Global Quickies: Victim Blaming, Blasphemy, and Rent Subsidies

SINGAPORE
“A popular magazine for teenagers in Singapore has been forced to apologise after its agony aunt was accused of victim-blaming in her reply to a letter about rape. Teenage Magazine’s columnist told the victim she “gave every indication” that she wanted to have sex and should be “grateful that he wore a condom”.”

CANADA
“When a Canadian judge asked the complainant in a sexual assault trial why she couldn’t just keep her knees together, his comments provoked outrage across the country and resulted in a new trial. Now the retrial of the same case is the subject of fresh controversy, after a defense lawyer suggested his client’s penis size may have been a factor in whether the woman consented to sex.”

NIGERIA
“Some women in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on Thursday decried discrimination in Nigeria against women marrying younger men, while seeing nothing wrong in men having much younger wives.”

ZIMBABWE
“Gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe have reportedly said that they have “given up” on their fight for same sex marriages, saying that their “conservative” nation will never accept homosexuality.”

JAPAN
“One of Japan’s most prestigious universities is offering rent subsidies to female students in the hope of improving the gender balance among its intake.”

SOUTH AFRICA
“Two white South Africans have been arrested over a video in which a black man was forced into a coffin.”

INDONESIA
“Indonesian police have named Jakarta’s governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, as a suspect in a blasphemy investigation. Popularly known as “Ahok”, he is accused of insulting the Koran while campaigning in governorship elections.”

IVORY COAST
“A court in Ivory Coast found two men guilty of public indecency after they were accused of engaging in same-sex sexual acts, local activists said Wednesday. It was the first case of its kind in a country known for its relative tolerance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, said Franck Amani, advocacy director for Espace Confiance, a group that provides health services to sexual minorities. The two men, aged 31 and 19, received three-month prison sentences, he said.”
ISRAEL
“Israeli political and community leaders have called for a top Jerusalem rabbi to be fired after he said Jewish law prescribed the death penalty for gays. Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar told Israel Hayom newspaper homosexuality was a “cult of abomination”, which the Torah “punishes… with death”.”

TURKEY
“A bill which would allow men accused of raping underage girls to be cleared if they marry the girl has been preliminarily backed by Turkish MPs.”

Featured image: Herman Moll, “A Map of the East Indies” (ca. 1715), Norman B. Leventhal Map Center – Public Domain License via Creative Commons. Source