Sex Exploitation in USA

December 26, 2017

By Saeed Qureshi

It looks as if United States is like one of the orthodox Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Iran where sex done with women other than one’s own wife or wives is considered as a crime. Yet religious injunctions are not enforced strictly in most of the Muslim countries. In reality, the external sex is abundantly available in most of the Islamic societies. Barring Saudi Arabia, poverty could be the reason in other Islamic states for selling and buying sex.  Moreover, in Islamic societies, the polygamy is religiously permissible. In all other non-Islamic countries especially in Scandinavian societies and the Far East, there are licensed brothels offering no hold barred sex facilities.

However, such outlets are not possible nor available in American society. In 21st century with a rampant and interspersed galore of openness, civil liberties and human rights, America is bristling with frequent and unremitting cases of so called sex abuse entailing harsh punishments, financial penalties, dismissals from jobs and social disgrace. All such penalties are being imposed on the basis of the complaints by certain women who, in hey days had been the willing sex partners of those celebrities.

It has become a handy way to extract huge sums of money from the yester-years’ sex mates in later times when the sun of glamour has dimmed over these females and they are rather not young. The pity is that the law sides with these women who had no compunctions when they were young and did not resist or report the sleazy and sexual onslaughts of their counterparts after the occurrence.

There have been a galore of the settlements for sexual harassment claim cases. One gubernatorial such case is that of Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly settled for $32 million with a former legal analyst Lis Wiehl. According to a report from The New York Times Saturday, “This settlement is one of the biggest in recent memory, topping even the $20 million payment received by former Fox News host, Gretchen Carlson, who sued the late Fox News boss Roger Ailes, after alleging she was harassed.

“The O’Reilly Factor” was one of the biggest shows in Cable news, earning around $326 million a year in advertising revenue. But its host was forced off air after The New York Times broke news of harassment allegations earlier this year. Advertisers fled the show and 21st Century Fox owner of Fox News, parted ways with the host while he was on vacation in Rome visiting the pope. O’Reilly has rejoined the Fox News after the settlement.

In the wake of political hullabaloo caused by the advent of Trump as the president, several women have come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct. The allegations have been directed at some of the leading political heavyweights that were in prestigious slots and commanded powers to bestow money and perks on their women admirers or victims. Patently these accusations have now come to the fore with questionable or indecent intentions to make money by way of settlements through extortion of hefty amounts from the people accused of the misconduct. 

While in due course, these cases may be settled through payment of monetary quid pro quo, a pertinent question comes to the mind as to why these later-day chaste women did not complain about the misconduct of their powerful executives, directors, bosses or colleagues immediately after the occurrence. Why they didn’t resist the indecent advances of the sex seeking males. If they kept that ignominy unto themselves for all these years then why a sentiment of piety and rectitude has awakened in them now and they are brazenly naming the males with whom they were comfortable as long they worked with them on prominent jobs.

My contention is that while the sexual black mailers and sex predators are being proceeded in courts and in other such outlets, these women should also be interrogated for concealing a crime against their modesty though, they have acknowledged it now. In law, the perpetration and committing of crime is as serious as its concealment and abutment by the perpetrators or the victims.

It could be mind boggling for my readers to be aware of the gory fact that countless children and females had been target of sexual molestation for ages not only in the public and government departments but in Catholic churches and monasteries from time immemorial. It is a horrendous tale of absurd and unbridled spree of molestation and sexual abuse by the religious preachers for decades and centuries.

The perpetrator clergies and priests have been arraigned by the respective legal authorities and institutions. There have been numerous settlements by the respective churches and cathedrals.  But the fact is that there has been no foolproof mechanism to put a definitive stop to these crimes and violations both religious and social even now and with no hope for the future. It is known that the Church has been paying huge amounts by way of compensation to settle such heinous cases.

Now you may hold your breath with the names of the high profile and prominent politicians and celebrities, who indulged in this so called sleazy pursuit of sex abuse. Many of these luminaries have settled their cases by doling out hefty ransom or compensation amounts that makes the accuser to join the coteries of the rich individuals in this society. Let us begin with the incumbent president of the United States Donald Trump, being painted as Casanova of the present times.

Donald Trump, formerly a businessman and currently the 45th President of the United States, has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least fifteen women since the 1980s.

The other list consists of the names from among the members of Senate and house or in Media or business tycoons. The names of their female partners who indulged with them are available in the media outlets.  

That list includes Tim Murphy Representative (R-PA), Roy Moore the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, AL Senator (D-MN), Joe Barton (R-TX) US Representative, Rep. Bobby Scott D-Virginia, Rep Trent Franks R-Ariz, Nevada state Senator Ruben Kihuen. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas (he settled sexual harassment claim for $84,000), Rep. John Conyers Jr., the longest-serving active Congressman and a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. 

Seven women from separate incidents have accused former President George H.W. Bush of inappropriately touching them from behind while they posed beside him for photos. Some said he also told them dirty jokes.

NBC reports that “Many prominent men, including Harvey Weinstein, Dustin Hoffman and Matt Lauer, among others, have been accused of a broad spectrum of misconduct, from inappropriate behavior in the workplace, to physically groping victims' intimate parts. Forcibly touching another person without consent for sexual gratification is usually both a crime and a civil wrong.”

Yet, many of these allegations that emerged in the last few months will never see a civil or criminal courtroom. This is so because they happened too long ago and are outside the statute of limitations. The appropriately acronym-ed "SOL" is a set period of time, which varies drastically depending on the nature of the offense and the state in which it occurred.”