In this past week I have been following a situation in Tunisia that has caught a bit of news, so some of you may be aware of it, but if your not I would like to enlighten you. A little over a week ago a woman and her fiance were sitting in there parked car when two police officers came up to them. One of them took the man to a bank to extract money, while the other two officers proceeded to rape the woman.
I know this is not a fun topic to discuss but it is important. The main issue now is that the officers' lawyer is using the defense of saying that the couple was found in an "immoral position" by the officers which is against the law and punishable by 6 months in jail. Of course this does not excuse the act of the officers in the eyes of the Tunisian courts, but it has definitely caused them to take their focus off of the appalling actions that did take place. Now the woman is being put in a position of criminal and not victim.
We all ask ourselves how can this kind of thing happen in our world today. Well, that is exactly my point in sharing this with you. In the Arab world due to their strong conservative beliefs, still have laws against basic public affection and appearance, which when men especially, are trying to get out of punishment for heinous crimes, those laws can be used against woman in unbelievable ways.
There were many women demonstrating on the main street downtown yesterday, so please pray for this woman and the legal counsel defending her. Also, as you read the article I have linked to my post, realize that it is situations and events like this that cause my heart to break and motivate my soul to do God's work in empowering woman and helping them fight for basic rights of security. Despite this unfortunate news that I'm sharing with you, I pray that you have a blessed day and through this story, be grateful for the rights we have as women in this country.
Sincerely, Laina
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I know this is not a fun topic to discuss but it is important. The main issue now is that the officers' lawyer is using the defense of saying that the couple was found in an "immoral position" by the officers which is against the law and punishable by 6 months in jail. Of course this does not excuse the act of the officers in the eyes of the Tunisian courts, but it has definitely caused them to take their focus off of the appalling actions that did take place. Now the woman is being put in a position of criminal and not victim.
We all ask ourselves how can this kind of thing happen in our world today. Well, that is exactly my point in sharing this with you. In the Arab world due to their strong conservative beliefs, still have laws against basic public affection and appearance, which when men especially, are trying to get out of punishment for heinous crimes, those laws can be used against woman in unbelievable ways.
There were many women demonstrating on the main street downtown yesterday, so please pray for this woman and the legal counsel defending her. Also, as you read the article I have linked to my post, realize that it is situations and events like this that cause my heart to break and motivate my soul to do God's work in empowering woman and helping them fight for basic rights of security. Despite this unfortunate news that I'm sharing with you, I pray that you have a blessed day and through this story, be grateful for the rights we have as women in this country.
Sincerely, Laina
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