Society’s mindset on rape

Although women have achieved great advancement in recent decades, we cannot deny the fact that physically and biologically woman and man are different.

In term of physical strength a man is far superior to a woman. Men are also more mobile than woman in term of physical build. The fact that woman is responsible for childbearing speaks much of the difference in these two sexes.

In more advanced countries women groups have made great strides in claiming for woman their rightful place in society. In Malaysia there are still a great deal to be done. Women’s issues are inter-related with many aspects of our social life. Discrimination against women and failure to improve and recognize the rightful place of women affect many areas of our life. Women’s issues are also men’s issues. Men cannot leave the advancement of women’s rights to women only.

The Women’s Crisis Centre Network (WCC) has produced a handbook entitled “Working with rape survivors.” Before we can really talk about coping with rape issues the following beliefs and concepts about rape need to be discredited.
Myth 1 : Rape is sex.

Fact : Rape is violence, not sex. The main motive behind the act is the desire to
dominate, humiliate and degrade, not sexual desire.

Myth 2 : Men are unable to control their sexual desires, so rape is a spontaneous
assault.

Fact : A study in Philadelphia, USA, found that 71 percent of rape is
premeditated. The London Crisis Centre found that 63 percent of the rape cases are planned, only 14 percent is not pre-meditated.

Myth 3 : Women provoke rape.

Fact : No woman’s behaviour gives a man the right to rape her.

Myth 4 : Most rapists are strangers to the victims.

Fact : Police statistics in 2000 (Bukit Aman Police Headquarters) show the
percentage as follows:

(1) 20 percent were committed by family members whether related by blood or otherwise.
(2) 64 percent were by people whom the survivors knew but were not related to, such as friends, boyfriends, colleagues, employers.
(3) 16 percent were by strangers.

Myth 5 : Women can prevent rape if they want to.

Fact : The Philadelphia study noted that higher degrees of resistance provoked
higher degrees of violence, and the findings dispelled the myth that it is impossible to rape a struggling woman.

Myth 6 : Women are raped when they are out alone at night.

Fact : Figures from Bukit Aman shows that in 1998, 67 percent of rapes took
place in homes or buildings. Only 20 percent occurred in bushes, estates and other isolated places.

Myth 7 : There is no such thing as rape by a woman’s husband.

Fact : This is tied to the perception that a woman is the property of her husband
and therefore he has an absolute right over her body. When sexual intercourse is obtained through force and violence by the husband, it is no more sex but violence and pain to the wife. In our country the government has yet to make sex by force by the husband as a crime of rape.
Myth 8 : Women falsely accuse men of rape. If a woman is really raped, the first
thing that she will do is to tell somebody about it.

Fact : Various studies have shown that rape is a very underreported offence.
Estimates show that only a small proportion of women who have been raped report to the police. The average period between the rape incident and the survivor making a police report is 52 days (AWAM Rape Report:2001)

Myth 9 : It is easy to prosecute the offenders.

Fact : Only one out of ten rape cases end up with the successful conviction of the
rapist. Four out of five reported cases never make it to the Court (AWAM Rape Report : 2001)About 80 percent of cases reported to the police were dropped before charges are brought against the accused.