not her husband was forced to give birth before having her baby thrown to its death in a canal.
The teenager was then mauled by dogs before being fatally shot in the head.

Violence against women is widespread in all countries.
Every society has things it should be ashamed of.
We have battered wives, domestic violence, child abuse and rape.

Violence Against Women

Violence against women causes more deaths and disability among women aged 19 – 44 than cancer or traffic accidents.
There are more than 12 million incidents of domestic abuse against women each year in the UK.
Two women are killed in England and Wales each week by a current or former partner.
The majority of battered women have significantly higher IQ’s than their men. This means that in a verbal argument she will always win. Frustrated, he lashes out to restore his position as master.
Men that strike or abuse women are nasty vicious bullying cowards.