20 Girls Raped & Filmed & Later Blackmailed by the Guesthouse in Peshawar

The busting of a gang, members of which belonged to respectable families but were involved in rape and blackmailing of young boys and girls, was made possible when a female student of the University of  Peshawar approached the local police following her rape and blackmailing by the management of a guesthouse on the University Road.

Police busted the gang involved in the rape and blackmailing of over 20 young girls from respectable and notable families who mistakenly landed at the guesthouse located on the University Road in the jurisdiction of the Tehkal Police Station. The gang also used to lure males through five female prostitutes and blackmail them after making their films through a hidden camera fixed in the doors.
A police official said a female student of the University of Peshawar approached the authorities of the capital city police and narrated her ordeal. She said she went to the guesthouse along with a male friend last week when she found her university hostel closed.

“The girl admitted that she was late and after finding no place, the two decided to stay at the guesthouse,” the official said. The official added that the boy had to run away when the management of the guesthouse threatened to hand him over to police as he didn’t have any legitimate reason to stay with the girl.

He was told that the management would return the female to her family. In his presence, the guesthouse managers arranged for her a taxi to take her home.

However, the girl told the police that after boarding the taxi she was brought to the same guesthouse as the taxi driver too was a member of the gang. She recalled that later one Khalil not only assaulted her at the guesthouse but also filmed the entire episode.

The girl was allowed to go the next morning, but was told to come to the guesthouse whenever she was called. Otherwise, she was threatened that the film would be circulated all over the city.

The victim after finding no other way to get the criminals fixed decided to approach the police. She also provided all the proofs she had against the gang.

“We have arrested the management of the guesthouse as well as the five prostitutes. The films have also been seized,” Superintendent of Police (SP-Cantonment) Mian Saeed Ahmed said.

He added that a case had been registered against the gang under Sections 371 A, B, 294, 4PO and 9C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The official said that all the managers and owner of the guesthouses in University Town have been called for a meeting where they would have to clarify that they were not involved in such activities. “I have made it clear that they would not be spared if such a thing happened to anyone in future,” said the SP Cantonment.

“The female student who approached us may have committed a mistake but what happened to her is shocking. The culprits need to be punished for ruining the lives of the youth from respectable families,” said Mian Saeed.

There have been reports since long that many guesthouses, hotels and rest houses in the city were not only being used as brothels but those staying there were later blackmailed through hidden cameras installed in different parts of the rooms. A number of such videos were later circulated through cellular phones and are available with the dealers of mobile phones sets.

Kidnapping an 11-Year Old School Girl & Raping Her since 1991

A California couple was jailed for life on June 2, 2011 for kidnapping a schoolgirl and repeatedly raping her while holding her captive for almost two decades, in a case which shocked America.

Phillip Garrido, who fathered two children with Jaycee Dugard after kidnapping her aged 11 in 1991, was given 431 years, while his wife Nancy was jailed for between 36 years and life, after a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Her lawyer, Stephen Tapson, said he read a statement to the court on behalf of his client acknowledging that “what she did was evil”, that she was sorry and that “words are not enough”.

Tapson filed a request asking thatNancybe allowed to see her husband one last time before they start their sentences and that she be allowed to remain in the courtroom for her husband’s sentencing. The judge denied both requests.

Dugard’s long ordeal in captivity with paroled sex offender Garrido and his wife came to light when she was freed in August 2009, 18 years after she was snatched while walking to a school bus stop.

The Garridos were indicted in October on 18 charges. In a deal with prosecutors agreed in April, he pleaded guilty to counts including kidnap, kidnap for the purpose of sex and forcible rape.

Prostitutes in Cambodia Given a Hard Time

Sex workers in Cambodia face rape, arbitrary arrest, extortion and other abuses at the hands of the authorities, according to a 20 July Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. [http://www.hrw.org/node/91629]
 
 ”We’re looking for the Cambodian government to take steps to address abuses against marginalized groups, such as such sex workers, whose voices are rarely heard,” Sara Colm, a researcher for HRW said.
 
 Rights groups have called for the closure of holding centres for sex workers, drug users and beggars.

The government says these are social rehabilitation facilities, but critics contend they serve draconian policies motivated by control, profit and cruelty.

