To the skeptics preparing to ask me whether I’d prefer to live in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan since I think the US is so awful, I wonder if you realize the level to which US foreign policy towards certain parts of the world has intensified violence against women. Backing sexist dictatorial rulers, knowingly arming religious fundamentalists who throw acid in women’s faces and forcing neoliberal economic policies that leave small farmers (most of whom are women) and their families starving; these are the policies that define the United States to many women abroad.
US media portrays rape culture as a foreign problem. Here’s why they’re wrong.
Better yet, check out the United States Military, where women in combat are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire; where ”soldier rapists have an 86.5% chance of keeping [his] crime a secret and a 92% chance of avoiding a court-martial“; where one out of three servicewomen are sexually assaulted, twice the rate for civilian women in the US; where 22,800 violent sex crimes were reported in the US military in 2011.
(via mehreenkasana)
TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE
(Source: democraticnonsense, via queerandpresentdanger)
