Mar

9

Cambodian Police Often Require Bribes Before Investigating Rape Cases

Filed Under Asia, International, human rights, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, violence against women and girls | 2 Comments

Yesterday, International Women’s Day, Amnesty International released two reports on sexual violence against women and judicial response to this violence. The report Breaking the silence: Sexual justice in Cambodia focuses on how police corruption intimidates, frightens, and harms victims in Cambodia who attempt to come forward, usually with one’s chances of justice falling along class lines. I haven’t yet had the time to read the entire 60 page report (pdf), but regardless wanted to draw attention to the shameful situation, and the parts of the report I have been able to examine.

Demanding cash bribes from victims and/or their families before agreeing to an investigation is the most common act of corruption on behalf of police. In addition to this being a generally horrific request, the fact is that many Cambodians simply do not have the funds to pay the bribe, or must endure extreme hardship to do so. From the actual report:

A clear majority of interviewees told Amnesty International that they had paid bribes to the police, or had been asked to pay bribes but did not have any money. In 21 of the 30 cases victims reported that police had “investigated” the incident. Sixteen of these responded that they knew they had had to pay bribes to ensure an investigation. Typically, they were asked for between five and 10 USD to initiate an investigation, which almost none of them could afford.

In some cases, police will offer to take other forms of “payment” in exchange for starting an investigation — such as one case Amnesty International found, where a police officer told the mother of a victim that he would investigate the rape, if only she complied with his rape of her first:

Two perpetrators raped Mom five times in 2006, when she was 11 years old. Her mother went to the district police, where the police chief asked her for a 10 USD bribe to pay for “the investigation and stationery”. When she did not have the money he requested, the police chief asked her to meet him at a hotel room, suggesting that sex in lieu of money would facilitate the investigation of the rape of her daughter.

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Feb

26

Turkish Activists Demand Action on Transphobic Hate Crimes

Filed Under Asia, Europe, International, LGBTQ, bigotry, human rights, misogyny, patriarchy, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | Leave a Comment

There are exceedingly few places in the world where trans people are truly safe. Turkey, then, is only one of many, many countries where trans people, usually trans women, are violently attacked and murdered at epidemic levels simply for being who they are. The abuses there, however, could be considered particularly bad — and regardless, should not be accepted anywhere.

That is why, following yet more murders, Turkish and international activists have sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey, demanding both protection of trans people and real efforts to change the social attitudes which make this violence acceptable. An excerpt from the letter appears below:

In order to end the ongoing violence and murders of transgender people in Turkey, we respectfully urge the Turkish government to take the following measures:

  • 1. Ensure an effective investigation into the murders of Fevzi Yener, Derya Y., and Sinasi Halimoglu, which will be capable of leading to the identification and prosecution of the alleged perpetrator(s) of these crimes. Ensure similar steps are taken in the event of any future crimes against the LGBT community.
  • 2. Enact anti-discrimination legislation that includes sexual orientation and gender identity as protected status.
  • 3. Collect, analyze and disaggregate national and local data on violence, including violence on the grounds on sexual orientation and gender identity as a recognized category.
  • 4. Provide training to law enforcement authorities on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
  1. Include sexual orientation and gender identity in school curricula as a way to combat gender stereotypes.
  • 6. Establish permanent communication mechanisms between the police and Turkish LGBT organizations.
  • 7. Revise the Law of Misdemeanors (No. 5326) that provides police the option to fine or otherwise treat individuals as criminals on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. The vagueness of this law-which purports to “protect public order, general morality, general health, the environment, and the economic order”- allows for prejudicial enforcement by police.

The full English text of the letter can be found here. (Here is the Turkish version.) I highly recommend that you take a moment to go read it, for further context regarding Turkish trans folks’ situation.

I have little else to add, other than to repeat that violence against trans people is an epidemic in many parts of the world, including in the U.S., where I’m writing. The violence is not going to end until we eradicate transphobia, and transmisogyny in particular, and put to rest the idea that cissexual and cisgender identities are superior to and more “real” than transsexual and transgender identities. And that is an enormous and international task.

I found the news of this letter via Helen G at Bird of Paradox. At the bottom of her post is a long list of links to other posts she has written on trans rights (or more accurately, the lack thereof) in Turkey over the past year. I strongly encourage you to click through and view that list of links, at the very least, as a visual reminder of the magnitude of the problem, and to take the time to read some of them.

Dec

12

You Picked the Wrong Asian Woman to Mess With

Filed Under Asia, fun, objectification, race and racism | 13 Comments

May be NSFW (contains swearing)

Anyone know these ladies names?  They’re awesome.

h/t Renee

Aug

7

Judge Calls Sexual Harassment “Gallant,” Not Criminal

Filed Under Asia, Europe, International, courts, human rights, misogyny, objectification, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexism, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls, work | 11 Comments

UPDATE: See Natalia Antonova’s post for several important clarifications and corrections. As I suspected, some of the claims are exaggerated, but the general gist of the story is correct. (Thanks Lisa.)

