What would you do in this situation?

[Leftist]

I just feel like I need to get this off my chest, and I just want to give reassurance to any women who have been through this terrible event. I am being completely honest here so don't judge me.

I'm a 23 year old male currently studying in Pakistan while my family lives in America. From time to time my mom and dad visit, spend some time here since I'm living here alone, and most of the time when they are going back I go along with them to spend some time with them.

So a year ago my mom was visiting, and I was going back with her to spend a month in America. Since the national airline here is quite crappy, we take Emirates or Etihad so that means we first have to take a flight to Abu Dhabi or Dubai and board an American bound flight there.

So once boarding time comes we line up as usual. There is a 20ish girl in front of me (also Pakistani). I mean I didn't notice it at that time but now it sticks out in my mind. We get on the plane and when we reached near our row, she turned around and showed me her ticket and asked me if this was her seat. I don't know why she asked but at that point two things came in my mind. You know how randomly you just make connections in your brain. So I realized that 1. She was travelling alone and 2. Maybe she was flying for the first time. My seat was right in the row behind her.

Anyways once we had settled in a little bit, this 40 year oldish looking guy in a suit and briefcase came and his seat was right beside her. I shit you not as soon as I saw him the first thing that came to my mind was "Chutia." That means asshole in my language. I am quick to judge people which is bad on itself, but this guy just gave off the douchebag vibe.

Plane takes off, watching a few movies. Notice the guy is continuously talking to the girl. Don't think too much of it at the time because sometimes I also talk to the people sitting besides me. After a while he lays his head down on the edge of her headrest and continues talking to her. At this point I found it a little weird but didn't think too much of it.

I fell asleep. Wake up after I'm assuming 7-8 hours. (Yes I am able to sleep perfectly on planes). During long flights like this, there comes a time where they turn off all the lights in the cabin so you can sleep so it's pretty dark. I wake up and realizing I wont be able to go back to sleep, I put on my glasses and I see movement in front of me through the gap between the seats.

I look closer and the guy is all over the girl. Making out and as far as I could see his hands were all over her. I said I was going to be completely honest so I'm not going to lie. At first I was like "woah this guy is a player even though he's 40 and douche-looking." I don't remember exactly how or why I kept looking but some light shone on the girls face when he pulled away and I saw tears in her eyes.

At that moment it struck me. He was raping her. I swear to God at that moment I felt a rage I haven't ever felt. My initial instinct was to stand up, grab that fucker by his collar and punch his face until he died. It's one thing hearing about rape, but when you see it happening in front of you, it is a completely different situation.

All of a sudden in my head a couple of things shot by in a matter of 1 second. 1. My mom has anxiety issues, so I didn't want her to have an episode by attacking the guy. 2. By this time we were over American Airspace and I didn't know if I would get charged for assault. 3. I am a muslim, so the last thing I wanted was to cause disruption on a plane.

I did the next best thing. I quickly squeezed past the guy sitting on my left (mom was in window seat, I was in the middle seat) and I go as fast as I can down the aisle towards the place where the attendants usually are. The first flight hostess I see (I still remember she was pouring milk into a cup) I tell her the situation as calmly as I can. I think she mistook my calm for the situation not being that severe because she sort of nonchalantly said "Ok sir, I will check on it." I grabbed the cup out of her hand and said "You need to check on it NOW." She told me to go sit down and she would come right after me.

I go and sit down. He was still on her. I was f-king bubbling with frustration and rage but she came as soon as I sat down. Asked the girl if she could talk to her. The girl came out into the aisle, they talked for a few moments, then the girl and the attendant left. They didn't come back after 20-30 minutes.

I got up again then and found the air hostess and asked her what happened? She said that yes, he was forcing herself on her so I sat her down somewhere else. I asked her where she was sitting and she showed me.

When I saw that poor girl, my heart nearly broke. Tears in her eyes, her face was beyond shocked. She saw me and started crying even more. In our culture it is not acceptable to touch a random woman so I just knelt in front of her and tried talking to her. Talked to her until she stopped crying, tried offering her as much support as I could. Here's where the shit pissed me off so much. I told her to tell the attendant and captain to report it to the police so they will be waiting when we land. She told me she couldn't. I asked her again and again why but she wouldn't tell me.

I came back to my seat. I was even more pissed off now. Like on the verge of killing that scumbag. My mom was still sleeping. I did the only thing that was available to me. I leaned forward until my face was in the gap between the two seats. Then I started whispering-cussing at him. Any cuss word that came to my mind I said to him. In both English and Urdu. He didn't even turn around. He knew I knew what he had done and that coward didn't have the guts to even face me.

