In case you missed this heroic, horrible story over the weekend: Five men were arrested yesterday after a bruised and battered Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidy, stormed a hotel full of reporters in Tripoli to recount how she’d been gang-raped and tortured for days by militia men loyal to Gaddafi. The New York Times has video footage of the weeping, bleeding woman being tackled by hotel staff, screamed at, threatened with knives and guns as journalists attempted to protect her. She was eventually forced into a vehicle and taken away. Government officials later labeled her drunk and crazy and a well-known prostitute.
But when reached by phone on Sunday, al-Obeidy’s mother says her daughter has been offered money from the government and a new house to change her story—but she refused, saying, “I will die rather than change my words.” Via the Washington Post:
Aisha Ahmed, contacted by telephone at her home in Tobruk, in the rebel-held eastern part of the country, said she was proud of the courage displayed by her daughter, Iman al-Obaidi, whose outburst Saturday was broadcast worldwide.
“I am very happy, very proud,” said Ahmed, who described her daughter as a 26-year-old law student in Tripoli.
The son of a high-ranking Libyan police officer was among those arrested in connection with her rape, according to a Libyan government spokesman.
Boy, Arabs sure do like their rape culture.
Arab women live lives of desperation. Many of these countries treat them as second class citizens with few, if any, rights. That said, under the current circumstances, you don’t know what to believe. But no woman should be degraded this way when she’s begging for help. Especially by men who have no way of knowing the truth. They just slander her because they can.
@2,
I’d say it’s pretty easy to believe her under the current circumstances.
@4: im surprised you still put spaces before periods .