The rape of Sabrine
Dienstag, 6. März 2007, 23:34
As I write this, Oprah is on Channel 4 (one of the MBC channels we get on Nilesat), showing Americans how to get out of debt. Her guest speaker is telling a studio full of American women who seem to have over-shopped that they could probably do with fewer designer products. As they talk about increasing incomes and fortunes, Sabrine Al-Janabi, a young Iraqi woman, is on Al Jazeera telling how Iraqi security forces abducted her from her home and raped her. You can only see her eyes, her voice is hoarse and it keeps breaking as she speaks. In the end she tells the reporter that she can’t talk about it anymore and she covers her eyes with shame.
…
I wonder what excuse they used when they took her. It’s most likely she’s one of the thousands of people they round up under the general headline of ‘terrorist suspect’. She might have been one of those subtitles you read on CNN or BBC or Arabiya, “13 insurgents captured by Iraqi security forces.” The men who raped her are those same security forces Bush and Condi are so proud of- you know- the ones the Americans trained. It’s a chapter right out of the book that documents American occupation in Iraq: the chapter that will tell the story of 14-year-old Abeer who was raped, killed and burned with her little sister and parents.
…
I look at this woman and I can’t feel anything but rage. What did we gain? I know that looking at her, foreigners will never be able to relate. They’ll feel pity and maybe some anger, but she’s one of us. She’s not a girl in jeans and a t-shirt so there will only be a vague sort of sympathy. Poor third-world countries- that is what their womenfolk tolerate. Just know that we never had to tolerate this before. There was a time when Iraqis were safe in the streets. That time is long gone. We consoled ourselves after the war with the fact that we at least had a modicum of safety in our homes. Homes are sacred, aren’t they? That is gone too.
…
Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.
Riverbend, if you’re reading this: i’m sorry for copying that much, but i thought, i couldn’t express this in quite the same way. Für alle anderen: Lest den kompletten Artikel. [via Vertan]
Ich frag mich, wann wir ein Interview mit oder ein Porträt von dieser Frau im ARD, WDR oder im Phoenix sehen werden. Ich nehme an, das wird gleich nach “nie” sein!
Tags: Ausland, Besatzung, irak, Krieg, medien, USA, Vergewaltigung
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Kommentar von Melantrys
Made Mittwoch, 7 of März , 2007 at 00:36
Ich frage mich, zu welchem letztendlichen Schluß die Untersuchung, die ja nun doch zu laufen scheint, kommen wird.
In der Kommentarsektion eines weniger gelungenen Eintrags vom Iraqi Konfused Kid schrieb Lynnette in Minnesota kürzlich:
Regarding your discussion here, there was something in my paper this morning. Maybe you have already heard this:
The story took a turn Friday when a Sunni human rights official said that a government committee has uncovered strong evidence to support the claims of the first woman, a 20-year old Sunni.
The official, Omar al-Jabouri, said that one of the woman’s alleged attackers and an accomplice have been in custody since Wednesday, and that a four-member special investigative panel has continued to investigate the case despite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s public statements that the woman lied.
The panel investigating the rape allegation is led by the Interior Ministry’s intelligence service chief, Gen. Hussein Kamal. Al-Jabouri is an observer to the panel on behalf of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni.
The investigation is complicated because the woman has been charged with supporting the Sunni insurgency, Al-Jabouri said.
Die Möglichkeit besteht ja durchaus, daß diese Frau lügt, aber ich finde es schon traurig, wie ansonsten intelligente Leute ihre Aussage einfach abtun, weil “eine irakische Frau das einfach nicht im Fernsehen erzählen würde; nein, das kannst du als Europäerin nicht verstehen”. Ja, ok, alles klar.
Kommentar von Omar Abo-Namous
Made Mittwoch, 7 of März , 2007 at 11:09
ich glaube nicht, dass sie lügt. Die farce von Untersuchung, mit der die Regierung innerhalb von 14 Stunden ermittelt haben will, dass sie lügt, geben ihr eher recht.
Ich hoffe sehr, dass das nicht wieder zu einer sunni-schi’i-Geschichte wird, denn das ist überhaupt nicht der Punkt! Es geht vielmehr um ein Zustand der Rechtlosigkeit, der selbst bei der Polizei im Irak Einzug gefunden hat.
Kommentar von David
Made Mittwoch, 7 of März , 2007 at 23:22
Riverbend is being unfair to Oprah in this instance. Oprah has enormous influence with American women, and I’m sure Oprah would interview Riverbend, should she want to reveal her identity.
Kommentar von Omar Abo-Namous
Made Mittwoch, 7 of März , 2007 at 23:27
@David: i don’t think it’s about Oprah at all. She could have said, they were watching some music channel or any other contrast-programme to the one she describes..
Kommentar von Lara
Made Samstag, 10 of März , 2007 at 17:13
Ich glaube auch nicht, dass sie lügt. Gerade weil es keine leichte Sache ist für eine irakische Frau - warum sollte sie ihr Leben riskieren, um diese Leute anzuklagen? Damit die Iraker, die für Bush die Drecksarbeit machen dürfen, schlecht aussehen?
Das tun sie sowieso. Dafür riskiert doch keiner sein Leben und sein Ansehen.
Ich finde ihren Mut bemerkenswert.
