Press Archives 1999

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Am I a Potential Rapist?

Does unsafe sex against your will amount to rape?

Letter to the Editor

Anti-sexist credibility?
Response to the Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women, Baroness Margaret Jay

Sexism still part of new rape law

Date Rape Law Fury: Women outraged over date rape law

"Caring" Jack
"They would rather spend money on killing people than on giving practical assistance"

Rape as a Weapon of War

Condemned to be Raped

Jay faces row on change in rape evidence

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Press Highlights

Am I a Potential Rapist?
Damon Syson reacts to a confrontational cinema advertisement
The Guardian, Monday September 13 1999, p.6
Slick and stylish, it dramatises a typical date. A close-up of a wine glass is accompanied by the words "You drink". The woman's fingers brush against the man's - "You flirt". You ask yourself what they are selling. Coffee, perhaps?
Then it all changes. His hand rests on the inside of her knee. She pushes it away. "She stops" is etched in scratchy writing on the screen. There's a close-up of his face and, in a few short hard-hitting images, it becomes clear that this is date rape. The music turns from romantic into a grief-stricken wail, and the words, "What are you doing?" flash up on the screen. The ad ends: "Two out of three victims know their attackers."
. . . But I felt the ad pulled punches, working on a cerebral rather than visceral level: provocative but not putting over the horror of rape.
In a way, it also angered me. It's aimed primarily at men and the question "What are you doing?" implies it addresses me. Am I a potential rapist? is not a question I've considered recently. Should I then feel insulted by this film? Would every woman in the audience look at me and believe I'm capable of sexual violence? It's a distressing thought, knowing that this question exists under the surface of all my relations with women-the unspoken knowledge that a basic imbalance exists....
I cannot remember having discussed rape with any male friends.  But I know, for example, that I've witnessed male friends badger women into going home with them. I've heard friends suggest that all women "can be persuaded" and I'm not suggesting they are potential rapists, but it made me recognise the fuzzy parameters between aggression and sex.
Payday response to Damon Syson
More about date rape

Does unsafe sex against your will amount to rape?
The Independent on Sunday 29 August 1999

Letter to the Editor
The Monday Review, Guardian 2 August 1999
Sir: Bob Tomlin (letter; 27 July) defends conditions under which asylum-seekers are held at Tinsley House detention centre.
I was there for several months from the day I arrived in Britain seeking protection.  I am a victim of rape.  I had escaped a very violent situation in Uganda, in fear of my life. No one told me where I was being taken or why.
I was stressed and very depressed in detention because there is no freedom at all.  Sometimes when you are anxious and maybe cry, officers put you in locked rooms, instead of giving the help you need.
Poor medical care was another problem. Often the people given medication don's speak English, and don't know what they have been given or why. People are given sleeping tablets, and some oversleep, sometimes for two or more days. The surgery would often only give paracetamol, whatever the illness.
The food in detention is not boring; it's disgusting. Most of it was tinned or other food I'm not used to. Most of the women in detention are Black. Most are mothers. One wonders why they detain so many Black women.
Many people are held for a long time because of poor legal advice. I had to change lawyers several times because they wouldn't present my case for coming out of detention. They call it detention, but it is a prison for people who have committed no crime.
Justice Amanda
London NW6

Anti-sexist credibility?
The Journal, Letters, 30 July 1999
Response to the Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women, Baroness Margaret Jay The Journal, Letters, 30 July 1999
Response to the Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women, Baroness Margaret Jay's article published in The Journal, Issue 142, June 25
Minister for women Baroness Jay asked Journal readers about "problems ethnic minority women face" ... For over two years, we have given evidence about rape to baroness Jay, the previous Minister  for Women, the Women's unit and the Home Office, including Jack Straw. But black and immigrant women's demands have repeatedly been ignored, or even turned against us.... 
Will the 101 women MPs and the Minister for Women insist on representing women and children, or will they allow themselvesto be used to give sexist and racist policies anti-sexist credibility?
Malika Thompson
Black Women's Rape Action Project (BWRAP) and Lisa Longstaff
Women Against Rape (WAR)

Sexism still part of new rape law
The Times, Law, Tuesday July 13, 1999, p. 45.
The defence should not be able to question victims on their sexual history, say Ruth Hall and Lisa Longstaff
... We wrote to the unit this year as part of our campaign to end trawling through the victim's sexual history to discredit her, a key cause of police not recording a rape and the Crown Prosecution Service not prosecuting it . The unit said sexual history is sometimes relevant: "...a defendant might claim that he believed that the complainant was consenting because he had been told that she always kicked and screamed during sex. This would be relevant to his honest belief".
... Paul Boateng, Minister of State, said: "The defendant may know of specific instances of past behaviour, which led him to believe that the complainant was consenting to sex...
The defendant's belief does not need to be reasonable..."..."We cannot rule out that a child's previous sexual behavior, which may be non-consensual, may be relevant to a defence case...(and) will have to be admitted." He also stated that the Bill should go as it is because the Government is reviewing sexual offences and the issue of consent elsewhere.
At the Bill's final reading last week no amendment on "belief" was tabled; the use of sexual history evidence has been reinforced; alleged "belief" that the woman consented will be used more often as a pretext for introducing sexual history that otherwise might be ruled irrelevant.

Date Rape Law Fury: Women outraged over date rape law
The Express, Friday 2 July 1999 Front Page
A new lesser offence of "date rape" is being considered by the government to improve the conviction rate.
... It would mean that in law rape by an acquaintance was less serious than so-called "proper rape" when a woman is attacked by a stranger and the perpetrator would get a lighter sentence. The proposal comes after startling evidence that fewer than one in 10 reported rapes now end in a guilty verdict. However Ruth Hall, of Women Against Rape, said: " To use the fact that there aren't enough convictions as an excuse for basically downgrading a excuse for basically downgrading a whole area of rape is appalling. There are many other ways of improving the conviction rate. It can be just as devastating and, in some cases, even worse to be raped by someone that you know and trust.
"Women fought for years to get recognition for rape within marriage and the law recently did recognise that rape is rape regardless of your relationship."