The report cites allegations that at least three sex workers were beaten to death by guards between 2006 and 2008. 
 
Reports of official abuse against sex workers spiked in 2008 after the government launched a US-backed law criminalizing commercial sex work. [http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=81036]

Activists say the measure pushed the phenomenon deeper underground, making sex workers more vulnerable to trafficking and pushing them away from health groups instrumental in curbing the country’s HIV/AIDS rates.

Dialling Wrong Number, Eloping, Then Being Raped & Then Murdered

Three years ago, 17-year-old Asma left her house in Punjab to elope with her 27-year-old boyfriend, who she had never met – but just spoken to over the phone. She trusted her tele-boyfriend, Abdul Rahman, more than her family and decided to elope to Karachi from Dera Ghazi Khan upon his insistence. However, Abdul Rahman had other plans.

She could never have imagined that the man who talked to her for hours and promised to sacrifice his life for her would end up being her murderer.

When she finally arrived in Karachi, instead of marrying her, Abdul Rahman and his friend raped her – continuously. Later, when they had had their fun, Rahman killed her and buried the body inside a house in Abbas Town katchi abadi.

This incident took place in 2007 and Abdul Rahman has resumed his normal life. No one found out what happened in the three-room house located beside the main ground of Abbas Town – her story muted by the din of the concrete jungle.

Even Abdul Rahman forgot – until June 28, 2010 night. He and his accomplice, Shahid Hasan, were arrested by Zaman Town police for their involvement in street crimes.

The police recovered two pistols and bullets from their possession and were conducting an inquiry in custody when Abdul Rahman blurted the truth.

“He revealed during investigations that he had killed a girl three years ago and had buried the body in the room of the house where they stayed,” said Special Investigation Officer Zaman Town.

Abdul Rahman said that he became friends with Asma over the phone and after some time convinced her to elope to Karachi so they could get married. 

Asma took a train to Karachi where Abdul Rahman greeted her at the station.

In order to keep their friendship hidden from the family and the police, Abdul Rahman rented her a house in a katchi ababi of Abbas Town, where he kept her for two weeks. This was the time when Abdul Rahman and his friend, Hasan, raped her several times.

”She insisted on getting married but I did not want to marry her,” Abdul Rahman told police officials, “The night I killed her she had threatened me that she would go to the police station if I didn’t marry her.”

Narrating their love story, Abdul Rahman said that Asma dialled a wrong number one day and came across him. He started pursuing her since then and they ultimately became friends. “I told her that I was in love and wanted to marry her but she knew her family would not let it happen,” Abdul Rahman claimed, “Asma was madly in love with me so she eloped.”

After Abdul Rahman’s confession, a special team of the police and the judiciary decided to visit the rented house to confirm his story. The team included DDO Bin Qasim Town, a first-class magistrate and other police officials.

The house is located in a narrow street of the neighbourhood and most of its residents earn a living by working at factories or as wage labourers. It is inhabited by people belonging to various communities and ethnicities.

The police officials said that they found the body buried in the middle room of the three-room house. None of the rooms had cemented flooring, they added.

The investigation officer said that the body was recovered by the team after the culprits identified the house, the room and exact location of where they had buried the body. Asma’s body was wrapped in coloured clothes in a ditch that was almost six feet deep, said police officials.

The accused have been handed over to the Shah Latif Town police and an FIR under section 302 has been lodged against them.

The police has been unable to locate Asma’s family, but they have informed the Dera Ghazi Khan police, who have started looking for them.

Instead of Getting Justice, Gang Rape Victim’s Brother Killed

On June 27, 2010, a large number of people held a sit-in on the main Abdullah Haroon Road in Karachi in protest against the murder of a brother of a gang-rape victim.

Sabir Soomro’s body was found in an area of Balochistan bordering Karachi on June 26.

The rape victim, Kainat Soomro, her family and other supporters gathered and tried to take the body to the Governor’s House to lodge a protest against the killing. However, a heavy contingent of police blocked roads and stopped the protesters near Zainab Market. The protesters staged a sit-in on the busy street, causing suspension of vehicular traffic.

MNA Marvi Memon of PML-Q joined the protesters and demanded justice for the victim’s family.

Sabir was picked up by police in Dadu a few months ago on the pretext that he was a suspect in a robbery case.

