The author said: “No one should condone the statements made by Sheik Hilali. .....Just as it is doubly serious if people in positions of authority in any part of the Australian community express such views.”

True, but interestingly, some Australian feminists still seek to excuse the Sheik, which I guess is all about the Left being sweet on Islam. This makes for strange bedfellows because the values and goals of feminism and Islam are diametrically opposed. However the Left is feeling a bit devoid of champions these days and probably only sides with Islam through a (wrong) belief that it somehow represents the ‘outsiders’ and ‘downtrodden’ in the world (which it doesn’t). Still, that is the crazy feminist Left for you, so busy castigating white Anglo-Saxon men that they would cut off their own noses to spite their faces. Their actions impede change, as the author suggests.

All of the evidence before us is that an overwhelming majority of Australian men and women disagree with the Sheik. This why the Sheik has been caused to offer explanations.

Men and women are victims of rape and of sexual offences generally. Only recently we have seen a succession of female molestors of adolescent male students get lighter sentences and the victims received little or no support from male and female journalists. Unfortunately there will always be some men and some women who presume that the victim (regardless of gender) must have contributed somehow. Female and male perpetrators use the same excuses.

In an ideal world, men and women would be able to go anywhere and do anything and not be at fear of some perpetrators taking advantage of them. However in the real world we all have to risk manage to some extent and that is not because men are men or women are women, it is because some people are criminals.

But that being said, Australia is not a “rape supportive” society and there are strong disincentives in place to deter perpetrators.

Jocelynne Scutt,

Very sensible article.

Re: Leigh’s "iffy" situations nonsense. So a middle-aged woman who works the late shift in a petrol station and misses her train and finds herself alone and is gang raped is somehow responsible for her own trouble? Leigh this unavoidable situation may be "iffy" in your eyes but I think you are wrong to give the sexual predators any leeway and add to their catalogue of pathetic excuses.

There are no excuses. Should a taxi driver complain that he or she was bashed because they put themselves in a dodgy situation?
“Your honour my client admits killing the taxi driver but he asked for it driving around at two in the morning picking up strange men.”
Is he to blame for exercising his rights as a citizen? No. He or she is exercising the right to earn a living without threat or violence. Anyone who denies that is against freedom and the rule of law.

Women are out and about more at night because of work,shopping, entertainment etc. This is not “asserting” it is exercising a basic right –like the taxi driver. Women, for instance, have a right to go jogging or cycling without excessive concerns or restrictions. Don’t women have the same rights to this activity as men? The failure of authorities to treat women fairly gives tacit approval for more abuse and restrictive behaviours. Where will it end?

Women’s loss of freedom of movement is disproportionate to males. A society that thinks there is an excuse such as “iffy situation”, or is indifferent to harm done to people they regard as dodgy, is allowing harm to be done to women and to their freedom of movement.

Ultimately though, it is the sexually aggressive males who are the ones responsible for interfering with women's safety and freedom of movement in our society. Feminists need to not suggest that the few lecherous ones are representative of all Ausssie males.

It is not moral superiority or forgetfulness that sees women treated unfairly - just blatant chauvinism, callousness, indifference and male ignorance.

I don't know for how many years 'rape' has existed as a criminal offense. If women were truly 'oppressed' rape would not have been regarded as a crime.

I seem to remember that if a negro slave was accused of assaulting a white woman, he'd be hanged. I guess according to some posters this didn't mean that the crime of rape was not taken seriously enough.

I don't know how many men have been hanged throughout the centuries for assaulting or raping a woman, I think some were even castrated.

"It has taken eons of urging, commitment, energy and arguing, to have the Australian legal system drag itself into a semblance of accepting that women are not genetically programmed to be liars."

There is some research which show that women are much better liars than men.

http://www.angryharry.com/reWomenFakeSexNumbers.htm
Interestingly when researchers where questioning men and woman about the number of partners they had, women had fewer partners than men. It was thought that it was the men who were lying, that is until the interviewees were attached to a lie detector.

God! aren't I going to be sent to purgatory.

I think to speed up the process, both the alleged victim and perpetrator should be attached to a lie detector. this process will either kill the urban myth or confirm it.

It seems we are changing from the presumption of innocence, to the presumption of guilt and it is the accused who must prove they are innocent.

Oh boy the way even women believe that women lie.

Maybe we should just do what some feminist suggested and that is castrate the men. Eunuchs than would not be interested in women and we would solve two problems with one cut. There would be no sexual assault and we would in about a century have no human race.

Dr Scutt, you missed the most recent example of a judgement, and that is in the case of MSK, MAK etc - the four Pakistani brothers sentenced to long periods in gaol for rape.

The Honourable Justice Sully made this observation, which is very pertinent:

"The rapes committed upon both LS and HG are, in my opinion, one and all clearly within the worst case category of that crime.

44 The two victims were teen-aged school girls. Having seen and heard them in two trials, I think that LS was plainly the more mature and somewhat more sophisticated for her age than was HG; but both girls were not as capable of taking care of themselves as they obviously thought they were. From the moment they got into the motor vehicle en route to Ashfield they were appallingly at risk that something untoward would happen to them; and they were in every practical sense utterly defenceless should that risk materialise in fact."

He further said, however

"In our society, to force a woman, any woman, to have sexual intercourse is, always and everywhere, at once a base act and a major crime. It is not, ever or anywhere, a defence that the woman was flighty, flirtatious or simply foolish."

from http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/scjudgments/2004nswsc.nsf/aef73009028d6777ca25673900081e8d/fd97eff2f8aa101cca256e7d00020305?OpenDocument

The point that the Judge was trying to make was simple: that the males who carried out these assaults had no excuse whatsoever, and they each received long sentences (one of 22 years), however it is also not wise for anyone to place themselves in a position of vulnerability.

I obviously cannot copy the entire judgement here, but I would suggest that anyone with an interest in this area spend the time to read it for yourselves.

If I was robbed while drunk in a dark alley at 2am in a sleazy area I would acknowledge my stupidity as a contributing factor.
I wouldn't crap on about my right to be unrobbed.
The standard feminist line is that "rape is more about power than sex" but I think it is a lot more like theft. An ebriated chick with her tits hanging half out is like a well-heeled drunk asking to be rolled.
Ms Scutt continues to encourage a lack of common sense and caution, the same guff she has been spouting for ten years or more. How did someone so obviously short on smarts become a barrister? Must have been affirmative action or nepotism I guess.

"Now people say it was a kind of rape ... Well, I say if it was rape, it was a good rape..."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/mcelroy2.html

No! this is not some phrase from a misoginistic website.

It is a phrase from the Vagina Monologues, written by feminist Eve Ensler.

In the play a 24 year old woman plies a 13 year old girl with alcohol.

There are case histories on restricted websites of women being sexually assaulted by other women. I wonder if one really did ask how many women have been sexually assaulted by another woman.