Feminology: Woman Abuse by Bassam Imam - HTML preview

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part

of

the

overall

problem

though.

Gendercide takes the whole picture into consideration; millions of gender specific abortions.

The mass killings of men usually occur during times of war and slaughter. They’re killed after they’re born. The vast majority of political prisoners who are also tortured are men.

Killing and extermination comes in different forms.

According to Rajendra Kale, editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal a ban on indicating the sex of the 115

child until 30 weeks into a pregnancy will make it more difficult to obtain an abortion.

No doubt, if this opinion were to become official Canadian medical policy there’ll be much outrage amongst parents,

including the majority who don’t or will never practice GSA.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada disagree with Kale. Their policy is to respect the need and the right of patients to know the sex of their baby {if asked the physician tells}.

GSA is our problem, every one of us male and female

regardless of race, nationality, creed place of residence or nationality. Millions of would-be births are deliberately

aborted every single year based on gender alone.

But GSA isn’t as outright brazen and apparent as killing a live baby. Historically the vast majority of infanticide victims have been females.

Female infanticide (FI) is the cold-blooded, unlawful

killing of female infants, because they’re perceived as being a liability, unable to accrue income, and worth considerably less than male babies; they’re homemakers rather than money-makers.

Female infanticide is also widely known as gender-selective killing.

There are no religious reasons to kill female infants.

However, the cultural and economic aspects of FI are often the true reason for this act.

In societies where many people are filthy poor and the

population is large, parents perceive their sons as taking care of them when they reach old age rather than their daughters.

In some cultures in India, dowries may be large, paid by the parents of the bride to the prospective groom. Paying one dowry is often strenuous, paying two or more may be virtually impossible. Money is perceived as more important than the life of a baby daughter.

In India and China FI further aggravates the pre-existing problem of male to female births ratio. But thankfully, FI doesn’t occur en masse, it occurs in isolation; one is too many though.

In addition to female infanticide baby females may be sold or given away, dumped or when they grow up sold into

prostitution.

In the past many cultures encouraged the killing of

unwanted babies (mostly females) and those who were sickly or handicapped. They were too burdensome to keep. Furthermore, female babies could even bring about shame and disgust in the parents, especially the father.

During pre-Islamic days in the Arabian Peninsula countless baby girls were buried alive. It seemed like no one gave a damn 116

about them. Burials usually occurred immediately after birth and with no time to waste in the process. The baby girl could bring about embarrassment to the family, worse yet, sometimes from the tribe.

But at the onset of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, a

revelation in the Noble Quran banned this practice; in addition, it condemns in strong terms those persons who rejoice upon the birth of a male but become saddened at the birth of a female. In addition, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) banned FI.

According to the Noble Quran, the act of infanticide

(against males or females) is a grave sin that would be revealed and questioned on the Day of Judgement. The infant will be asked

‘for what crime were you slain?’

In the not so distant past in Europe and in Colonial

America, witchcraft was a powerful weapon that was used to accuse, demonize, put on trial, torture, incarcerate and kill tens of thousands of people (with some estimates at much higher numbers, and in my opinion rightly so).

Eighty five percent or more of the victims convicted and punished for witchcraft were females. Elderly women, especially those living alone were a common target. May GOD forbid she has a witches’ pimple on her nose.

Some witch hunts were solely against women across Europe, accusations of witchcraft became commonplace. In most of the cases no evidence was needed for accusing, trying, convicting and punishing.

The job of witch-finder also referred to as witch hunter became commonplace. These persons were feared and dreaded by many. The most famous witch trials in America were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, where 14 women and 6 men were sentenced to death.

Manuals and books were written about how to ‘sniff out’

witches and to kill them. One such book was the Malleus Maleficarum.

The judges, ministers, constables, jailers, doctors, jurors and torturers were almost always men, with a very few

exceptions. Witnesses though, could be male or female, from any age cohort.

Witchcraft was believed to be the primary domain of

possessed women. The accused women were believed to lust for the Devil; sexual servants of Satan. Others were accused of kissing the Devil’s behind. In a broader sense though, women were seen as the controllers of men; controlling them with their beauty and cunningness.

Countless

people,

mostly

women

were

tortured

into

confessing that they were witches. Religiously, Eve was unjustly blamed for being the source of driving ‘man’ out of Eden. Women 117

accused of witchcraft were believed to have been seduced by Satan himself, through his evil devils. Women’s so-called excessive lust was a factor in this belief.

