October 18, 2009 |
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Women’s rights are
human rights?
Stephen Henry Lewis,
United Nations’ envoy for HIV AIDS in Africa, 2006, said:
“[Women’s rights have] never been made real, and so long as men control the levers and bastions of power… it never will be real. The demeaning diminution of women is everywhere evident… where freedom from sexual violence, the right to sexual autonomy, to sexual and reproductive health, social and economic independence, and even the whiff of gender equality are barely approximated. It’s a ghastly, deadly business, this untrammeled oppression of women in so many countries on the planet.”
(1) Ask Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach about the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. He was recently ‘fired’ for being a homosexual. The stupidity of the policy adds up to $24 million to train fighter pilot Victor, now just 2 years away from his retirement benefits. Congress (House of Reps and Senators) must change this despicable discriminatory treatment. And the military should go after the straight guys who rape female soldiers. See Victor’s story here.
(2) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The document contains a Preamble and thirty Articles setting forth the rights of “all members of the human family.” Sexual abuse, molestation, and rape are in violation of eight of these rights, specifically Articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, and 22. Refer Wikipedia.
(3) The age of reason is a term used by some religions and educators to define the time in a child’s life when they are capable of understanding concepts for which there may be no logical or apparent proof.
(4) Church of Lies: How Flora Jessop Escaped the Slavery and Sexual Abuse of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints… by Flora Jessop,
ISBN 978-0-7879-9462-4. (“A must-read for anyone interested in children’s rights, victims’ rights, and just plain human decency.” ~ Janja Lalich, PhD, and author of Take Back Your Life.)
(5) “For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.” ~ Annie (Wood) Besant d. 1933
(6) Sixty percent of sexual assault victims don’t report the crimes against them. ~ National Organization of Women (N.O.W.)
(7) “Every day silence harvests its victims. Silence is a mortal illness.” ~ Natalia (Levi) Ginzburg, d. 1991
(8) As seen on Oprah, the Pulitzer prize-winning book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide attempts to “lay out an agenda for the world’s women, focusing on three particular abuses: sex trafficking… gender-based violence… and maternal mortality.” Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors.
(9) “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~ Elie(zer) Wiesel, b. 1928
(10) Every two minutes, someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. Source unknown.
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Do Ask and Do Tell
They may as well be girls! The military’s policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell forbids homosexuals from being truthful about their sexual preferences and lifestyles. Yet the Pentagon doesn’t hesitate to require them to risk their lives—often in the most dangerous assignments.
Recently, those who’ve been exposed or have acknowledged their ‘truth’ have been ‘fired’ from serving their country and quickly stripped of their hard-earned benefits post-facto. To put it bluntly, they’ve been screwed by the good old boys, as have so many innocent women and girls since the dawn’s early light of humanity. Females can but empathize with gays as the guys take their turn at unwillingly bending over for the brass to have their a-way with them. (1)
Freedom of sexual expression is a human right, and constraints can never be successfully mandated by church or state. I’ve often wondered why straight males are so concerned about gay relations, yet they don’t seem to be nearly as offended by male-to-female molestation and sexual abuse. What about females’ rights to live un-accosted in so-called civilized societies? (2)
No Reasonable Age
Millions of girls and women suffer from sexual abuse in silence—silence born of fear, betrayal, denial, loathing, and delusions of guilt. Abuse consists of inappropriate contact or mistreatment of the female body, particularly the breasts and genitalia. Often times, abuse begins as a simple touch or kiss, and innocent little girls have no idea where such ‘affectionate’ attention might lead. They need to know. They need to know early in their lives—as early as age seven—the age of reason. (3) Without this information, girls are easy prey for sexual deviants. Unfortunately, even infants can become victims, but most babes are well-protected by their mothers or trusted caretakers.
Sex education has long been debated. Parents are the most likely to be designated as sex educators, but what if they can’t or won’t accept the responsibility of informing their children about the inherent developing drive to procreate? Children need to know that humans, animals, and all forms of life result from this natural urge, but that sometimes, the actions can be miss-used or untimely.
A child’s not knowing is vulnerability at its highest level. The consequences could be life-long physical and emotional scars from traumatic experiences that were possibly avoidable. Churches (4), schools, and other groups are often havens for perpetrators rather than resources of accurate information and assistance in curtailing sexual abuse. A high percentage of abuses occur by someone the child knows, trusts, and has been taught to obey. (5)
The majority of cases of sexual abuse are never reported to parents or authorities. (6) Thus, abusers remain un-identified and are able to ‘get away with’ heinous and criminal actions against innocent human beings. The silence of victims allows abusers to continue their illegal and despicable activities.
Martial the Victims
In my opinion, it’s never too late to reveal the incident(s) and the perpetrator(s). If you’ve been a victim of sexual abuse, TELL (7) your story to as many women as possible. Not only will you begin to heal the shame, blame, fault, and guilt that victims mistakenly often feel, but you will realize you’re not alone.
An estimated 3 out of 5 females have been sexually molested or abused, and most of them suffer in harmful, perpetual silence. In too many cases, the abuse continues for years without intervention, and can permanently damage the victim’s psyche even if the abuse is eventually halted.
We all know too well that sexual abuse is most often perpetrated by males—upwards of 90%—fathers abusing daughters, brothers abusing sisters, authoritarians abusing the obedient, and male ‘warriors’ abusing female soldiers or ‘enemy’ captives. We all suspect, and rightly so, that males are not going to put an end to the age-old sexual victimization of females. That only leaves females to take the responsibility and the actions necessary to obliterate the practices of these invaders of our and our children’s human rights. Together, women can begin to stop the unwarranted, perverse abuse and its resulting silent suffering. (8)
A.W.O.L. (Always Wonder Out Loud)
Women and girls are the majority of victims, but boys are often targeted too. They are as unlikely to ‘tell’ as females. If you are a parent, ASK your child, regardless of gender, if anyone has ever mistreated them in a sexual manner. (There are many well-written age-appropriate books to help you do this.)
Mothers can usually detect a child’s hesitancy or unwillingness or fear of speaking the truth. It is imperative that the child be able to safely divulge any such occurrence and to know that someone they trust and love (whom more than mother?) will believe them. If nothing bad has happened, then at least the lines of communication have been opened for questions or further information on how to avoid such undesirable and heretofore unexpected experiences. If the child has been victimized, then take immediate and appropriate action to remove the child from further harm and proceed to legal means of intervention, protection, treatment, and retribution.
‘Telling’ is the first step to healing, as the incident(s) is no longer locked inside the memory. Like a bad dream, the telling of it begins to loosen its power to terrorize the victim. (9)
The human sex drive has allowed us all to be alive, but the uncontrolled and inappropriate actions by far too many of the male gender (10) are always unforgettable and often unforgivable by their victims. Anyone who would treat women and children so badly does not deserve your loyalty. Stop abuse now by caring enough to ask and by having the courage to tell on the perps.
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