The hour-long protest forced Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed to come to the place and to persuade the family to end their sit-in.

Mr Ahmed assured the protesters that an investigation would be carried out after the bereaved family lodged an FIR. He also arranged a telephonic conversation between Kainat Soomro and Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza, who assured her of his full cooperation in the probe. After the assurance, Kainat Soomro and her family ended their protest.

Ambulances and police escort were arranged so that the body could be taken to Dadu for burial.

Subsequently, relatives of Sabir Soomro, the slain brother of rape survivor Kainat Soomro, held a demonstration on VVIP road in Mehar on June 28, demanding arrest of the killers.

SPO of Mehar Murtaza Mirani arrived at the spot, assured the family of Sabir of justice. Later they took the body to their house and then buried it at Baqar Shah graveyard under police security.

A police contingent, comprising an ASI and 10 police officials were deployed at the house of Kainat Soomro.

Sabir’s father Ghulam Nabi Soomro said that Warah police accompanied by Ali Hassan Buledi, father-in-law of Sabir, picked him up from their house on March 28 on the pretext that he was wanted in a robbery case. When they arrived at the police station, Ghulam Nabi said, the police said that they had not arrested Sabir.

He said that Ali Hassan Buledi and police officials killed his son after keeping him in illegal detention for three months.

On January 10, 2007, Kainat was gang-raped by Shaban Shaikh, Ihsan Thebo, Roshan and Ali Murad Thebo when she was student of class eight. She said that she had demanded justice and held series of protests with her family for the arrest of the accused but none of them was arrested.

On the other hand, she said, five fake FIRs of murder, theft and other crimes were registered against her and her family at different police station to pressure them to withdraw the case and settle the dispute through a jirga. She said that some people belonging Shaikh and Buledi communities had lodged cases against them.

She said that another brother of her, Bilawal, was also arrested and sent to jail for two months.

She alleged that Ali Hassan and other accused were annoyed with her and her family because she had refused to withdraw the case , therefore, they murdered her brother after kidnapping.

Zakia Soomro, mother of Sabir, said that Ali Hassan had received Rs5 million from the accused of gang-rape case to force them to withdraw the case. She said that Ali Hassan, Shaban Shaikh, Noomi Thebo besides some police officials were involved in the murder of her son. She threatened to commit suicide if killers of her son were not arrested.

DPO of Dadu Ghazi Salahuddin said the murder of Sabir had taken place in Balochistan and the FIR was lodged at Naal police station and expressed the hope the Naal police would properly investigate the case.

He said that that the home minister and IG of Sindh had asked him to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

He said that victim family can lodge an FIR of kidnapping and torturing Sabir against any accused, including police officers of Mehar police station, and assured that accused nominated in FIR would be arrested.

He said that security would be provided to family of Kainat.

Gang Raped For 50 Days

A woman, who received a stay order from court over a dispute on ownership of her house, was picked up by policemen and their informers and taken to a private detention centre where she was gang raped for more than 50 days.  

The rape victim’s cases against the accused policemen and their henchmen were withdrawn due to the controversy of the geographical jurisdiction of the police.  

The medical report of the rape was not issued even after one month following the medical examination. The victim and her family are in hiding because of continuous police threats to withdraw the case. The deputy inspector generals (DIGs) of the two districts of Karachi metropolitan city refused to entertain the complaints of the victim on the grounds of jurisdiction.

This has happened in a country, which claims to be an Islamic Republic and proudly announces that it is protecting the women’s rights. This case is one of the worst examples of how the police protect their own on the pretext of jurisdictions.

 

Mrs. Ruby Masih, aged 32 years, wife of Mr. Aijaz Masih, resident of N-37, street number 50, Sector 50, Mohammad Khan Goth (village) Korangi number 3-1/2, Karachi, was raped in a private detention center of the police for more than 50 days (from August 10 to September 30, 2010) by police constable Ishaque Masih of Mehmoodabad police station and plain clothed policemen known as informers.

