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It seems a hopeful sign that CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan has been released from the hospital to continue her recovery at home from a horrific assault she suffered while covering the Egyptian uprising.
I wanted to post about this incident, but I admit it has taken me a couple of days to gather my thoughts together into some sort of a cohesive whole.
My blog is dedicated to discussing the world and its sexual behavior — in as unvarnished fashion as possible. That means talking directly about issues that might make some uncomfortable, like rape.
Complicating this post for me, is the fact that I am a former print journalist and a woman, who worked in the criminal justice field for many years. In fact, I had been assaulted on the job while I was covering a fatal house fire by an angry mob that had gathered at the site. But, I was lucky, it never involved any type of sexual abuse, nor did it require that I be hospitalized.
The following is the official statement by CBS, which was released Feb. 15 at 12:56 p.m., on what happened to Ms. Logan:
"On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy.
"In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.
There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time."
[Note: The above photo of Ms. Logan was taken her shortly before the horrendous attack.]
Nearly two weeks prior, Ms. Logan described the difficulties facing foreign journalists in Egypt — a country not unlike other authoritarian regimes in its treatment of the press — just before she was to have been also detained by police.
As most people who study psychology will tell you, rape is not about sex; it is about anger, hatred, and control. In this instance, the most shocking thing to me is not that it happened, but that it happened during the celebration after Mubarak had stepped down. It did not occur during the violent crack-down on the protesters by pro-Mubarak forces at a time when several male journalists were beaten.
There has been criticism of CBS for releasing any information about the ugly, brutal incident. I know from my experience, that they would never have done so without the explicit permission from Ms. Logan.
All journalists, whether print or broadcast, know the risks involved in their jobs. Those risks increase when they cover different cultures, and go up exponentially in the midst of volitile situations. Ms. Logan became separated from her team, and was suddenly in the midst of a mob of dissidents. I believe many of them acted against her because of the deep hatred they have for the West, not simply because of ethnic differences, but political and religious.
While inexcusably vile, this MUST not stop women from working as correspondents across the globe. If it does, it means that women's equality has taken a staggering step backward. The courage Ms. Logan has shown should be honored by increasing the ranks of women journalists, not decreasing them.
It is also important to note that Ms. Logan's life may very well have been saved by a group of Egyptian women, and soldiers who intervened on her behalf.
Rape is as old as humanity itself. It has been primarily used against women, but sometimes against men, to assert dominance and to crush the spirit of those assaulted.
I refuse to refer to those who have been so assaulted as "victims" because that implies they were, or are powerless, or somehow have been or are diminished. They may have been unable to prevent the assault, but what happened was NO fault of their own, and their survival is inspiring.
In Ms. Logan's case, the mob mentality no doubt fueled the viciousness of the attack and may have given the assailants tacit approval among their own group to have participated in a gang rape.
Sadly, there are so many cultures in which rape against women is barely even punished. I believe that what happened to Ms. Logan should be discussed, and faced directly, without flinching. We, as a society and even beyond our borders, need to stand up against the continued sexual abuse of women.
I applaud CBS and Ms. Logan for releasing the truth of what happened, and for providing an unvarnished perspective to the entire world of one ugly aspect of the current Egyptian uprising. I am awed that Ms. Logan continues to report, to do her job, despite what she has suffered. Way beyond bravo!
— The Curator
A South African doctor is handing out an anti-rape condom to women during the World Cup in an effort to help women there combat sexual assaults in a country that has one of the highest rape rates in the world.
The device’s creator, Dr. Sonnet Ehlers (depicted above with the device) said the condom, called Rape-aXe, is similar to when a man catches his penis in a zipper.
"Rape-aXe will have the same effect, just worse," she says in the Q&A portion at the condom's website.
Ethers says the condom is completely safe for women, but will inflict serious pain on a male perpetrator, even more so if he tries to escape:
“It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it’s on,” she told CNN yesterday. “If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter...however, it doesn’t break the skin, and there’s no danger of fluid exposure.”
She said she sold her house and car to launch the project, which will enable her to hand out 30,000 free condoms during the World Cup, which wraps up July 11. After that, the anti-rape condoms will be available for $2 each.
