we need to put pressure on our government to demand that the al Maliki government bring those responsible for the rape of a 20 year old Sunni woman to justice. Instead, al Maliki has publicly attacked the accuser and defended those accused without having conducted an investigation.
Riverbend describes the alleged atrocities in her recent post.
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.
She might just be the bravest Iraqi woman ever. Everyone knows American forces and Iraqi security forces are raping women (and men), but this is possibly the first woman who publicly comes out and tells about it using her actual name. Hearing her tell her story physically makes my heart ache. Some people will call her a liar. Others (including pro-war Iraqis) will call her a prostitute- shame on you in advance.
They abducted her from her house in an area in southern Baghdad called Hai Al Amil. No- it wasn’t a gang. It was Iraqi peace keeping or security forces- the ones trained by Americans? You know them. She was brutally gang-raped and is now telling the story. Half her face is covered for security reasons or reasons of privacy. I translated what she said below.
"I told him, ‘I don’t have anything [I did not do anything].’ He said, 'You don’t have anything?’ One of them threw me on the ground and my head hit the tiles. He did what he did- I mean he raped me. The second one came and raped me. The third one also raped me. [Pause- sobbing] I begged them and cried, and one of them covered my mouth. [Unclear, crying] Another one of them came and said, 'Are you finished? We also want our turn.' So they answered, ‘No, an American committee came.’ They took me to the judge.
Anchorwoman: Sabrine Al Janabi said that one of the security forces videotaped/photographed her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape. Another officer raped her after she saw the investigative judge.
Apparently Riverbend knows the al Maliki government well and as she reports in an update:
As expected, Al Maliki is claiming the rape allegations are all lies. Apparently, his people simply asked the officers if they raped Sabrine Al Janabi and they said no. I'm so glad that's been cleared up.
I urge you to read the entire post. Riverbend explains how it is inconceivable that this young woman would invent the story of rape because of the predictable consequences to her for making her charges public.
At least one Iraqi official was sufficiently outraged to demand an investigation of her allegations.
Today he was fired by al Maliki.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired a top Sunni official Wednesday after he called for an international investigation into the rape allegations leveled by a Sunni Arab woman against three members of the Shiite-dominated security forces.
A statement by al-Maliki's office gave no reason in announcing the dismissal of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowments. Al-Samaraie, whose organization cares for Sunni mosques and shrines in Iraq, had joined other prominent Sunnis in criticizing the government's handling of the case.
I believe the accuser's accusations are very likely to be true for the reasons given by Riverbend. But whether true or not, international pressure must be imposed on al Maliki to allow an investigation by independent investigators.
We must write the President, our representatives, our newspapers, etc. to ensure that our government keeps the pressure on al Maliki. We owe it to Riverbend and all Iraqi women wose lives have been made a horror by our "liberation" of them.