Ruby purchased a house in April 2004, where she was living as tenant since 2000, from Mr. Iqbal Masih, son of Mr. Inayat Masih, a police informer of Mehmoodabad police station. She paid off the whole price of the house except Rs. 40,000 (USD 471) as per condition that it would be paid after possession of all papers regarding the ownership of the house. In the meanwhile, Constable Ishaque allegedly forged the papers and declared the property in the name of one Mrs. Marium Bibi. Ruby challenged the issue in a civil court vide case number 578/2010 against Marium Bibi, Constable Ishaque and Iqbal Masih, a police informer.

On 31 May, the court passed a stay order in favour of Ruby. On the same night in late hours, Police Constable Ishaque, Police Constable Shahid and others broke into the Ruby’s house and threw away all the belongings of her family and occupied it. She and her family shifted to another house on rent as the police refused them entry to their own premises.

On 7 June, Mr. Aijaz Masih, Ruby’s husband, a carpenter by profession, lodged a case of illegal occupation of his house and theft of gold ornaments with the Zaman Town police station against constables and their henchmen. The Zaman Town police did not take any action against the alleged perpetrators. Instead, the police filed a case against the complainant Mr. Aijaz, his uncle and his cousin for trespassing the house, assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, damaging property and other offence.

On 10 August when Ruby went to attend the court hearing of her case, Constable Ishaq Masih of Mehmoodabad police station, Karachi with the help of constable Shahid and police informers, Shahbaz Masih, Iqbal Masih and Ms. Marium Masih abducted her from outside the court premises in a car. Ruby was taken to Qaidabad, 30 kilometers away from the city court premises, at gun point. She was asked to withdraw the case against police men for occupying her house illegally. On her refusal she was dumped into a house, an illegal detention center used for torture, and was forced to drink a coloured water. She fainted and when she came to she found herself lying naked on a cot. Then constable Ishaque and Marium again asked her to withdraw the case against them. On her refusal constable Shahid, Constable Ishaque, police informers Iqbal Masih, Kamran and Munir allegedly raped her during her illegal detention of 52 days.

On 30 September, she was thrown onto the railway line at Cantonment Railway Station from where she was taken away by an ambulance and admitted in the Jinnah Hospital. She informed her husband and then she was shifted to Civil Hospital on instructions of doctors. Before her release from illegal detention, her husband, Aijaz, has filed an application before the Court of District and Session Magistrate on 19 September, pleading that his wife has been abducted by police constables and their henchmen and police refusing to file case against police officials. On the orders of the court the Korangi Industrial police station lodged an FIR (First Information Report) against the accused police officials and their henchmen for abducting Ruby and keeping her incommunicado.

On the same night police officials threw her in the jurisdiction of another police station, the Risala police station so that the FIR at Korangi police station should become ineffective.

A 13-Year Old Girl Gang Raped by PPP Men

In another tragic incident, the Sindh police has stopped the investigation into the case of a gang rape of a 13-year old girl as a result of the case involving powerful people, among them two lawyers belonging to People’s Party.  

A doctor, who is affiliated with the PPP, stopped the completion of the medical report, which confirmed the rape.  

The journalists reporting on the case were threatened by the provincial ministers to stop reporting on the involvement of the lawyers.  

In retaliation, the perpetrators of the gang rape filed a case of abduction against the victim’s father. The district executive health officer (DEO-Health) has shown his inability to issue the provisional medical report, which was already prepared by the government hospital.

The minor girl, Miss Naveeda Kalhoro (13), is a resident of Bhiria road, Ratey mohalla, Bhiria taluka, district Naushahro Feroze, Sindh province.

On October 26, 2010, she filed a First Information Report (FIR), a police document for legal process, accusing two lawyers from Peoples Lawyer Forum (PLF), a lawyer’s body of the ruling PPP, for subjecting her to gang-rape in a sugarcane field.

According to her statement, on October 26 at 6:30 p.m. six persons, armed with firearms, rushed into her house while she was cooking. They abducted her and took her on a motorcycle to a car parked at the roadside pushing her inside. The accused persons sitting in the car were identified as lawyer Mr. Abdul Salam Luhrani, general secretary of Peoples Lawyer Forum (PLF)–a lawyer’s organization of the ruling party in the Naushahro Feroze district; and his brother, lawyer Abdul Karim Luhrani “alias Abdul Raheem Lurahni”, former vice mayor of Bhiria taluka (Bhiria town).

They told her that she is being abducted because a girl from the Luhrani tribe (a tribe that the perpetrators belong to) has married a young man from her tribe, the Kalhoro tribe, in a love marriage. The marriage was conducted before the civil magistrate with the help of one of Naveeda’s brothers. The perpetrators wanted to take revenge on her brother for his help in arranging the love marriage.

Naveeda identified the men who have gang raped her as: Mr. Abdul Karim, alias Abdul Raheem Luhrani; Mr. Abdul Salam Ruhani, Mr. Hashim Luhrani, Mr. Baig Bux, alias Baigo Luhrani; Mushtaq Luhrani, Zaman Luhrani, Nisar Luhrani and an unknown person. However, later on, two of the accused, Abdul Salam Luhrani and Abdul Karim Luhrani, were dropped by the police due to pressure by the ruling party and a member of the provincial assembly who belong to the same area. The policemen were expected to have accepted a huge bribe to delete their names.

Naveeda explained that she was found on a roadside by the District Superintendent of Police (SP) and Bhiria Road police party, where she was thrown in a depleted condition. She was quickly admitted to the Naushahro Feroze district hospital, a government hospital. The doctor on duty conducted a medical examination and confirmed that she had been raped by more than one person.

The accused persons were arrested, but they were quickly granted interim bail because the medical report at that time was not made available. The female doctor Mamoona explained that she could not release the medical report without being cleared by the district Executive Health Officer (DEO-Health).

Two MQM Rape Victims Continue to be Haunted

A case of rape, attempted murder, corruption and impunity that took place in 2008 and 2009 continues to haunt two girls in Hyderabad, Sindh. 

The incident involved members of MQM, but police have failed to protect the victims – two sisters – and have released a poor, gender-biased investigation report. The report reduces the case to that of a family ‘feud’. It does not address the year-long struggle of the women to have the case credibly filed and investigated.

Sisters Zainab Zia, 24 and Shehla Zia, 21 suffered rape, acid burning, attempted abduction, beatings, death threats and an attempt to have them certified in a psychiatric unit. A network of provincial ruling party members was implicated, while police officers connected to the case displayed willful negligence.

The inquiry report by the District Police Officer concludes that the series of violent, criminal incidents did not take place and that the matter ‘pertains to an ongoing feud’ between the families. Among the failures of the report are a number of significant omissions, including the involvement of the accused and his accomplices with MQM.

The two women’s access to the law was blocked many times by law enforcement officers.

The victims say that during the months of September and October 2008 they attempted to lodge an FIR several times, but that each time they were blocked by Station Head Officer (SHO) Hassan Ali Abdi, a former MQM member and apparent associate of the perpetrator. An investigation into MQM influence over the Hyderabad Police Station, and into the objectivism of SHO Hassan Ali Abdi remains central to this case. It is of concern that even though SHO Ali Abdi was able to interrupt due process, a legitimate investigation being carried out by Inspector Nasir Nawab was reportedly interrupted; he was suspended and his investigation stopped. Neither of these allegations is responded to in the police report.

The DPO does however make sustained references to the private and personal life of the rape victim and her sister, resulting in a clear defamation of their characters. In his dismissal of the likelihood of rape he reasons that: “It also seems hard to explain that after such heinous/ serious allegations involving the rape of her daughter, the mother can still maintain cordial relations with her son-in-law’.

The district police officer also questions the women’s relationship to Saleem Qaudri, who was reported to have helped rescue them from being burned, before sheltering them and marrying Zainab. The marriage was a preemptive move: it only partially saved him from later attempts by the perpetrators to accuse him of the abduction and rape of the women (he was arrested and had to appear in court). Rather than mention this, the report labels him derisively as a ‘soul healer’ who ‘fully controls and manipulates both girls’.

The District Officer’s report makes no reference to the fact that police protection was applied for by the women, and refused.

Though the report asserts clearly that it was three months before Zainab underwent a police-sanctioned medical examination for rape, it has not looked into why this crucial step was delayed. We are told that the police actively refused to provide the legal papers needed at the hospital. Although the eventual examination was unsurprisingly inconclusive due to this, the DPO instead chooses to single out the doctor’s comment that “she has been married for 2 months, so it is not possible to find any sign of rape in a married women”.

Witnesses to the rape and acid-throwing incident have not been given sufficient protection by police and they report having received threats from those linked to the party in office.

