Rapists and Rape Victims in Islam - past SL discussion

[Muslima Questi]

Al Salam Alikum

So I have promised to follow up with a little blog/discussion entry after hosting the "Rapists and Rape victims in Islam" discussion back on Wednesday June 11th in Second Life but sadly never did so "timely". Please accept my sincere apologies for the immense delay.

Rapists and Rape Victims Discussion Highlights- Wednesday June 11th 2008

An hour-long meeting was not enough to even introduce the problem of rape among the Islamic communities in our modern world (of course, the issue of rape is not an Islamic or even a religious topic, but the focus that night was to pinpoint how Muslims dealt and were affected by rape). This is rather worrying because it shows how big of a deal the problem is now in our communities. And sadly, a lot of those cases go unreported due to "many cultural stigmas...[that] cause family members to be unreasonably shamed by it" (Sivat Ariantho). So on one side we have it growing among the weak-hearted and on the other side the society is keeping quiet to live up to its perceptions.

The attendants agreed that rape victims cannot be blamed if they didn't dress up modestly. The rapist is the one that should be blamed. Another concern that was brought up was incest rape. That took a good deal of the discussion and it was shocking to learn that it is happening among many families (yes, among Muslim families). It all burns down to a cycle where one family member starts it and it propagates down the family tree, like a vicious disease that can't be stopped. Returning to Allah is important for this cycle to be halted (not just being religious) and also truly speaking out and making the issue well known is important as well (but in most cases the victim is silenced out of, primarily, fear).

Rapists should be punished and locked away in prison and receive therapy treatments so that when they are released they don't return back to their crime. Those rapists are in most cases with mental issues, however, acceptance and forgiveness by the victims is hard to achieve no matter how much the rapists repents. That is why, the victim and rapists should try to avoid each other (especially if the case is incest rape).

Finally, children born as a result of rape should be well accepted into the society. and abortion is out of the question. Whether the mother chooses to put up the child for adoption or not, is her choice. But, it is better if she can be patient to raise up her child as they can turn out a blessing.

This is really a summary of the summary of the discussion (I have to squeeze in 31 pages of chat text). Nonetheless, it highlights the main threads of topics discussed in the meeting. Like I said before, an hour long meeting was definitely not enough. Other meetings, or a series of meeting, can be held if people would like to. Please contact me, Muslima Questi, in-world to plan future discussions on the topics.

Thanks, and sorry again for the late entry.

I would like to thank all those who attended for an insightful meeting.

Please feel free to add your views on this discussion.

Salams

[Rita J. King]

Thank you so much for posting this, Muslima!

Were there any aspects of the event that you felt were unique to a virtual space?

[Muslima Questi]

Your welcome Rita.
The ability to talk without much formalities (like we do in RL) and with the ability to hide much emotion (in case someone had prejudice or was a victim) were a positive trait of the virtual meeting. The anonymity and lifted burden of adhering to formalities encouraged, in my opinion, the attendants to speak out more freely.