The plane landed, he rushed off. I tried my best to look him in the eyes so I could look at the face of a shit excuse of a human being but he wouldn't look at me deliberately.

Got off the plane. Went home.

Here is what I have to say.

SPEAK UP. IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT ONE TINY PERCENT. SPEAK UP REPORT IT TO THE AUTHORITIES, TELL SOMEONE ANYONE SO THAT THEY CAN'T EVER DO THIS AGAIN TO ANOTHER WOMAN.

I know how shocking and traumatizing this kind of experience is, but don't let it happen. That poor girl was so shocked she couldn't even scream. It is shocking, it is awful but save yourself.

Please don't let these kind of people get away with this. Please report it, and get them jailed. You have NOTHING TO BE EMBARRASSED OR ASHAMED ABOUT.

Lastly I know you guys will probably be angry that I didn't jump in, and that is always on my mind. I feel so bad sometimes that I could've saved her from 2-3 minutes of torture. If this post ever reaches her eyes or ears. I'm sorry. I really am.

Thanks for reading.

Edit: Thank you so much everyone for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

Cot-tamn, reading that made my head spin....imagine witnessing the rape of a somali girl, irregardless of location, and not IMMEDIATELY intervening? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, B. Fuck that.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20. And so is armchair pontificating and posturing. But I can't help but think:

"Bro, all you had to do was

a) get up from your seat and catch the attention of any passenger near you so that they can either help you(not likely) or at the very least be witnesses(guaranteed)

b) grab the piece of shit and physically force him off of the girl and restrain him, either with the help of the other passengers, or by yourself(da fuq is the purpose of all that faarax-fitness lifting? preening in front of a mirror like a peacock?)

c) tell the Etihad/Emirate airline crew & captain that you will go to the media if they try to sweep it under the carpet(which is what they did), and if this piece of shit isn't prosecuted with their complete cooperation. Tell them that that this isn't the f-king Middle East where all sorts of xaar and shit is justified in the name of religion and culture (beating wife? halal. Owning slaves? halal. Raping slaves? Also halal. Parents kill their children whilst disciplining them? 100% immunity. Student loans doe? Totally xaramz. Kissing a girl/woman? Totally haram. Kissing a boy/man? it depends, hal hiya bi shah'wa ow bidoon shah'wa. Laa xaraj ithaa kaana bidoon shah'wa(opening the door to Abu Nuwaas and centuries of Ay-Rab pederasty that flourishes to this very day <--- all of this xaar-shitty theology/dogma comes to you from the finest traditions of ad'dacwatu salafiya aka "errbody but me and mine are gonna burn in hell for eternity

d) assure the girl that victims in rape/sexual assault won't be named in the media; so she doesn't have to worry, and there are number of witnesses who saw the assault/rape so it is a open-and-shut case, he'll be doing a minimum of 20 years in federal prison.

I hope if i am ever put in a situation like that(and I hope im not), I pray that Ebbe will give me the courage and clear-thinking to lay fear aside, fear of the unknown, fear of spiraling ramifications, fear of flying while muslim; and act.

As Halyeey Ned Stark(RIP) replied when his son asked him: "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"

"That is the only time a man can be brave"

Still, even though hindsight maybe the wishbone of every fool and armchair general, i think it's important that we have a understanding of how we would act in situations that require immediate action and error-proof judgement(if there is even such a thing).

[Jugjugwacwac]

Something very very fishy about this story. How does a grown woman get silently raped on a plane full of people? Call me a cynic, but she must of went along with the rape story after realizing that the guy, a fellow Paki, saw her in the act. She'd rather call rape than admit to wasakhnimo and run the risk of being shamed in her community if the story got out.

Anyway, If I witnessed a man trying to rape a Somali girl I would go to jail for sure. Aakhiraan aabihii wasaha u diri lahaa.

[grandpakhalif]

I knew you were going to somehow twist this tragic story into a tirade against the evil Wahabis and Salafis, which had absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Or attacking a respected Arab poet with orientalist diatribe, Typical nonsense.

[Jugjugwacwac]

I knew you were going to somehow twist this tragic story into a tirade against the evil Wahabis and Salafis, which had absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Or attacking a respected Arab poet with orientalist diatribe, Typical nonsense.

Wrong thread buddy.

[Thuganomics]

^
He was talking to leftist

He committed to not intervene once he made that excuse about his moms blood pressure or whatever.The choice is simple,if one witnesses such a crime been committed.Confront the perpetrator straight away,then deal with the consequences later.At least then your conscience is clear

[AgentOfChaos]

I would give him Colombian necktie then sleep soundly at night.

