The Penguin Atlas of Women was a comprhensive view of just about every possible issue that face women today, most of it quite disturbing. The section that struck me the most were the pages dealing with rape. It seems that of all the crimes against women, rape is the most univeral and often goes unreported and unpunished. Rape is present in every country around the world and in some places it is even legal in certain situations; in most of Africa and Asia men are allowed to rape their wives. What makes this most heinous is the absolute perversion of marriage. It should be an institution of love and trust, but so many women are forced into marriages they don't want and made to consumate the marriage against their will. That a man could force himself on his wife, a painful and hateful act, is unacceptable.
Two things about the map I found especially interesting were a) the lack of data concerning the number of rapes in the Middle East and Asia and b) the fact that America has by far the largest number of reported rapes. As to that first observation, it is interesting because both those areas are notorious for arranged marriages and widely accepted abuse of women in general. It made me wonder if there wasn't any data because women simply do not report the rapes because no one will care? The second observation, about the 700,000 rapes in America each year, is just absolute shock. America is only third in line for largest popukation in the world, so that can't be the reason. It is illegal for a man to rape his wife. So why does America have so many rapes? I don't have an answer, if anyone wants to make a suggestion please write a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment