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Tag Archives: Rape
Tell Turkish Court: Rape Is Never Consensual
 Tell Turkish Court: Rape Is Never ConsensualI know I send a lot of messages asking you to take action against injustice. But a Turkish court ruling against the testimony of a raped woman because she didn’t scream during the assault makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. Stand up against this bizarre and unjust ruling! »A judge in Diyarbakir, Turkey has ruled that the sexual abuse of a woman with mental disabilitieswill go unpunished because the woman did not scream.The woman, known by the alias “E.B.,” was repeatedly raped for two years by her 24-year-old neighbor, Ibrahim T. DNA proved Ibrahim T. to be the biological father of E.B.’s child.E.B. later said she was too afraid to report the abuse because her neighbor was from a wealthy family and threatened to kill her and her children if she said anything. This sounds pretty nonconsensual to me. But because E.B. didn’t fight back, the judge decided her word wasn’t good enough. Join me in speaking out against this horrific display of injustice. Tell Turkey that rape is NEVER consensual. »
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Rape is rape … Shelby Knox, Change.org
In a recent speech at the University of New Hampshire, Vice President Joe Biden recounted the story of a college freshman he called Jenny.
Jenny was raped after a party on campus. She tried to pursue a case against her rapist only to be asked if she had been drinking, what she was wearing, and whether she was dancing. The university never took action against her assailant.
As Biden said, “Rape is rape is rape.”
Yet each year the FBI omits hundreds of thousands of rapes from its Uniform Crime Report (UCR) because it’s using an 80-year-old definition of rape.
The FBI’s outdated definition of rape is limited to “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”
Sign the petition to tell the FBI to update their definition to include all forms of rape.
The FBI’s flawed definition of rape excludes any form of sexual assault that falls outside of the narrowest understanding of heterosexual sex, including the rape of men and boys as well as transgender people.
The emphasis on “forcible” rape also means that the rape or assault of women with physical or mental disabilities and those who were unconscious or under the influence of drugs and alcohol – like Jenny — are often excluded.
The FBI’s 2007 Uniform Crime Report listed 91,874 “forcible rapes,” but some estimates suggest the actual number may be 24 times higher.
The FBI’s underreporting of rapes translates to less federal funding for police departments nationwide to test rape kits — and fewer investigators bringing rapists to justice.
Sign here to tell the FBI to update its definition of rape to address and end sexual assault:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-fbi-rape-is-rape
Thanks for taking action,
– Shelby and the Change.org team
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Should rape and incest survivors be forced to prove that they were assaulted to the IRS?
Should rape and incest survivors be forced to prove to the IRS that they were assaulted?
What kind of question is that?
But a bill proposed by anti-choice lawmakers in Congress could force many sexual assault survivors to do just that.1
The bill would impose tax penalties on small businesses and individuals who buy abortion coverage with their own money—with exceptions only for cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger.2
The result? Survivors of rape and incest who seek abortion care could be forced to detail their assaults and provide proof to IRS investigators.3
Reliving a horrific sexual assault to the police and in court is awful enough. Forcing women to prove that they were assaulted to IRS investigators is simply inhumane.
Tell Congress to stand up against this terrible bill—and speak out against the Republican war on women. Sign the petition today
http://pol.moveon.org/noaudits/?id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=4
Despite campaigning on job creation, Republicans have focused their agenda this year on attacking the rights and well-being of women. From pushing several anti-choice bills to cutting billions from health care, food aid, child care, and education, their attacks constitute nothing less than a full-scale war on women.
But as we saw earlier this year, a huge outcry can have a big impact. When Republicans included a provision in the original version of this bill that redefined rape—which said that only “forcible” rape counted when it came to using federal dollars for abortion care—they faced a huge backlash, and eventually removed that term.4
Now, the new version of the bill is out—and as Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, put it, “This bill gets more outrageous and insulting by the day. Not only would a woman have to describe her sexual assault to the police, but she could then be forced to relive that horrifying experience with an agent from the IRS.”5
Republicans clearly have no boundaries when it comes to attacking women’s rights. But just like when they attempted to redefine rape, we can stop them—and their bill—if we all speak out.
Can you sign the petition today? Just click below—and share this email with your friends, family, and social networks today.
Thanks for all you do.
–Kat, Wes, Joan, Peter, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits,” Mother Jones, March 18, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207116&id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=5
2. “H.R. 3: A Dangerous and Misleading Bill that Threatens Women’s Health,'” National Women’s Law Center, March 2, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207136&id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=6
3. “GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits,” Mother Jones, March 18, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207116&id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=7
4. “Pro-Choice Advocates: GOP’s Revised Abortion Bill Remains ‘Extremely Harmful’ To Women,” The Huffington Post, March 3, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207117&id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=8
5. “GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits,” Mother Jones, March 18, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207116&id=26652-17809870-pwT7nvx&t=9
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Stop the radically anti-choice, anti-woman H.R. 3
The anti-choice caucus in Congress is still pushing an extreme anti-choice bill that would significantly restrict women’s access to abortion services.
Republicans may have caved to pressure to remove an outrageous provision in their bill that sought to redefine rape in order to limit the number of rape victims with access to abortion services. But the bill if passed remains a horrific rollback in a woman’s right to choose.
We must redouble the pressure on Congress and defeat this radically anti-woman and anti-choice bill.
I just signed a petition urging my U.S. Representative to oppose this extreme bill and protect women’s health. You should too. Click below to take action.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_hr3/?r_by=16100-2591629-wh0ZoYx&rc=confemail
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