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Friday, July 30, 2010

Rape by Deception - Really?


There was an interesting news story recently whereby Sabbar Kashur, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was sentenced by an Israeli court to 18 years in jail for rape by deception. Two years ago Kashur met a Jewish woman on the street in Jerusalem. He worked as a messenger for an Israeli law firm and like some other Palestinians looking to integrate more effectively into Israeli society had assumed the identity of a Jew. He called himself Dudu, a common Israeli name. On the same day the two had a consensual sexual encounter in a nearby office building. The woman, whose identity is still protected by law, did not know Kashur was an Arab. When she found out she filed a complaint with police. Kashur was questioned by police and spent two years under house arrest facing a charge of rape and sexual assault. It was later dropped to the one of "rape by deception" in a plea bargain.

This story elicited quite some discussions in the blogosphere, with some people calling it racism, others saying it was justified and others saying it was demeaning to ‘real victims’ of rape. One of the things that struck me was the argument about how many men would be behind bars if there was really a case of rape by deception.

It is generally accepted many men in our community that you got to ‘hype’ yourself up a bit to secure the affections of the ladies. While one would ordinarily dress sloppily, one would go the extra distance to dress in a certain way to attract the eyes of some lady. People have been known to even borrow clothes from their friends. Men have been known to also borrow cars to impress the ladies, lie about their actual incomes and even titles at the work place just to get that extra mark. Cleaners suddenly become Sanitation or Office Health Assistants or technicians. When these men land their targets, are they now guilty of rape by deception? And what about those who say they are in love when they are not but just want to get into someone’s pants?

4 comments:

  1. Oooh, I have not heard of this article before,nor of men who go so far as you describe. Why go that far when there are always women willing to date virtually any man? What I mean is, while one woman may not look at you for who you really are, another will gladly do so. Wouldn't men and women be better without all the deception? Now as to the Israeli and Arab situation you describe, there are so many complicated issues there which I won't even attempt to address. I will only say the man was somewhat foolish and the woman also.

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  2. Wouldn't rape by deception boil down to human beings wanting to earn respect of their peers or even get classified higher in the food chain? Sure, there are those men who will go to lengths of calling themselves 'Clearers and Forwarders' while really, they are 'Garbage Collectors' (hehe, no pun intended whatsoever here...) but the greater question is what REALLY drives them to this? I think it's not necessarily to bed women. Self esteem issues, probably... O and I do think Women are guilty of this crime too. They are humans after all...

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  3. Does this remind you about our current marriage bill that was passed? I just hope this is never the case in Kenya we would all be cooling our heels (and loins) somewhere in Kamiti....

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