Rape cases in Nigeria in recent days are quite disheartening. It is never a funny experience for the victims of rape. Before now, apart from the victims, parents, family and friends of the violated usually live with the pain, abuse and stigma associated with the ugly and dehumanized onslaught. In some climes, the offence attracts capital punishment. Likewise, pedophilia attracts same consequence in some Arab countries.
Identifying what constitutes a rape, the common knowledge is that of forced sexual intercourse with an opposite sex without their consent. It is surprising that rape could occur between husband and wife. That is one aspect of the offence that is puzzling as it is believed that there should be no limit or boundary between a man and his wife. Consensual sex is no guarantee that it is rape-free if anything unpremeditated happens in the act. That was the case with the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
Until recently, victims of rape usually conceal the pain of their molestation because of shame and stigmatization. The increasing number of Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, and some governmental human rights agencies involved in advocacy against rape are helping the victims seek and get justice as well as encouraging them to speak out and expose their assailants if they are known
The sex crime allegations against Assange reared from a visit he made to Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2010, a few months after WikiLeaks gained international notoriety by publishing material leaked by then-Army private and whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Anna Ardin said she set up his visit and hosted him in her apartment. At her apartment, Ardin said he began stroking her leg, then removing her clothes, breaking her necklace in the process. She said she tried to put her clothes back on but he took them off again. She informed police that she then allowed Assange to undress her, because “it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far.”
In her statement, Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her but she asked him to use a condom. He agreed, but, according to her, he had “done something” to the condom so that it ripped before he ejaculated. According to media reports, Assange told police that he had sex with Ardin but did not tear the condom. In the days that followed, Ardin told a friend that she was still allowing Assange to stay with her, but they were not having sex because he had “exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept,” the friend told police.
Another woman, Miss W, explained that she met Assange at a seminar organized by Ardin. They later met up and went to her apartment where they had sex. But Assange did not want to use a condom, Miss W said, so they stopped and eventually fell asleep. Later that night, she said, they woke up and had consensual sex, during which he “unwillingly” used a condom. But in the morning, Miss W said, she woke up to find Assange penetrating her without a condom. Assange however denied any wrongdoing with respect to Miss W. What amazes me in the Assange’s scandal is the fact that not using condom could become a crime in consensual sex. Today, his reputation is rubbished simply because of those encounters.
Until recently, victims of rape usually conceal the pain of their molestation because of shame and stigmatization. The increasing number of Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, and some governmental human rights agencies involved in advocacy against rape are helping the victims seek and get justice as well as encouraging them to speak out and expose their assailants if they are known. Women have become endangered species of sort to sex predators for ages.
The first and only recorded rape case in the Holy Bible earned the violator untimely death. I wonder what could lead a sane mind to consider rape as an option to get at a woman. I believe something is fundamentally wrong with rapists generally. They may appear normal but certainly they are not mentally sound. The cruel dimension of killing the raped is uncalled for. Human life should value more than sex. It is believed that serial rapists are the ones that usually kill their victims as a means of covering their tracks. Also, it is a possible trademark of cultists in dispute either over the victim or as a revenge in a tit-for-tat mission.
Psychology sees rape as an offence committed by the insane. The reason for this is premised on the fact that it takes a man of perverted mentality and absurd persuasion to sexually assault the opposite sex. Rape is not committed against women only as men also do experience sexual assaults by women. The latter is scarcely reported which is why it is widely assumed that rape is squarely an offence committed by men against women only.
The recent cases of rape in the news call for speedy response from the government through a review of legal framework that will firmly address the crime. Stiffer punishments that will deter perpetrators should be promulgated for the crime. Like I noted earlier, capital punishment is the penalty for rape and pedophilia in some climes, but here, castration or long jail term or both are part of the suggestions coming from members of the public.
However, every rape case must be painstakingly investigated to avoid punishing innocent souls as mischief makers might be at work by raising false alarms. Such had happened before only for the false alarmist to confess that she framed up the man because she had vowed to revenge her broken relationship allegedly instigated by the “accused’s” fiancé. It is better to allow a fleeing offender to escape than to punish an innocent soul for what he didn’t do.
Confirmed rape cases against men should equally be summarily dealt with. If, according to some women rights campaign, any insistent or ‘forceful’ sexual intimacy made by the man to his wife is counted as an offence, then, whenever oga madam has her way when the man is not willing should be actionable as well. I think there’s a divine provision in the holy book that has already addressed this funny but touchy issue. Please check 1st Corinthians 7: 4-5.
In conclusion, I believe that rape or sex crime should be judged and punished according to the degree of the offence. Dealing with spousal sex matters should be different from downright rape case; while rape cum murder case should carry the heaviest consequence. Parents should show more than passing interest in the affairs of their boys. Beyond the façade of ‘big boy’ or fake good boy attitude at home, parents should monitor and expose (at family level) suspicions they have about their children without pretence. What was covered up yesterday has become a source of ignominy to the entire family today when the child is paraded and arraigned in court as a suspect in criminal cases like robbery, internet fraud, yahoo plus, cultism and murderous rape.
Last Line:
Contrary to my promise to publish the responses, counsel and suggestions to the two family cases published in this column a fortnight ago, one of the concerned couples, George Amarni, asked me to send readers’ comments and pieces of advice to him privately. While acknowledging that publishing the comments is harmless to him and his family, he, however, preferred that I do that for him. That’s why I didn’t publish the reactions last week as promised. I chose to forward the comments to the couples involved. I appreciate those who responded. God bless you all.