The Sickness In Syria

Rape victims there are doubly victimized: first, by their assailants (be they on the government or the "rebel" side); second, by their society, which considers them "damaged goods" that must be discarded or "repaired":

Sayed estimates at least 4,000 women and girls have been raped by government forces, based on figures from her contacts with anti-regime activists across Syria. If a girl is detained at a government jail her family automatically assumes she was raped and that assumption puts her life in danger.  

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of ignorance. But there are a lot of these families in Syria where, after the daughters are released from prison, they are killed immediately or forced to commit suicide,” she says. Sometimes the victims are pressured by fathers or brothers to get married quickly to rehabilitate their reputations, she adds.  

“They marry to cover their shame but it is wrong,” she says. “I know two cases of women who got married but then divorced because they could not accept a man anymore.” 

The unmarried victims are more anxious to have hymen reconstruction surgery to restore their virginal status than psychological treatment, she says. A single girl who is not a virgin will never have offers of marriage.

The Toronto Star isn't alone in hoping that the "good guys," i.e. Syria's "rebels," ultimately prevail, but Andrew McCarthy argues that there are no good guys to root for in that theatre of war.

Update: Why aren't U.S. feminists up in arms about this horror? I guess it's because they have identified a far more pressing instance of anti-chick discrimination--Obama calling California's attorney general "attractive."

It's all about priorities, right?