DUBAI: The case of a woman who is facing deportation for reporting an attempted rape while being intoxicated in the United Arab Emirates highlights the ongoing struggle for women to have justice when faced with sexual violence in the ultra-wealthy Gulf country. According to reports, when the 26-year-old Kyrgyz woman arrived at a local police station following a taxi driver attempting to rape her, police officers told her she would face charges of drinking alcohol. Instead of acquiescing to the officers threats, she insisted on filing charges against the taxi driver for attempted rape. “As soon as I was in the cab he started driving in a different direction and I started feeling I was in danger,” she told prosecutors. “He took me towards a beach that was deserted and I knew he was going to hurt me.” Using instincts, the woman ripped off the cab's number and when they stopped, she fled. “He slowed down, then stopped on the beach and I screamed at him that I would call police but he did not care and jumped from the front seat on to me at the back seat,” she said. Her situation has alluded women's rights activists to the dire state of affairs facing women in the country when they are victims of sexual violence. Shaheen AbdelJaffar, a woman who runs a temporary shelter for women in Dubai out of her house, told Bikyamasr.com that the government “does so little to uphold justice in these cases.” She argued that too often, “the woman is to blame. Take a look at this incident. The first thing the officer did was tell her she would be charged with drinking. For God's sake, the woman was almost raped and that is his first reaction. It is unacceptable.” In November last year, two Saudi Arabian men were sentenced to two months in prison for “having sex with a minor” during a New Year's holiday in the United Arab Emirates. According to local reports, both men were convicted of having consensual sex with a minor, despite the 15-year-old girl's claims that she was forced to have sex with them in a hotel room. She is to be deported as part of her crime, court officials said. According to the girl's father, he searched the hotel for his daughter on the day of the crime, but could not find them. Hotel employees said the two men were seen with the girl near tennis courts before they took her to their room. In court, the young girl said that the men had offered to show her around Dubai, but took her to a hotel room where they undressed her and started kissing her. She told the judge she was crying but was too frightened to resist. She said the two men raped her, then put her in the shower to clean off the evidence. This is not the first such case in the Emirates to anger women's rights activists. In early October, two Pakistani men were charged with raping a Filipina waitress. Activists say they are unlikely to face harsh sentences and that the woman will be the one who faces the worst penalty. “Deporting a 15-year-old girl because she was raped is horrible, but what is worse is that the court ruled she wasn't raped, according to UAE's horrific laws that say a girl over 14 is at the age of consent,” said Mona Tarek, a women's rights researcher in Dubai. She believes the UAE needs to do a better job at valuing a woman's life and protection under the needs to improve. “We live in a society, where economically it is forward-thinking, when it comes to women, it is still so backward,” she added. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/nOmsN Tags: Dubai, featured, Rape, Sexual Violence, UAE Section: Latest News, United Arab Emirates, Women
