Rape: A Human Issue

By Rashantha N. de Alwis-Seneviratne –June 3, 2015

Rashantha N. de Alwis-Seneviratne

A young girl, in the morning of her life, was brutally raped and killed in Jaffna. The cruelty and sadism of this particular incident impacted on the entire country and not just on the northern community. Rape, on its own, is a cruel act and not unknown in Sri Lanka but the heinous nature of what took place and that the perpetrators were young boys – not hard-nosed criminals or inebriated men, made the entire nation gasp in disbelief. Why and why the viciousness of the attack and of all places in Jaffna, miles away from the wicked, bustling city of Colombo, were questions from the mouths of many.

Yet, rape is commonplace and endemic in some societies. Since the Stone Age, women have been viewed as possessions of first, their fathers and then of their husbands. Rape of women or youths was common in Greek mythology. Roman Law was more progressive in that it did recognize rape as a crime if it were committed against a citizen but not of a slave. Attitudes changed with the Christianization of the Roman Empire: The first Christian emperor Constantine, redefined rape as a public offence rather than as a private wrong, which made the victim an accomplice and was disinherited, irrespective of the wishes of her family. Rape laws in the modern day attract strict penalties but whether they adequately punish the offender and can ever be a sufficient deterrent, are moot points.

While Lesotho leads the World, Sweden has the highest incidence of rape in Europe, alongside of the US, New Zealand and Colombia in South America. Egypt has the lowest rate of rape.

One commonly believed myth is that rape is primarily a sexual act. Persons with this belief often place the victim on trial. Her motives, her dress and her actions become suspect not only to law enforcement officials but also to her family and friends. The woman’s credibility may be questioned and her sexual activity and private life may be made public. Often, the media highlights the incident rather than the crime itself and the grossly anti-social behaviour of the rapist. In the recent horrendous rape and subsequent death of a medical student in New Delhi, where she was gang raped by four people in a bus, the lawyers for the rapists were of the unbelievable view that ‘she asked for it by going in the bus at that time in the night’- the time in question being 9 p.m. In their opinion, prevention or avoidance of rape was the responsibility of the victim.

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