Gang-raped and pregnant, these women thought their ordeal was over when th

[emad]

Gang-raped and pregnant, these women thought their ordeal was over when they went to the police. They were wrong
By Katharine Houreld in Bendisi
(Filed: 13/03/2005)

Fatima was just 15 when she was gang-raped in front of her mother. Seven months later, and by then heavily pregnant, the schoolgirl was arrested by the Sudanese police and charged with fornication.

They threatened to whip Fatima if she didn't pay a fine, exploiting her forced pregnancy to turn her into the victim of an extortion racket.

"They asked me who was the father of my baby," Fatima remembered, twisting a piece of paper between her fingers. "I told them that I didn't know. There were seven men on horses. Three of them raped me and four of them beat my mother. We had gone to get onions from our farm."

The police threw Fatima in prison in Bendisi, western Sudan, while her family tried to scrape together the 20,000 dinar (£45) fine - a large sum in a country where the average annual wage is just £200.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/13/wsudan13.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/13/ixworld.html

[fortyfeetunder]

1. Why aren't the women being protected?

I just don't get it? The women are blamed for being raped, as if it's their own fault? Where is the Sudanese government in this, or have they got their heads up their asses?

[coloradodem2005]

2. This just makes me mad.

Why? Why do people do this? These women have been through enough.

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. why does this surprise you?

The women of the world have always been a persecuted class

[coloradodem2005]

4. I'm not expressing suprise. Rage is the more appropriate word for it.