| Dear david, In our last newsletter, we shared the story of Nasra, a Somali woman who was raped by Kenyan police officers as she fled the violence in her homeland for Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps. Nasra told us her story while we were gathering information for our report on police violence and sexual abuse in Kenya's camps. In response to our report, Kenya's government sent a high-level delegation to the Dadaab camps and the Somali border area to investigate our findings. In one border town, hundreds of people came forward to give their testimony. While we don't yet know the results of the investigation, we'll keep you posted as it continues. |
| Carrie was a high school student when she was raped in an alleyway by her home in northern Illinois. The man was a friend of her father's. Immediately after the rape, Carrie went to the local hospital to have her body examined for DNA evidence, which was collected into a "rape kit." When the police came to the hospital to interview her, they indicated that they had previously picked up the individual in question—for sexually assaulting the teenage daughter of a family friend. The police took Carrie's rape kit with them when they left the hospital. Carrie assumed the police would conduct the DNA test, but she didn't hear back from them. At first she called once a day, eventually calling only once a month. Six months after her rape, the prosecutor who reviewed her case finally called. The prosecutor said she was leaving the case open, but "didn't have any evidence to move it forward." Carrie asked about her rape kit, and was informed that it had not been tested because her case "would not be a strong candidate for prosecution." When she asked why, she was told: "It is too hard to prove that what happened to you was rape. You may think it's rape, but it's your word against his." In Illinois, roughly 80 percent of rape kits remain untested, according to figures compiled by Human Rights Watch. Our exposure of this backlog inspired the state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, to champion new legislation, signed into law in July, making Illinois the first US state to require sending every rape kit to the crime lab for testing. While the labs will need extra resources to handle the flood of kits, this is an important step.
| Sarah Tofte, a researcher at our US Program, is an expert on sexual violence, DNA evidence and sentencing, and other aspects of US criminal justice policy. Previously, she worked as a policy analyst at the Innocence Project, where she helped to exonerate individuals using forensic science. Tofte graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Law. |
| In Iraqi Kurdistan, 40 percent of women and girls between the ages of 14 and 22 have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), surveys suggest, a practice that involves cutting out the clitoris. The practice is perpetuated by women -- often mothers, aunts and grandmothers – who say they want the best for the children, as they believe it makes their girls "clean" and marriageable. Some link the practice to Sunni Islam's Shafi'i school of thought, to which most Kurds belong. Human Rights Watch researchers Nadya Khalife and photographer Samer Muscati traveled to the rural villages and farmlands of Iraqi Kurdistan to interview and photograph women about their experiences with FGM. The ensuing Human Rights Watch report had immediate impact. Shortly after its release the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars Union issued a fatwa declaring that FGM isn't an Islamic practice and that people should abandon it if it is proven harmful. As each traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan at a different time, it was only later that Nadya and Samer discussed their experiences researching this issue. Nadya: FGM is such a nuanced issue for women, it's so sensitive. And yet, Samer, you're a man, and you photographed these women. Did you get any kind of push-back from such a conservative society because you're male? Samer: I was concerned. As you know, we were both concerned as to whether the women would open up to us. But in some sense, I think not being a Kurdish male was an advantage—I was an outsider. | Nadya is the Middle East and North Africa researcher for the women's rights division. She's researched issues in her native Lebanon and the Great Lakes region in Africa. In the United States, she worked on post-September 11 abuses. Nadya has a Masters degree in gender and cultural studies from Boston's Simmons College.  | Samer Muscati | Samer works as a researcher in our Middle East Division. A Canadian lawyer and former journalist, Samer was the photographer and assistant editor for the book, The Men Who Killed Me, which featured Rwandan survivors of sexual violence from the genocide. |
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