HuffPo informs us that a Russian judge has ruled that sexual harassment is a-okay because it ensures the survival of the human race. You see, apparently without sexual harassment, there would be no sex. What is this “consent” of which you speak?

The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia’s history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

“He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word,” she earlier told the court. “I didn’t realise at first that he wasn’t speaking metaphorically.”

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

“If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children,” the judge ruled.

Clearly, this story is really fucked up and disturbing on its own. And I hope that all remotely intelligent people can see why — flirting is not the same as harassment, harassment is not the same as consent, and some sexual relationships are appropriate to pursue while others are not.  Sexual harassment does not ensure the survival of the human race, heterosexuality and human instinct found in people of all sexualities do that.  Sexual harassment is not a human instinct, and is not an innate part of heterosexuality.

But the rest of the article, describing the climate in which this kind of ruling could exist, threw me for an even bigger loop.

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Jun

18

Khmer Rouge Victims Will Have Official Role in Tribunals

Filed Under Asia, International, courts, human rights, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | 2 Comments

I found this to be really interesting: victims will be active participants in the tribunals prosecuting five former Khmer Rouge leaders. Hundreds of people have applied to be recognized officially as victims.

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May

12

Earthquake in China Kills Thousands

Filed Under Asia, International, action alert | 2 Comments



Jesus Christ.

An earthquake in China has killed almost 9,000 people, as of an hour ago. That number is obviously likely to climb.

This of course follows on the heels of the the cyclone in Myanmar that has officially killed 32,000 people, with total death toll estimates in the range of 60,000 to 100,000. And then there’s the far, far (far) less extreme but closer to home and still tragic case of deadly tornadoes in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.

I’m willing to place some money on opportunist “religious” folk using these unimaginable events as some kind of vehicle to condemn abortion and gay rights (but already too nauseous to verify if it has happened). But even my rational atheist self is pretty damn freaked out by this happening all at once. And perhaps rightly so. I’m no scientist and don’t pretend to be, but I don’t quite believe that global warming had no hand in any of these natural disasters.

Quite honestly, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know if there is anything to say in the face of so many lives lost. There perhaps will be as there are further developments. This will not go away overnight, and there are likely to be ramifications for many years. In many areas, there will be poverty, hunger, homelessness and violence. In Myanmar, all of this has begun or is strongly anticipated. And in addition to caring for the simple reason of our shared humanity, as feminists we know that when natural disasters strike, women suffer the most, in addition to children and those who are the most economically disadvantaged

The American Red Cross has been helping in Myanmar, and I can only assume that aid is on the way to China. You can make a donation to the International Response Fund through their website. If you would like to specify where you would like the funds to go — for instance, if you want your donation to go specifically to the Myanmar crisis — you will have to make your donation to Red Cross over the telephone at 1-800-HELP-NOW.

If you know of other/better charities or ways to help, please let me know and I will add them to the post.

[Photo of earthquake wreckage in China via National Geographic.]

Feb

18

Distributing Homemade Porn without Ex’s Consent Could Land Man in Jail

Filed Under Asia, International, assholes, misogyny, objectification, pornography, sex and sexuality, sexual exploitation and harassment, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 2 Comments

This greatly pleases me: a Hong Kong man who posted sex videos of his ex-girlfriend online without her consent could face jail time.

A jilted Hong Kong boyfriend who posted video clips on the internet of his ex-lover having sex with him was warned on Monday that he could face jail.

Lee Wing-fung, 29, uploaded nude photos and video clips in an act of revenge when his former girlfriend refused to get back together with him.

He was sentenced to 240 hours community service in September after admitting criminal intimation and publishing indecent material.

However, the prosecution claims the sentence was too lenient and is now seeking a jail sentence for Lee.

It says the fact that he threatened the woman beforehand and published her name and work address with the video clips deserves a jail sentence of at least 12 months.

In the earlier hearing, the defence claimed Lee resorted to the action because he was devastated when his girlfriend ended their three-year relationship.

A true threat of punishment for such an action isn’t exactly one that you see often, even if the practice itself is becoming more and more common. We’ve long had people who steal and release homemade sex videos by celebrities. Then came the camera phone phenomenon of taking pictures up women’s skirts and posting them online or passing them around to friends. Now, the practice of posting sex videos without one person’s consent has increased, with the success of sites like xTube and YouPorn. For those who don’t know, these sites are the YouTube of porn — anyone can upload videos to the site, so long as they own the copyright to the material. They are designed specifically for amateur porn, and though the sites have a rule that the consent of all participating parties in the video must be obtained to legally publish it, there isn’t exactly any way to enforce such a requirement.

Though I’m sure that this kind of thing has happened to men as well, with straight men being the primary consumers of porn, women are mostly the ones getting screwed over. No matter how much a woman is comfortable and unashamed of her sexuality, as a general rule, she still wouldn’t want images of herself engaging in a sexual act available for anyone to see — particularly without her consent. Beyond simple modesty concerns, this is a highly rational worry, seeing as how one’s entire career can be unfairly jeopardized for even the most benign photographs (of course, it’s also a huge violation of personal and sexual rights).