Other preposterous beliefs about witches included the

following;

-Weaken men’s natural defences.

-Harm or kill them.

-Induce impotence in males.

-Destroy properties and food supplies.

-Cause natural catastrophes.

-Curse others.

-The Halloween flying witch myth does have some basis in old time belief. During the witch hunt craze many people believed that witches could and did fly.

-Herbs, spices and special ointments aided them to do their

evil work.

-Witches’ children were often deemed possessed too, and as such could be severely punished.

For several centuries beginning in the 14th century with peaks and low points and phasing out during the mid-17 century (Period of the Renaissance), women in particular were targeted for persecution, trials, punishments and often-times killings.

Unjustifiable rumours and outright lies against minority

religious groups’ and non-Christian groups’ intent on destroying Christianity began to circulate.

As is the usual case, catastrophes or wars can aggravate this kind of condition. After the black plague, the time was ripe for finding scapegoats to blame. The mid-16th to the mid-17th century was a terrible time; many people were accused of being witches or possessed. There was no due process to speak of; a person could be accused by an enemy, someone out for vengeance, envy or jealousy or property as was partially responsible for the Salem Witch Trials.

1550 to 1650 was perhaps the period of the greatest

intensification of the witch hunt terror especially in Germany and France women were accused of witchcraft throughout the land, including remote villages. Many thousands were sentenced to die during this witchcraft craze. Some villages in Germany were believed to be cleansed of women. This bit of history has for the most part been hidden.

With so much torture performed throughout Europe, new

gruesome instruments of interrogation and punishment had to be manufactured. Below is a list of some of those instruments and actions:

118

-Crushing to death was done by placing the accused flat on her/his back and then a board was placed on her/him. Stones or other weights were slowly added onto the board. Meanwhile, the accused was interrogated into confessing. A confession though, didn’t mean a cessation of weight adding.

-Bootikens: Special boots that extended from the ankles to the knees. Wedges were hammered up the boots. This caused bone breaks and bone crushing.

The Pear of Anguish: A pear shaped contraption ‘properly inserted’ into the orifices of the accused. The torturer then opened or expanded the pear causing rips, tears, shearing, breaks and/or gross dislocations of body parts. Often-times, spikes were welded into the pear causing further turmoil to the victim by spiking the flesh, then penetrating it.

-The Turcas: A device used to yank out or slowly pull out the fingernails. Afterwards, the injured bloodied flesh would be pierced with pins.

-Red-hot pincers could be used to forcefully tear out

chunks of the victim`s flesh; occasionally these same chunks would be shoved into the victim`s vagina and rectum.

-The strappado involved the tying of the suspected witch`s

hands behind her back using a rope. She was the hoisted into the air like a factory farmed animal on a conveyer belt and then unceremoniously dropped causing shock and trauma to the shoulder joints and depending on the particular case causing gross dislocation. This process was repeated over and over again.

-Breast Ripper: Women`s breasts were a usual target;

mutilation or chopping off of the breasts and ‘tormenting the nipples’ was another form of punishment. This form of punishment was also inflicted upon women who committed adultery. Many wives especially those of knights and crusaders were forced to wear chastity belts that looked like giant metal under wears.

-Witches were usually in the nude during torture sessions, giving the punishment a sexual sadism-like characteristic. Ìve never heard of a single case of a torturer breaking down and crying. But don’t take my word for it, maybe there was, in some remote dungeon centuries ago.

-Stoning to death: The stoning could last for whatever

length of time, depending on the size of the stones, the number of throws, and in what frequency the stones were thrown. The mob wasn’t sympathetic to the accused. In fact, they were usually rag tag or just plain ole people from the general public.

-Swimming: The accused was tested by drowning. If the water

accepted the suspect she was declared innocent. If she floated she was guilty and as such was sent off to ‘the bonfire’.

119

-Dunking: The accused was strapped to a chair or just

thrown into a body of water.

-Burning at the stake was the most common and widespread punishment for people accused of witchcraft. But in an ironic sense, it most resembled the punishment in Hell.

-The Refined Pulley: A specially designed pulley was used to pull and distort the body of the suspected witch in every shape and contortion possible.

