In honor of the series of events surrounding Women's Week, Amnesty International at the University of Pennsylvania and coed business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi co-sponsored the lecture "Rape: An International Epidemic" yesterday.
To an audience consisting of four people, Nationalities Service Center legal assistant Fouzia Mousse and Anthropology professor Peggy Sanday gave talks about rape as an issue in cultures with both high and low rape prevalence.
Mousse started the lecture by speaking about the high occurrence of rape and poor treatment of women that exist in Somalia -- her native country -- and especially in the refugee camps near Kenya, where she worked as an aid worker for the United Nations.
Mousse gave accounts of atrocities committed in the refugee camps in Somalia where both girls as young as 4, as well as women in their 80s, had been victims of rape.
While working for the United Nations, Mousse stayed in the organization's encampment, where she helped treat rape victims. However, at night Mousse said she could hear women screaming as they were violated in the neighboring refugee camps.
She explained that the United Nations could only provide primary health care, which was insufficient treatment for many with abuse wounds beyond available remedy.
Currently, Mousse works at the Philadelphia Nationalities Service Center -- an organization that helps immigrants who are the victims of rape and violence. She said the center "always gets lots of clients."
Sanday's talk contrasted Mousse's as she gave a view on rape culture in America and in West Sumatra, Indonesia, where she once lived. She said that West Sumatra -- a region where rape culture is practically nonexistent -- is matriarchal, which Sanday explained means that they cherish the mother-child relationship.
"Rape is absent when women have high status and where fathers play large roles in child rearing," Sanday said, adding that this proves rape is not biological, but rather circumstantial.
In American society, Sanday pointed to fraternities and male peer groups as promoting the stereotype of the "virginal woman."
She criticized the defense attorney's strategy in the Kobe Bryant case, as it invalidated the accusations of the accuser by characterizing her as impure.
When asked about the male code of chivalry and the culture that scorns those who abuse women, Sanday responded that chivalry only contributes to the male need to protect women.
The Division of Public Safety, T Change, Women's Anti-Violence Education and Penn Women's Center also sponsored the presentation.
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