The delays in processing this case, and the degree to which political influence is involved must also be thoroughly investigated and explained. The report shows extremely strong signs of impunity. In his failure to mention the link of MQM members to the case the DPO has not mentioned or investigated several allegations, including an attempt to forcibly admit the victims into a psychiatric hospital, the refusal of police to file a case of abduction, an attack on Saleem Qaudri in a local restaurant and the suspension of Inspector Nasir Nawab during his investigation.

At this level of inaction a judicial and law enforcement system begins to lose every visible trace of independence and creditability. Without strong, decisive and transparent action against persons who commit human rights violations, the law will continue to resemble a commodity, available for those who can afford to trade in it.

Rape Can Never be a Part of Any Culture

Sexual violence during conflicts is all too often downplayed and treated as part of local cultural traditions instead of being viewed as a war crime, Margot Wallström, the recently appointed Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict warned as she called for much greater international action to defeat the scourge. 

She voiced the concern about the “lingering assumption that sexual violence is a tradition, rather than a tactic of choice” by groups engaged in war. 

“Prevailing opinion would have us believe that what happens in a ‘private hut’ has nothing to do with security,” she wrote in the Oslo newspaper Dagsavisen on March 25, 2010 in a column jointly authored with Jonas Gahr Støre, Norwegian Foreign Minister. 

“While bullets, bombs and blades make the headlines, women’s bodies remain invisible battlefields. Yet it is utterly indefensible to downgrade the threat level of sexual violence because it primarily targets women and girls. What makes forced displacement part of the war, and mass rape an intractable cultural trait?” 

Ms. Wallström and Mr. Støre wrote that there are only cultures of impunity, and not cultures of rape, as some commentators have argued in certain countries or conflicts. 

“Cultural relativism legitimises the violence and discredits the victims, because when you accept rape as cultural, you make rape inevitable. This shields the perpetrators and allows world leaders to shrug off sexual violence as an immutable – if regrettable – truth. It is time to state, once and for all, that mass rape is no more inevitable, cultural or acceptable than mass murder.” 

The Special Representative – who is visiting Norway on her first official visit since being appointed by the UN – and the Foreign Minister stressed that the best way to overcome this problem is to ensure that perpetrators of rape and other forms of sexual violence are held accountable.

“We are convinced that where there’s a political will, there’s a way. Every rape – even in the midst of war – is a crime that can be commanded, condoned or condemned. That is a choice made by those in power, and it is a matter that concerns the guardians of global peace and security.”

59 Year Old Arrested for Having 30 Wives

Goel Ratzon’s Facebook profile shows the bespectacled Israeli with shoulder-length white hair and neatly trimmed beard and says he is currently dating and has 36 friends.

His real status is somewhat more complicated. When Israeli police raided the self-styled healer’s four homes in Tel Aviv in Jan 2010 they found two legal ex-wives, plus another 30 women as well as 89 children — all reputedly his.

Ratzon was arrested on suspicion of enslavement, rape and sexual abuse and remanded in custody by a local magistrate.

Police described the apartment block in the city’s downscale Hatikvah neighborhood as a slum harem. The living conditions of the women were tragic. The filth was horrible, and there was nowhere to walk without stumbling on something. It was a three-bedroom apartment, where 10 women and 17 children were living.

 Ratzon’s unusual domestic arrangements first came to light in a documentary broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10 in January 2009. It showed Ratzon’s “wives” cooking, cleaning and shopping together, eagerly anticipating the arrival of “Daddy” and competing over whom he would choose to spend the night with.

On the show, Ratzon explained the secret of his magnetic attraction was that he was “perfect.” “I have everything a woman wants, all the qualities a woman wants. I give women the attention they want. It’s made of many things, but fortunately, I have everything,” he said. Because there was technically no multiple marriage (no ceremonies or documents were involved), authorities had no basis for charging Ratzon with polygamy.

The women, too, appeared to be content, if not happy. They wore modest clothing that neighbors likened to those of religious Muslims, and they had Ratzon’s image tattooed on their bodies.

