Protests Planned for Tunisian Rape Victim
A Tunisian woman who alleges she was raped earlier this month by two policemen now stands accused of indecency, says her lawyer. Women's groups and human rights associations are planning to stage a large protest, reports Sophie Claudet for Al-Monitor.
A 27-year-old Tunisian woman who alleges she was raped earlier this month by two policemen now stands accused of indecency, her lawyer said. The woman was called by a judge to confront her two assailants on Wednesday, but in an unexpected development, the judge decided to pursue the victim for “outraging public decency” attorney Saida Garrach told Al-Monitor.
The woman and her boyfriend were apprehended Sept. 3 by three policemen in a suburb of Tunis as they were sitting in their car, and asked for money. The boyfriend was handcuffed while his partner was raped by two of the policemen in the back the car, she claims. The two are now sitting in jail awaiting trial. Traces of both men’s semen were found on the car’s seat and on the victim’s underwear, the lawyer said.
Garrach expressed both surprise and outrage at the judge’s decision regarding her client: “it means that a woman sitting with her boyfriend in a car is necessarily guilty!” She said her client had admitted to flirting with her boyfriend though she was not caught red-handed. “The policemen themselves acknowledged they had not caught the couple in the act of flirting, so there is no ground for this judge to pursue my client.”
The young woman has been summoned by the judge to appear in court for “outraging public decency” on Oct. 2, Garrach said. Women rights and human rights’ associations, including Garrach’s own — the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women — are planning to stage a large protest outside the tribunal.