"Caring" Jack
[Jack Straw - former Home Secretary]
The Guardian Jeremy Hardy, 19 June 1999
"They would rather spend money on killing people than on giving practical assistance" The Guardian Jeremy Hardy, 19 June 1999
"They would rather spend money on killing people than on giving practical assistance"
Not two weeks after our leader pronounced that "the refugees must go home", the asylum and immigration bill passes through the Commons. Of course, he was referring to Kosovan Albanians.
A number of Labour MPs voiced concerns about the bill, but only seven voted against. On May 4, Women Against Rape and the Black Women's Rape Action Project held a meeting at the Commons, at which refugees who have been raped told their stories and spoke of how the bill will affect them. No Labour MPs turned up. How keen they are to point to rape in Kosovo but how quiet about the fact that this country disbelieves, jails, denies benefits to and deports rape victims from all over the world. Such women are expected to provide a full account of their suffering to a male authority figure as soon as they arrive. From now on, many will be on a return flight within six months. Perhaps someone should bomb the Home Office.

Rape as a Weapon of War
The Independent Monday Review ,10 May 1999 Natasha Walter
The use of rape as a weapon of war has been documented down the centuries and throughout the world. It is a common feature of war against a civilian population, and of political or ethnic persecution. During the occupation of Nanking in 1937, Japanese troops were reported to have raped thousands of women. During the battle for Bangladeshi independence in 1971, Pakistani troops were reported to have raped more than 200,000 Bengali women. For Americans in the Vietnam War, it was a routine method of demonstrating their contempt for the people of Vietnam. But although it is one of the commonest features of 20th-century brutality, it has also been one of the most hidden . . . .  Last week, I went to a meeting at the House of Commons organised by Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project.  I will never forget the women who stood up to give their testimonies about what had happened in their home countries and why they were applying for asylum here. Speaker after speaker, often with tears running down their faces, described what it meant to them to struggle to a place of safety. "When I say the word rape," said one tall Kenyan woman, with tears standing in her eyes, who had been raped as part of her torture while held in police detention for political activities, "I hope that every woman in this room will think about what it means. I can stand here today, but it took me nearly seven years to talk about my experiences."
. . . Up until now, the record of this government in dealing with refugees who are rape survivors has been appalling - one of its greatest humanitarian failures. While other countries, such as Canada and Australia, have gender-specific guidelines for processing asylum claims, including the provision of female interviewers for female refugees, and training on the specific persecution that women face, this country has never put in place any such measures. So an experience like that of Isabel (not her real name) from Kenya, is common. "I was interviewed by young men on arrival. My young son was in the room. I couldn't say a word about such things." In such an environment, almost all rape survivors stay silent on the central experience that they are fleeing . . . . Joanna (not her real name), a Kenyan woman, works with an association for women in her community. Gradually, it became the place where these women could begin to talk about their experiences of rape. "It took years for many of them - it terrifies them, it shakes them, just to speak about it. After a long, long time, maybe they would say one little word, and then they would go away, and then they would come back and say a little more." Joanna herself was supported by the London-based Black Women"s Rape Action Project. "If there had been dispersal then - it would have been a nightmare. It would have silenced me completely. I think I would have died without speaking." 

Condemned to be Raped
The Journal, 7 May 1999
Refugee welfare campaigners and community groups say that hundreds of rape victims from African countries will be denied protection if the proposed Immigration and Asylum Bill becomes an act of Parliament. Already, a number of women, political activists in their countries of origin, have been denied asylum despite United Nations guidelines on protecting refugees who are victims of rape and sexual assault.
Ms Amiss [of BWRAP] added "Almost all the women we work with are African or Kurdish. In 1997 refugees from the former Yugoslavia were most likely to be awarded refugee status while those from Nigeria and Sri Lanka were least likely. The sexism and racism throughout the asylum process is a continuation of what Black and immigrant women already face in Britain. The Bill would increase this discrimination which would have an impact on all of us, especially at a time when multiracial communities are being bombed by extreme right."

Jay faces row on change in rape evidence
The Times, 1 March 1999
The Minister for Women, Baroness Jay of Paddington, was at the centre of a row last night over plans to reform the admissibility of the sexual history of a woman victim as evidence in rape trials. The proposals are soon to be considered by the House of Lords. They are opposed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, and the organisation Women Against Rape for conflicting reasons.
The controversy has been fuelled by the disclosure that the Government's own Women's Unit, headed by Lady Jay, says that there are times when a woman's sexual history may be relevant. In particular, the unit says that it could be relevant to whether a man thought a woman had consented to sex or not — the attacker's defence that he — "thought she wanted it".
The Women's Unit says: "A defendant might claim that he believed the complainant was consenting because he had been told that she always kicked and screamed during sex. This would be relevant to his honest belief."
The disclosure, in a letter to Women Against Rape, has outraged and dismayed the group, which argues that the Home Secretary's proposals give wide latitude for a woman's sexual history to be admitted. Under present law, a man cannot be convicted of rape if he honestly believed a woman consented. This is based on a ruling in 1976.
In reply . . . Women Against Rape . . . said "How can rape victims expect protection if after two decades of campaigning for protective laws, the Women's Unit — which is supposed to represent their interests — believes rapists' lies over women's evidence?  . . . Rapist after rapist has been allowed to walk free after claiming that the victim he had beaten black and blue loved 'rough sex'." 

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