Punishment for the rapist

IN the animal kingdom, there is nothing like rape, defilement or sexual assault. Every aspect of life is excessively democratised and so liberalised that licentious behaviour bordering on sexual aggressions is regarded as part of normal living. A nanny-goat for instance which is al­ways sexually harassed by a bearded and moustache he-goat has no way of seeking redress. Who would listen to it?

In human society, this is not so. The human being is a social animal guided by rules, norms, conventions, morals and folk ways. As such, the human male who goes about bleating, stamping and sniffing around females like a stubborn he-goat does, is well-nigh insane. He is only fit for an animal farm.

Because human society is sane and well organised, wayward behaviour like rape, which is accepted and even commended in animal society, is regarded as a grievous offence. Defilement cannot be tolerated and a lawless society is generally detested and frowned upon.

I even hear that in a certain remote village in Sikaman, it is an offence for a man to deliberately touch the buttocks of a girl or wom­an. A fine of one sheep and a bottle of schnapps is the punishment for such offence. This decree is quite revolutionary!

GRATIFICATION

It is so very unfortunate that the female species of all living organisms are vulnerable to assault by their male counterparts who are perpet­ually seeking gratification of their sexual urges.

Females, normally referred to as the weaker sex, have had to contend with aggressive male behaviour to the very extent that at workplaces, girls and married women are targets of sexually-motivated aggression.

The worse form of aggression on women is rape, and in Sikaman today, rape is one of the leading crimes being tried at the courts and public tribunals.

Not too far back, an 80-year-old man in northern Sikaman was report­edly jailed for rape. At eighty and still raping is an incredible achieve­ment, but on the contrary very infamous.

The media also reported on a man, married with three wives who was incarcerated for raping a girl who came to his veranda to escape the rain falling at the time.

The GNA recently reported that on January 21, three fishermen at Keta allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl into a room and “forcefully seduced her.” The case is being tried by the Volta Regional Tribunal, and one of the accused, Amenehu alias ‘Alhaji’ of Angola is at large.

The latest and perhaps the most serious is a rape case being tried by the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal. A married T.V mechanic is alleged to have raped a 3 and a half-year-old girl? The girl demonstrated to the tribunal how she was seduced.

It is not understandable why married men are mostly found in the rape business. Obviously, they were not sexually starved. They are just being wicked.

CONVICTED RAPISTS

Rape in certain societies is regard­ed so seriously that capital punish­ment is prescribed for convicted rapists. In Saudi Arabia where strict Islamic laws prevail, a convicted rap­ist will surely forfeit his head after the Friday prayer session.

In Iran, it would be a neck-tie death day party organised in honour of the rapist. He’ll dangle by the neck at the gallows. In China, a sin­gle shot through the back of the head is all a rapist needs to become a good fellow.

After this sort of punishment, he can never dream of raping the most provocative Madonna unless he rein­carnates. Dead men don’t rape!

A news report coming from China told the story of relatives and neigh­bours of a rape victim who took the law into their own hands and forci­bly caught and castrated the rapist and displayed his testicles in a jar. I should think that this kind of punish­ment is more severe than facing the firing squad.

Aside any moral considerations, however, this type of punishment look quite effective. A castrated rap­ist is no danger at all to organised so­ciety. Fact is that he can bark but he can’t bite. Even a strip-tease dancer can no longer arouse him. And sooner or later he will grow so fat and oily that he’d become more famous as a super-heavyweight than as a dreaded rapist.

In a certain US community, the incidence of rape in 1987 was getting so high that a debate was organised and a vote was taken in whether or not castration of rapists should be a suitable punishment.

Naturally, most of the females voted for castration, arguing that a rapist without BALLS fits so well into society. He becomes a round jolly fellow who poses no danger at all. A thousand women can sleep peacefully beside him and not risk the slightest show of aggression.

TOOTHLESS BULLDOGS

The women further referred to the Holy Bible where they claim it is written that eunuchs (castrated men) had special duties including taking charge of women. And in certain kingdoms, eunuchs are assigned to bathe the queen because they are so harmless, just like toothless bulldogs. They also referred to castrated goats as very sober and inferred from this fact that a castrated rapist would be even more sober.

On the contrary, almost all the men voted against castration. They argued that women are responsible for sexually aggressive behaviour put up by men. They contend that the lewd suggestiveness of the dressing of women and girls and the provoca­tive way they carry themselves about induce the call for rape.

They also argued on ethical grounds that a man who is deprived of his most cherished asset-his sexual power is not proper, especially when women induce him to misbehave.

In Sikaman, one can put up such arguments that some of our ladies, disregard the decency of our culture and dress to make themselves volup­tuous and attract the eye of harmless observers and rapists alike.

In any case, however, the punish­ment meted out to rapists, I dare say, is not deterrent enough, considering the extent of harm they cause to their victims. Some rape victims are emotionally wrecked all through their lives. Some cannot bear the disgrace if being called a rape victim.

Others even attempt to commit suicide, and some still can never get married because they become forev­er scared of men. They also become sexually frigid, and why should the rapist be jailed for only a few years for wrecking the life of a fellow be­ing. I am against castration, though.

This article was first published

on Saturday, November 10, 1990.

MerariAlomele’s

Merari Alomele’s

‘

In Sikaman, one can put up such arguments that some la­dies, disregard the decency of our culture and dress to make themselves voluptuous and at­tract the eye of harmless ob­servers and rapists alike.

’

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