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Double standards on sexual humiliation
By Miranda Husain
September 14, 2004
The Muslim world often views the western woman as nothing more than a sex
object. The western world thinks of the Muslim man as the oppressor of women.
And here in this one picture, we have the western woman depicted as the
oppressor of the Muslim man.
At least one facet of the clash between Islam and the West has to do with — not
fundamentalism and liberalism but — preconceptions and stereotypes about each
other’s sexual morality and attitude to sex. Seen through Muslim eyes, the West
represents the epitome of sexual decadence and depravity. The West, for its
part, sees the Muslim world as displaying a selective piety that fails to speak
out against the oppression of women.
The Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal may have highlighted this clash of
perceptions better than any other recent event.
When the first pictures from inside the Iraqi prison came to light on April 29,
2004, the international community, including the US, was united in condemning
the atrocities. The images bore testimony to the fact that respect for the rule
of law had been abandoned and that the Third Geneva Convention Relative to the
Treatment of Prisoners of War had been badly violated.
Once the first shock was absorbed, however, outrage from different parts of the
world began to focus on different aspects of the systematic abuse of prisoners.
Many in the West, especially those opposed to the war, focused on the gross
violation of human rights of those detained. They saw as substantiated their
claims that the illegal war had done nothing to ‘liberate’ the people of Iraq;
the occupiers were treating the Iraqi people no better than the Saddam regime
had done.
Many in the Muslim world were appalled at the visual image of their weakness
and humiliation at the hands of the western invader. As more pictures and more
reports became public about the nature of the abuse, the focus began to shift
to the almost pornographic nature of the abuse. Thus, the pictures began to be
viewed through the prism of an old stereotype; as evidence of western decadence
and sexual depravity. To a certain extent, the issue came even to overshadow
the fact of gross human rights violations committed in the name of liberating
Iraq.
This is not an attempt at trivialising what these pictures represented. But I
do find it interesting that Muslim reaction concentrated so much on the sexual
content of the abuse. Torture is, after all, torture. Irrespective of whether
it takes the form of cutting the victims’ limbs or placing them in a sexually
humiliating position, it causes pain to the victim and affords a certain amount
of perverse pleasure to the torturer. Is sexual humiliation considered a
greater crime on the premise that it gives the abuser greater pleasure? Or is
the victim’ shame and suffering more deeply felt if his faith strongly rejects
sexual immorality?
But if the West is regarded as indulging and promoting a decadent and immoral
culture, then, to be blunt, why the shock? I do not mean that there is no
justification here for outrage, just that if we insist on associating western
culture with sexual depravity, then surely there is an argument of expecting
nothing better from the West. So why did we focus our outrage on this aspect?
Could it be that we actually expect the West to adhere to a higher moral code
than we are prepared to give it credit for? Especially in dealing with Muslims?
In a recent article “A culture of lawlessness”, former prime minister Benazir
Bhutto points out that “[t]here are other Abu Ghraibs around the world that
often go unnoticed. Islamabad is one of the places in the world where torture
is used as a method of interrogation despite it being illegal”. Indeed,
according to Amnesty International’s 2003 report on Pakistan, at least 26
people died in police custody during the year 2002 as a direct result of
torture. So it seems that with regard to violation of the rights of the
detained, state institutions in Pakistan fare no better than those responsible
for the Abu Ghraib atrocities. But can Pakistan hold its head high when it
comes to incidents of subjecting citizens to sexual humiliation?
It would seem that the answer is, no. And this is where there is justification
for Pakistan, as a Muslim nation, being stereotyped in the west as a Muslim
society institutionalising the oppression of women. Women are often used as
bargaining chips to settle feuds. They can be stripped naked and paraded in the
streets. They can be gang-raped on the orders of tribal elders to serve the
ends of ‘justice’. The female child can often be handed over in marriage to a
much older man to repay a family debt. And while it would be unfair to allege
that no action is ever taken against the perpetrators of such justice, one does
not notice the kind of outrage voiced against the sexual humiliation of Iraqi
prisoners.
Can it be argued that sexual humiliation of Muslims is more grave if the
victims happen to be men or if the perpetrators are western ‘infidels’?
On the other hand, could it be that just as we often like to judge the West by
our own perceived notions of its culture of decadence and depravity, the West
limits its perception of Muslim societies to the oppression of women? If this
is indeed the case, it may well explain the intense shock over one of the Abu
Ghraib pictures above all others, especially in this part of the word. Remember
the image of a female US soldier, Lyndie England, who has a semi-naked Iraqi
detainee on a leash at her feet. Many in the Muslim world view the western
woman as no more than a sex object. Many in the western world perceive the
Muslim man as an oppressor of women. And here in this one picture, we have the
western woman depicted as the oppressor of the Muslim man.
The world was right to condemn the Abu Ghraib atrocities as a gross human
rights violation that must never again be allowed to take place. The White
House did its best to distance itself from the scandal, telling the whole world
that this is not what America stands for.
Yet the sad fact remains that while America publicly condemned the sexual
humiliation of Muslim men, we, in the Muslim world, have still not found the
moral courage to stand up and condemn the sexual humiliation of women in Muslim
societies.
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