The children’s names all included a version of Ratzon’s own. One wife had Ratzon’s portrait tattooed on her upper left arm, his head surrounded by snakes with the legend “Goel Ratzon, my love forever.” A similar tattoo on her upper right arm portrayed him with a cobra crowning his head and the legend “My Goel, my love.” Her neck was inscribed twice: “To Goel, with love.” “No one has love like we have here. I went through a lot before I arrived here and he is the ultimate for me,” she explained on television.

One of the other women defended Ratzon’s little kingdom, saying, “People think we are in a place where we are imprisoned and forced to become some kind of poor Cinderella. They don’t understand that there is humanity, respect. He has something special and good.”

Said one of her companions: “He’s the Messiah that everyone talks about. The day he decides to reveal himself, this country will see it.”

Ratzon had built a reputation for spiritual redemption (which is what goel means in Hebrew) by way of a center in Tel Aviv that combined teachings on the Kabbalah with healing.

In 2000, he told a reporter that he had had a vision of a “soul” appearing to him and telling him that the secrets of the Torah would be revealed to him, allowing him to no longer work hard in his life.

He became known as a healer for young women, some of whom fell in love with him.

One of his “wives” said she was smitten after he cured her of a mysterious disease that had left her bald at age 10.

Some of the women in the household severed all contact with their own families, insisting no one forced them to stay.

On the TV documentary, some accompanied Ratzon to a Tel Aviv mall to trawl for more “wives.” Still, Ratzon, 59, ruled his clan like a kingdom — or a police state.

According to a book of domestic bylaws that he laid out for his huge household, the women faced fines from $50 to $500 for such infractions as sitting idle when there was housework to be done or talking to repairmen.

To an extent, the situation was state-subsidized: some women claimed state benefits as stay-at-home, single parents. Others, however, worked outside, earning money for the family kitty. But not everyone was happy.

Days before his arrest, Ratzon reportedly took one of his “wives” to the hospital because she was suffering from an overdose of antidepressants.

Because there was no evidence of a crime, just a weird lifestyle, no charges have been brought against Ratzon. “The welfare department [had] been in touch with some of the women and children for the past couple of years,” a social worker in the Tel Aviv Municipality Welfare Department said. “There was never a reason to suspect any criminal behavior. The children were clean and well dressed. They showed up to school regularly. There were no signs in their behavior that could indicate neglect or anything like sexual exploitation.”

But there was much suspicion that many of the women in the alleged harem, still in their 20s, had been troubled teenagers who originally went to Ratzon for therapy.

In June of 2009, a 24-year-old woman, the daughter of one of Ratzon’s “wives,” filed a complaint against him with the Tel Aviv police. The mother, who was arrested along with Ratzon, is suspected of introducing her biological daughter, then 14, to the healer for purposes of sex; she is now facing charges of encouraging and failing to report underage sex.

Using Clause 375a of a new Israeli law against human-trafficking that makes it a crime to hold a person “in conditions of slavery,” police then tapped Ratzon’s phones and began surveillance. Parallel to the police investigation, parents of some of the young women hired private detectives to launch an undercover inquiry.

If formally charged, Ratzon faces a maximum 16-year prison term for each of the slavery and rape charges. Through his lawyer, Ratzon denied the allegations.

After so many years of inaction, the police seem confident they can prove his guilt. “We have managed to gather a great deal of evidence relating to the offenses of holding people under conditions of enslavement and rape,” head of the Tel Aviv police’s Central Unit, told reporters.

Malaysians Raping Burmese Girls in Sarawak

Indigenous tribal girls have been sexually abused by loggers in remote jungles on Borneo island, a Malaysian government report said, in the first official verification of rape accusations involving timber companies.

The report recently made public bolsters claims by the Penan tribal community of mistreatment by the timber industry, which activists say has encroached on the customary rights of ancient tribes over forests and destroyed their ancestral lands.

A team from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry investigated rape claims by Penan women in November after activists complained that police failed to do anything.

Timber industry officials have said in the past they were not aware of such misconduct by their workers. No company was singled out in the report and timber company officials reached Wednesday declined to comment. All of the companies are Malaysian, as are the accused workers.

A copy of the report provided extensive interviews with Penan women in Sarawak state in Borneo who claimed that timber workers raped or tried to sexually abuse schoolgirls, including some as young as 10 years old.

