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.”
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