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Jan

30

Burmese Refugees Held Prisoner in Thai “Human Zoo”

Filed Under Asia, International, bigotry, class and economics, discrimination, human rights, misogyny, objectification, race and racism | Leave a Comment

No, really, I swear this time: I have no idea what to say.

*sputters something incoherent about racism, colonialism & sexism*

. . .

Dec

29

Date rape drugs sold over the counter in India?

Filed Under Asia, International, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | Leave a Comment

An Indian TV station has done a bit of investigative journalism following a big ketamine drug bust, and found that pharmacists will dispense ketamine over the counter. For those of you who don’t know, in addition to ketamine being used as a recreational drug, it is also one of the most common “date rape drugs.” And no, it’s not supposed to be sold without a prescription.

Now, in all fairness, I know nothing about how reputable this news source’s stories generally are. The story strikes me as being written in the same kind of over-sensationalized style that “consumer affairs” shows have, and since those kinds of stories are often exaggerated I always take them with a grain of salt. Also, the station only mentions having visited one pharmacy. Certainly, it is significant if the first pharmacy they visited sold the drug over the counter, but the logical thing to do would go to other pharmacies and make sure that it wasn’t a fluke (and of course report any that do sell the drug).

I wasn’t able to find any information on the prevalence of rapes in India that are facilitated by the so-called “date rape drugs,” though a lot of articles on the subject being published within the past couple of years suggests that it may be on the rise, and more than one referred to the drugs as being “popular” in this context. Also, Mumbai is the most populous city in the world. This means a couple of things: that if these drugs are being used to facilitate rape, there are a lot of women in danger, and a problem that could be considered statistically “small” in Mumbai could potentially be considered a major issue by more general standards. Without claiming a pandemic when there’s no evidence of one, all of this certainly is enough to freak me out big time.

Dec

5

M’am! I order you: Put down the condoms.

Filed Under Asia, International, assholes, discrimination, gender, human rights, misogyny, patriarchy, reproductive justice, sex work, sexism | Leave a Comment

I will own up to the fact that I initially chuckled a little bit at the absurdity of this headline: China to stop arresting women for carrying condoms (h/t KaeLyn). But in truth, it’s no laughing matter.

Chinese police are to stop arresting women who carry condoms, traditionally seen as evidence of prostitution, in an effort to help curb the spread of AIDS, state press said Friday.

Despite efforts to stop the practice, women in China are still being sent to labor camps for prostitution offences merely because they were carrying condoms when detained by police, the report said, quoting an expert.

“We have investigated many education-through-labor camps and we have found that for those sentenced for prostitution, the sole evidence was that they possessed condoms,” Xinhua quoted the unnamed expert as telling an AIDS conference here.

That’s right — arresting women and sending them to labor camps simply because they were carrying condoms. No actual evidence of prostitution needed (of course, I wouldn’t support the government arresting actual sex workers and sending them to labor camps, either). And the men, I presume, are good to go. But that isn’t even the really interesting part:

The comment appeared to contradict remarks by Han Mengjie, a senior official at the cabinet-level AIDS prevention office, who was quoted by Xinhua as saying a campaign to end the practice was put in place as early as in 2001.

“In 2001, the propaganda bureau and the police issued a joint directive that as for the use of condoms, they would not be considered evidence,” said Han.

“As far as I know, since we started our AIDS awareness campaign and consulted with the police ministry, police throughout China have stopped using condoms as evidence.”

. . . Police in China enjoy extraordinary powers to deal with minor crime, and are allowed to convict and sentence suspects to up to two years in labor camps, without trial.

Firstly, I gather (and someone correct me if I’m wrong) that if government agencies are contradicting each other over what types of “evidence” they’re using, there couldn’t have possibly ever been an actual law against women carrying condoms. That law in itself would be a travesty, of course, but it’s even more horrid to arrest women without even informing them that what they’re doing is a “crime,” beforehand.

Secondly, it apparently wouldn’t even need to be a law, since police can detain people in labor camps for up to two years without a trial.

I don’t know what the hell to make of this. Misogyny? Extreme abuse of authoritarian power? My best guess is a combination of the two. It would be interesting to know how they choose to stop women — my money is on appearance-profiling alone. As China becomes increasingly urbanized, and as urban-dwellers become more financially successful, one has to imagine that women exercising sexual freedom would start to follow — and of course, the Chinese government strongly discourages reproduction, anyway. You think they’d love this sort of thing (but yeah, I know — women shouldn’t have sex and not have babies, they should just not have sex at all). In any case, I’m sure that quite a few of these urban successful women carry condoms — and yet I can’t quite see them being “mistaken” for prostitutes, stopped by police and whisked off to a labor camp.

So, my fellow Americans, this is indeed the country whose ass we’re kissing as though our lives (instead of just our economic future) depends on it. The more powerful they become, I imagine the more that disturbing shit like this will come to light.

But on second thought . . . detaining people at the whim of the government for extended periods, under completely fabricated charges and without a trial? Hmm, maybe our governments’ values aren’t so different, after all.

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