Filipino women demonstrate in Manila to assert their rights on the occasion of the observance of International Women's Day. (Photo by Rico Ibarra)
A case of a gang rape of a 19-year old British woman in Ayia Napa in southeastern Cyprus by 12 Israeli youths aged 15 to 18 years old in July 2019 has received international attention.
Ayia Napa is a town described as the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mediterranean and the sex, alcohol, and drug abuse capital of Cyprus. Stay away, bad things happen to good people there.
The policing and justice system in Cyprus is far from just in this case, it seems. Somewhat corrupt, one can say. The young woman, after she reported the alleged rape to the police expecting help and protection instead was accused of lying. Medical examination showed evidence consistent with multiple rape.The place reeks of male domination and a near-total absence of respect for the dignity and rights of women. It seems to be a cesspool of depravity and immorality where 15-year old teenagers allegedly rape women.The Cypriot police immediately took the side of the 12 well-off Israeli youths and blamed the victim. The woman, they decided, was the criminal. The police pressured her during interrogation and finally forced her, without a lawyer being present, to sign a statement retracting the rape allegation. She thought they would let her go home. Instead, they charged her with a crime -- public mischief -- and released the 12 suspected rapists. She was convicted in a Cyprus court recently and received a four-month suspended jail sentence.It is this practice designed to inflict pain and suffering on the victim and exonerate the accused that is so unjust. It instills fear in women and children and prevents them from coming forward to report sexual abuse. It gives encouragement to child abusers and rapists to scare victims into silence and repeat their heinous crimes. Other sex abusers deny everything; some offer money to buy the silence of the victim.
Abusive men demand and expect women and even children to satisfy their lust and sexual fantasies as if it is their right. They have ascendency over children and intimidate them to be submissive and docile. That’s another reason why sexual abuse of children is so widespread. In many cultures, children are taught to always respect and obey adults and never go against the older person. When the child fights back, threats are used to scare the child into silence. "I will burn your house down if you tell anyone our secret," the abuser warns the child, or "I will kill you and your mother if you tell."Hundreds of thousands of children and women are subjected to this brutal treatment to silence them.
When children are abused by their biological father, stepfather, live-in partner of the mother, grandfather or brother or cousin, the child is silenced. They are the most common abusers of children. Incest is widespread but is kept a family secret. The child is warned not to tell. "Do you want to destroy our family’s honor and name?" the child is told. "Where will you live if you do that, who will believe you? No one, you are a liar, don’t speak of it."