Women can also be abused while serving a sentence behind bars. Being sentenced to serve time should never include abuse, intimidation or sexual assault. A person should do his/her time behind bars and that’s it. No corrections officer (guard: prison or jail) has a right to unjustly abuse an inmate. Furthermore, as in the case of many men’s prisons, countless inmates are raped by other inmates.

In women’s prisons, abuse, sexual harassment and rape may occur by another inmate but not at the frequency of that in men’s prisons.

A problem in women’s prisons is the attitude and behaviour of a minority of correctional officers.

Rape of female inmates by correctional officers does

happen. There have also been cases of raped inmates being impregnated. Some cases are quite obvious an inmate who isn’t allowed

conjugal

visits

for

years-on

end

can’t

become

impregnated by another inmate (a woman).

Women inmates are often at the mercy of corrections

officers; food, what little outdoor time they have, cigarettes (if applicable), and whatever ‘small benefits’ in the prison, except for food can be withdrawn or partially withdrawn with the discretion of the prison administration.

Corrections officers have much access to women’s sleeping and bathing quarters and anywhere else in the prison.

The abuse of power can come in the form of outright rape or

‘coerced sex’; sex done for the sake of privileges. The latter is still a form of rape because the inmate is coerced into giving it up.

Prison

officials

understand

the

magnanimous

power

differential between correctional officers and women inmates.

It’s illegal in every state of the union for any corrections officer to have any kind of sexual contact with an inmate whether both partners agree or force is used on the inmate.

Years ago a professor of mine informed me of several

correctional officers who were discovered having intercourse with women inmates of a jail. Although not one of the women complained about being raped, every single corrections officer 120

involved in the escapade was promptly fired. Maybe, that was enough of a punishment for the women inmates.

Whatever the stats the incidence of this crime is certainly

much higher. Hardly a woman inmate will dare complain while she’s still behind bars, seeing the same guy or guys on a regular basis. Retaliation against the inmate can come in many forms, sometimes indirectly.

Living in jail or prison is hard as is even without making enemies with the corrections officers. Ideally, corrections officers are trained to be tough, take a person down really fast and to hold their ground, if possible.

There are 200,000 women incarcerated in U.S. facilities.

This

includes

state,

federal

and

immigration

detention

facilities.

Raped-pregnant inmates may wait too long for an abortion to

be possible. Also, the services for this procedure may take more time for someone behind bars. But there have been cases of forced abortions too.

Having a baby behind bars is quite complicated at the least

especially if the inmate was raped, or even if she wasn’t raped for that matter. The fate of the infant is of the utmost concern.

Much of the general public is unaware of goings-on behind bars, and often times couldn’t care less. Women are serving time behind bars because they broke the law. There’s no objection to this, only to unjustifiable abuse therein.

Rape or sexual assault can also occur within the mental health organization.

In a 2008 study conducted in mental wards in Victoria,

Australia just under two thirds of the patients claimed to have been sexually abused or harassed by male patients.

In a report detailed by the Victorian Women and Mental

Health Network it became apparent that over two thirds of mental health workers were aware of the abuse occurring within public hospital wards. In this study the abuse was blamed on sick male patients, and the acts were occurring frequently.

Abuse of this nature has harmful effects on the women in mental institutions or wards. This is not what they need, especially for women who were initially admitted for being victimized for sexual assault or had been assaulted in the past.

Women who were highly medicated or mentally aloof weren’t aware of being raped at the time. In this kind of case scenario no force or intimidation is necessary.

A case within this study indicated a male patient entering a female’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her.

In Victoria, mental wards became mixed gender units during the 1960s, opening up a Pandora box of additional problems.

121

In a story dating back to 1993 London Police investigated the alleged rape of five patients in a psychiatric hospital.

This hospital had below standard staffing levels and security operations.

In an unrelated incident occurring at the South London

Hospital, a mental patient who was supposed to be under round-the-clock supervision was allegedly raped by another patient.

Shockingly, the alleged perpetrator was a convicted rapist; he’d done four years of maximum security at Broadmoor and was transferred

out

to

a

mixed

gender

psychiatric

ward

at

Springfield Hospital, Tooting. Someone totally screwed up here.

The alleged perpetrator was sent back to Broadmoor, but

there was insufficient evidence to officially charge him with the alleged rape.

Mental health wards:

-Having mixed gender living quarters where males and

females can easily enter the rooms of each other will result in problems.