One teenage girl said she bore two daughters after being raped by a worker who repeatedly intruded into her room. Another girl said she was raped when she accepted a lift to school from a logger in his truck, while several others spoke of similar cases involving their friends.

This sexual abuse mostly occurs due to the victims’ dependence on transport using vehicles owned by logging companies and the presence of outsiders who deal with villagers to buy jungle produce.

The government team did not specifically explain why it believed the rape claims were true, but it interviewed four women with firsthand experience of sexual abuse and many others who claimed that it was a common occurrence in their communities.

The report clearly shows they were raped. Why is the police taking so long to do something? This reflects poorly on the police.

Authorities probed three complaints last year but found nothing with proper evidence for us to proceed in court, adding that activists often did not give specific details to support their claims.

Authorities estimate there are about 16,000 Penans among the 24 indigenous tribes who live in Sarawak, where forests cover about 70 percent of the state. Many of them are impoverished and live in remote areas, cut off from modern education and health care facilities.

Timber is Sarawak’s second biggest export after oil and gas. Malaysian laws do not recognize or protect the indigenous Penan customs and right to land ownership.

Afghans Keep Mixing Rape with Adultery

Many are calling on the Afghan government to adopt a new law which would more clearly differentiate rape, a criminal offence, from consensual adultery, considered a serious crime in the country.
 
 ”Rape and adultery are two different issues and should be separate in law. Rape is an act of violence and coercion and the inflicting of suffering on a victim, and is not consensual, whereas adultery is consensual, freely chosen,” a researcher at London-based Amnesty International said.
 
Rape needs to be legally recognized as a heinous crime and must be dealt with separately from Islamic adultery penal codes.
 
Many Afghan judges confuse rape with adultery which, activists say, adds insult to injury for the victims.
 
A  member of the Penal Bureau in the Supreme Court, for instance, describes rape as “an illicit sexual relationship between a man and a woman who are not married to each other”.
 
 Judicial officials and the police are unaware – or not convinced – that rape is a serious crime, according to a report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
 
“The reality for most female victims is that state institutions fail them,” says the report entitled Silence is Violence.
 
 Legal ambiguity
 Courts prosecute cases of adultery and rape according to Articles 422-433 of the 1976 Penal Code which, according to rights groups, do not explicitly criminalize rape.  The Code prescribes 7-15 years jail for adulterers and rapists depending on their marital status, age and other circumstances.
 
Women in Afghanistan, victims of rape, are often at risk of being convicted of `zina’ [fornication outside marriage] under Article 427 of the Afghan Penal Code, and are denied justice. Indeed, the crime of rape committed against them, through no fault of their own, is compounded by further victimization in being prosecuted by the state for `zina’.
 
In instances of forced sexual intercourse, law enforcement and judicial authorities overwhelmingly resort to the concept of `zina’, which does not adequately address the issue of consent, one of the core elements of the crime of rape.
 
 The issue of the criminalization of rape is further complicated by the fact that judges rely extensively on their own interpretation of Islamic law and its jurisprudence when adjudicating `zina’ cases.
 
 Another problem with the existing Penal Code is its lack of support for the victims of rape. 

Marital rape 
Supreme Court judges Bahauddin Baha and Mohammad Qasim affirmed the husband’s prerogative in sexual affairs with his wife/wives. An Afghan man is allowed to have up to four wives at a time but an Afghan woman cannot have more than one husband, according to the country’s Islamic laws and strong patriarchal traditions.
 
Even if a husband forces his wife to have sex with him, this is not considered rape, according to many judges.
 
The issue of marital rape is never considered or reported, since women have no choice in terms of consenting to sexual intercourse with their spouse.
 
However, women’s rights activists say marital rape is a reality and should be dealt with through appropriate legal mechanisms. “It is nothing but rape when a husband forcefully copulates with his wife despite her objections.
 
The issue of marital rape is relevant as both child and forced marriages are prevalent in Afghanistan, particularly in rural areas. A forced marriage is in fact a kind of rape, and so is child marriage.
 
New law for Shias 
On 27 July the government published in the Official Gazette a controversial law for the country’s Shia minority which deprives women of many basic rights.
 
It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who is injured when raped.
 
 The government has repudiated such criticism, saying the Shia Personal Affairs Law was promulgated in accordance with Shia religious jurisprudence and is strongly supported by most Shia people.