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Statement
to the media from Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against
Rape, We are appalled to hear
of the kidnapping in Iraq of Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist from Italy’s Il
Manifesto newspaper. We
know of her important work for peace exposing the abuse and torture of
women and children in Iraqi prisons under the present occupation.
Despite the publicity given to the torture of men prisoners when
this finally emerged, what happens to women and children has consistently
been hidden in the media. Ms Sgrena was committed
to women and children. Shortly
after the torture in Abu Ghraib hit the news, we urged politicians and in
particular women MPs to demand the truth about what was happening to women
prisoners. Ms Sgrena was
instrumental in getting Il Manifesto to report on it. More recently she had
interviewed women ex-prisoners and published their stories of mental and
physical brutality that they had undergone, including strip searching; the
women said they had suffered or witnessed rapes but were unable to speak
about it. We know from 30
years of experience working with rape survivors from all over the world
that many find it impossible to speak about the indignities they have
suffered, and that hostility to the victim can be very extreme if she does
speak of her ordeal. At the end of one
recent interview with a survivor from Abu Ghraib, Ms Sgrena asked the
woman whether she was not afraid to speak out against her captors.
The woman said ‘Why should I be afraid? I’ve done nothing
wrong.’ Ms Sgrena herself
was not afraid to take the risk of gathering and publishing the truth
about Iraqi women and children without censoring herself to please the
occupying forces. We urge all
governments, the UN and NGOs to press for her immediate release.
We ask those who are holding her to recognise her commitment to
peace and to the women and children of Iraq, and urge them to release her.
All of us who oppose murder, rape and other torture are dependent
on people like Ms Sgrena taking a public stand despite the personal danger
this may risk. For comments or interviews please call 020 7482 2496 on Monday |