-Criminals and dangerous mental patients should not be

freely mixed with non-dangerous patients. This will certainly result in violence and rape. Non-dangerous mental patients may be suffering from excessive grief, depression or other non-dangerous problems or disorders. The violent mental patients may be killers, rapists, etc.

-Better overall security measures and coordination of staff and line workers is necessary.

-Better training of staff and workers.

-Restraints should be used properly and only in emergencies

or when a serious situation arises and there’s no other viable alternative. Restraints should be removed as soon as possible and should not be a form of serious punishment. Workers should understand that restraints are extremely uncomfortable. Some patients

become

claustrophobic

from

being

restrained.

Furthermore, orderlies must ensure that the patient doesn’t have an injury that will worsen by the restraints.

-Restraints and seclusion should not exceed a certain

period of time.

-Take all complaints seriously.

The

aforementioned

are

only

a

few

recommendations.

Unfortunately, more money is needed. The money has to come from somewhere. Furthermore, the field of psychiatry isn’t one of the more

respected

fields

in

medicine.

Funding

of

mental

institutions and wards is often the first to be reduced during times of economic crisis.

122

Although there are horror stories emanating from some

mental wards, some individuals are too sick to be on the outside and must be medicated and kept within the confines of mental hospitals or clinics.

If you have a relative or friend that needs to be checked into a mental hospital or ward and you want to help, do your research. Find out something about the hospital and if there are complaints or hostile stories about it. One such organization is the National Alliance for the mentally ill; they research abuse in hospitals and grade them too.

Mental care workers or more commonly called orderlies must sometimes get physical with the more violent and physical patients. Someone has to restrain the patient otherwise he or she will hurt him or herself or others. Strong medications are used along with physical restraints. These two devices though, must be last resorts and not to be used on a whim without just cause.

Orderlies working at the bottom rungs of the hierarchy are overworked, underpaid and overly-stressed out. Depending on funds they may also be under-trained and receive little or no benefits.

The psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses

and psychiatric nurses are usually much more educated than most orderlies. Furthermore, the job of an orderly is unpredictable at times, with incredibly dangerous situations emerging suddenly and sometimes without any warning whatsoever. A patient can appear calm, docile and friendly for months or years-on-end and then suddenly have a dangerous outburst.

The turnover rate for orderlies is high, therefore making it a bad investment for the state or the institution to offer long-term and intensive training.

Homelessness is often very stressful and can be quite

dangerous for both males and females, young and old.

Females though, have particular problems. Homeless female

teens and young women face incredible stress. Violence and intimidation on the streets is often daily and can involve verbal intimidation or threats, sexually demeaning words, or putdowns; violence can also be physical or sexual.

A homeless female may endure being touched, groped, spat on, shoved, grabbed, punched, kicked, etc. Worse case scenarios include sexual assault or rape.

Attackers are often confident that justice won’t prevail.

In fact, the system generally looks down upon homeless people.

Passersby are many some verbally humiliate a homeless

person by saying ‘get a job’ ‘you’re a lazy bum’ ‘you got what you deserved’ ‘you’re an alcoholic’ ‘you’re lazy’, etc. These kinds of verbal humiliations can come from males or females.

123

Passersby are many most won’t bother a homeless female however given the sheer numbers of them chances are a verbal humiliation will occur.

Street walkers or street prostitutes usually endure the

most verbal and physical violence. They can be brutally raped, stabbed, shot or killed. Johns are many, most may not be violent,

but

again

the

sheer

numbers

of

them

make

it

statistically likely that sooner or later something horrible will happen.

In British Columbia, homeless indigenous girls and women

tend to get the worst treatment of whatever kind of violence exists. Passersby or Johns, or just plain ole racist guys know that this category of females is an easy target; the justice system often treats these females with disdain.

The immense anxiety, apprehension, fear and stress homeless girls and women face often results in serious mental and physical problems:

-Increased risk of trauma, HIV and AIDS, Hepatitis,

tuberculosis, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems

-Finding enough potable water may be a problem.

-Often times a lack of clean and wholesome food; also a lack of enough food.

-A general feeling of helplessness.

-Major long term depression.

-Persistent anxiety

-Chronic fear and apprehension.

-Anger at passersby and the system.

-Lack of enjoyment for life; knowing that good times if any

are short-lived.

-Apathy for life; feeling