After Rape Report in Libya, Woman Sees Benefit in Publicity

[pampango]

Source: New York Times


Eman al-Obeidy being escorted away last month after she burst into a hotel in Tripoli to report a rape by militiamen.

Eman al-Obeidy says the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi victimized her twice. First members of his militia kidnapped and repeatedly raped her. Then his state television network attacked her as a thief and a prostitute. But unlike most rape victims here, Ms. Obeidy, a law student, took her case to the international news media, forcing the Qaddafi security forces to drag her out of a hotel full of journalists as she screamed to tell her story.

Ms. Obeidy, who showed severe bruising on her face and thigh when she burst into the hotel, said in the interviews that after she was dragged out she was held for three days in solitary confinement, without medical or psychological help, and repeatedly interrogated by security officials. But her captors were preoccupied with the publicity, she said in an interview with a Libyan opposition satellite channel. “During my entire arrest period, I was being asked one thing: to come out on the Libyan state channel and say that those who kidnapped me were not from Qaddafi’s security forces; rather they were from the revolutionaries and armed gangs,” Ms. Obeidy said. “That was their only request, and I kept refusing.”

The Qaddafi government has spun through a series of contradictory statements about Ms. Obeidy since she was forced from the hotel. The government spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, first suggested that she was drunk and possibly insane, later that she was a stable person bringing credible criminal charges, and lastly that she was a prostitute and a thief who had a long history with “those boys.” He later said that her rape charges were dropped because she refused a medical exam and that the men had brought defamation charges against her.

“I knew that they could imprison me and that no one may ever know my story,” she said. “And even when they were hitting me and trying to cover my face so that I would not tell people the truth, I was not afraid.” “I have reached the end of my tolerance for this as a human,” she said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/africa/05tripoli.html?_r=1

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. When all of us

have reached the end of our intolerance for this...

Time to tell the truth and not be afraid.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Her interviews with CNN's Anderson Cooper:

Part 1 (8:40):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWoWtCC019s&feature=player_embedded


Part 2 (6:46):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewY7nlMOYOw


Full Transcript:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1104/04/acd.01.html

[goodnews]

4. Part one is BS!

What does she and Cooper mean by "nothing left to live for?" This is pandering to audience emotions at its best. No witnesses. A great way to feed into the Qaddafi as crazed lunatic theme.

I'm not even gonna watch the other two vids. :thumbsdown:

[pinboy3niner]

6. LOL! Yes, sticking your head in the sand is obviously the wise choice

:sarcasm:

"La-la-la-la, I can't hear you!1!!" :rofl:

Way to have sensitivity for the victim of a brutal crime. :eyes:

[goodnews]

3. Are there any witnesses to any of this?

Look at how manicured she is, well dressed compared to others. Where is the "severe bruising"? Her story could be true, its just that it sounds to much like that Kuwaiti Princess during the 1st Gulf War who lied about Belgian babies being taken off of incubators by Saddam's troops.

[joshcryer]

5. Repulsive.

[pinboy3niner]

7. Yes, she's obviously too well-dressed to be a rape victim

:puke:

Yes, there were witnesses--the neighbors by the house were she was held and brutalized for two days. They went to the police with her, and the prosecutor concluded that a crime had been committed and promised to arrest and prosecute her attackers.

Oh, that's right--you don't bother to inform yourself about pesky things like facts. After all, she's too well-dressed, and you didn't bother to watch the original video from the hotel showing some of her fresh injuries.

And the decision of the U.N. Human Rights Commision to investigate her case means they're just a bunch of saps to fall for this. :eyes:

Why even bother to post if you refuse to even read or watch any information on the subject?

[Downwinder]

8. Read the OP.

Ms. Obeidy said they bound her tightly in part because she fought back, but a 16-year-old girl who was also a captive was less resistant, Ms. Obeidy said.
“They did not bind her because she gave up out of fear and did not try to resist them or try to fight and hit them,” Ms. Obeidy said. “At about 7 a.m., I was cold and she came to cover me, and I begged her to untie me. She was so scared, but she untied my hands and feet and she refused to escape out of fear of them. She gave me her name and address and asked me to report everything to the police.”

[marasinghe]

9. give it a rest. you're coming off more idiotic than the tea party mob. n/t