Creeping Sharia

Maybe some of the college girls who think it’s culturally diverse to sport a burqa for a day on U.S. college campuses should spend some time behind the veil in say…Pakistan, or Sudan. via Justice elusive for rape victims | Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Lawyers from Darfur say antiquated laws and weak investigations make it virtually impossible for rape victims to get justice in Sudan.

They say rape has been used as a tool of war in Darfur, and laws need to be amended so that women do not have to prove that they were to blame for the attack.

Victims say that it is impossible to find four male witnesses who are willing to testify in a rape case.

One woman from Jebel Marra, who was raped recently by three men dressed in army uniform, says people are often too scared to intervene.

“One man came from a neighbouring house to help, but the man standing guard in the doorway shot him in the leg,” she said. “[After the attack], the local sheik called the village together and asked why no-one had helped me. Everyone said they heard my cries but were afraid that if they came, they would be hurt.”

Lawyers say that one of the problems with Sudan’s rape laws is that the crime is seen as no different to adultery or sodomy.

“Rape, sodomy and adultery are bundled together in one article,” Mohammed Ali said. “The evidence needed for an adultery crime is also the evidence which is needed for a rape.”

Sudanese law defines rape as “sexual intercourse, by way of adultery, or sodomy, with any person without his consent”.

Rasha Saraj, a lawyer from Nyala in Darfur, points out that this definition creates confusion about whether a crime should be classed as rape or adultery.

“If you fail to get a conviction for rape… [the woman] could be convicted of having committed adultery,” she said.

David Donat Cattin, director of the international law and human rights programme at Parliamentarians for Global Action, says that a woman who accuses a man of raping her could be charged with libelling him if the rape case is thrown out.

“This evidentiary burden is a double sword,” Cattin said. “On the one hand it… makes [rape] impossible to prove, and on the other hand it damages the victim again. There is no law in the world where this level of corroboration is required.”

Adrienne Fricke, a researcher for human rights group Refugees International, says that rape laws in Sudan draw their logic from Islamic sharia law, which historically sought to protect people accused of adultery from harsh punishment by requiring a high burden of evidence.

She said that other Islamic countries have taken steps to reform laws that penalise rape victims, such as Pakistan, which in 2006 introduced amendments to allow rape to be considered distinct from the crime of adultery.

You’ll still need four witnesses and possibly face the separate charge of adultery if you don’t have four witnesses to your rape. Reform you can count on.