South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world. A 2009 report by the nation's Medical Research Council found that 28 percent of men surveyed had raped a woman or girl, with one in 20 saying they had raped in the past year, according to Human Rights Watch.
It is also believed that 16 percent of the population is living with HIV.
In most African countries, rape convictions are uncommon. Affected women don't get immediate access to medical care, and DNA tests to provide evidence are too expensive.
"Women and girls who experience these violations are denied justice, factors that contribute to the normalization of rape and violence in South African society," Human Rights Watch says.
Women take drastic measures to prevent rape in South Africa, Ehlers said, with some wearing extra tight biker shorts and others inserting razor blades wrapped in sponges in their private parts.
Critics have accused her of developing a medieval device to fight rape.
"Yes, my device may be a medieval, but it's for a medieval deed that has been around for decades," she said. "I believe something's got to be done...and this will make some men rethink before they assault a woman."
Human Rights Watch also notes arrest and conviction rates for attackers are extremely low and the victims of sexual assault often face numerous obstacles in accessing health care.
She hopes the condom will be worn by women as a preventative measure. She said she’s talked to convicted rapists in jail to see if such a device would make them think twice about their actions, and she said some of them said it would:
“The ideal situation would be for a woman to wear this when she’s going out on some kind of blind date...or to an area she’s not comfortable with,” she said.
The condom is inserted into a woman the same way she'd use a tampon. It is a latex condom worn by females who feel in danger of being raped. The device features jagged rows of teeth-like hooks that will latch on to a man’s penis upon penetration When an attacker penetrates the woman, the condom attaches to his penis with barbs that are found inside the condom.
Rape-aXe causes the attacker discomfort. If a man tries to take the condom off, it will become even tighter. Once the spikes attach to a man’s penis, only a doctor can remove it, something Ethers hopes will be done by authorities upon arrest.
The company's website says while the condom won't prevent the attack, it can help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, and unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape.
As well, because a doctor has to remove the condom, the hope is that authorities will catch more attackers.
Ehlers was on call one night four decades ago when a devastated rape victim walked in. Her eyes were lifeless; she was like a breathing corpse.
"She looked at me and said, 'If only I had teeth down there,'" recalled Ehlers, who was a 20-year-old medical researcher at the time. "I promised her I'd do something to help people like her one day." Forty years later, Rape-aXe was born.
"I consulted engineers, gynecologists and psychologists to help in the design and make sure it was safe," she said.
Her advice to men who don't want to be on the receiving end of Rape-aXe: "Don't put what belongs to you where it does not belong and you will never run into trouble."
But critics say the condom puts its women users in even more danger because instead of being able to run away and escape the perpetrator, he is stuck inside of the victim until authorities can be reached. Thus, women are even more vulnerable to the rapist trapped by the device, and remains so as he grapples with the reality of getting caught and convicted. That scenario could result in an even more violent outcome.
Critics add that this female condom is not a long-term solution.
It's also a form of "enslavement," said Victoria Kajja, a fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the east African country of Uganda. "The fears surrounding the victim, the act of wearing the condom in anticipation of being assaulted all represent enslavement that no woman should be subjected to."
Kajja said the device constantly reminds women of their vulnerability.
"It not only presents the victim with a false sense of security, but psychological trauma," she added. "It also does not help with the psychological problems that manifest after assaults."
Various rights organizations that work in South Africa declined to comment, including Human Rights Watch and Care International.
This is one of those stories that is so far removed from my personal reality/experience that it’s impossible to comment on its pros and cons in an analytical way, so I am going to comment solely based on emotion. (I was repeatedly molested as a child, but I have never been raped, nor have I ever been threatened with rape.)
It is inconceivable to me that I would live somewhere that I would have to even consider inserting razor blades into my own vagina to protect me from being raped if I went outside to events. This condom with teeth beats the hell out of that.
It worries me that the vicious rapist would remain glued to me, intimately, or if freed would know he might be arrested because of the device. Might some guy who was willing to rape me, also be willing to kill me to prevent being arrested?
One critic said this is not a long-term solution. No damn kidding. But I say until that society ensures the safety of its female populace from sexual assault, women there have an undeniable right to protect themselves in any way they see fit.
Thanks to my dear friend, SurvivingSurvival for directing me to this important account.
— The Curator