[Leftist]

I would give him Colombian necktie then sleep soundly at night.

[Bari14]

this is what i thought when i read your post

[Leftist]

Something very very fishy about this story. How does a grown women get silently raped on a plane full of people? Call me a cynic, but she must of went along with the rape story after realizing that the guy, a fellow Paki, saw her in the act. She'd rather call rape than admit to wasakhnimo and run the risk of being shamed in her community if the story got out.

A classic example of blame the victim. Nacala ku yaalo this fucked up misogynistic mentality that plagues so many of beebal. War meeya raganimadii? Mase y'all have been gagging on Ethiopian/Kenyan ceeb for so long that you forgot what it means to be a Man? I guess this 3 year old was also engaging in wasakhnimo and asking for the D, huh

A few days earlier she had been playing with her friends outside her home when a man picked her up and carried her to a nearby garden.

According to her family and medical staff, he gagged, raped and then it seems, tried to murder her.

In this male-dominated and segregated society(the essence of ad'dacwatu salafiya), rape victims are viewed as outcasts, even as prostitutes.

Marriage is almost impossible and a sense of shame hangs over the entire family.

J, you probably mean well, but you know what waxaad qortay remind me of? the kind of father who would look down on his raped daughter as a "slut" and that she was "asking for it" and that it was "her fault for tempting the man by not wearing the hijab". Like the Afghani father below who actually wanted to kill his 10 year old because of the "shame" she brought the family.

It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex.

But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an “honor killing” in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/world ... .html?_r=0

A mullah who raped a 10-year-old girl in his mosque was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a dramatic trial here in Kabul on Saturday during which his accuser, weeping and shaking, summoned the courage to confront him

The victim’s father neither looked at nor spoke to his daughter during the proceedings, and when they were over, he turned his back on her and walked out. She followed him at a respectful distance, walking past the mullah chained up in the hallway, who kept his eyes on the floor.

And these examples are only 0.0000000001% of the thousands upon thousands of rapes that happen all over the Muslim world EVERY SINGLE DAY, including/especially in Somalia, and are quickly swept under the carpet thanks to engrained misogyny, "wixii xun xaawo/xaliimo baa leh" that has been passed down across the centuries.

Here's a sobering thought, as we write this, a Muslim girl/women is being raped by a Muslim man somewhere in the "Muslim ummah". And that rapist will not be punished because of the rampant misogyny, rape-apologia, and blame-the-victim'itis

Who will punish that rapist? The blessed secular-liberal system which, flawed as it may be, as all human endeavors are, is the best form of governance mankind has ever come up with since the dawn of human civilization:

Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, an imam who founded the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, appeared in court Wednesday, where an indictment was read charging him with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual abuse, attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse, unlawful restraint and aggravated battery. Saleem, 75, had previously been charged with criminal sexual abuse and aggravated battery.
The older charges and Wednesday's indictment all stem from allegations that Saleem forced a 23-year-old woman to sit on his lap and fondled her last April when the woman worked for the school.

The community retained many of its beliefs and customs. Purity and honor were paramount. Girls wore head scarves, kept their arms and legs covered, and were excused from school health classes where puberty and reproduction were discussed. In some families, talking about sex in any way was unthinkable.(ad'dacwatu salafiya)

“A lot of the attitudes around sexuality and marriage, I would literally describe them as ultra-Victorian,”(ad'dacwatu Salafiya) said Hamzah Maqbul, the imam of a mosque in Rockford, a nearby city.

two women in their 40s saw it and told advocates that Mr. Saleem had abused them in the early 1980s, when he was teaching from his bedroom. One woman said Mr. Saleem began touching her when she was 12. Once, she said, he sat on a bed, covered in a brown blanket, and put her hand on his genitals while he taught her a chapter of the Quran called al-Qari’a, about the Day of Judgment when people will be held to account for their good and evil deeds.

“The Quran is right on top of us and he is doing this,” she said. “What disrespect he had in front of the Quran.”

A second woman said that, when she was in sixth grade, Mr. Saleem kissed her and touched her, remarking, “You’re really growing up.”

But hey, "we are better than them and have higher akhlaaq" In fact, our akhlaaq is so high and our raganimo is so strong that the first thing we think about when we read about a rape victim is:

- was she wearing "tempting clothes" "make- up" and not wearing the hijab?

- was she alone with the man, who then, could not control his desires due to her "fitna"(kulu fitna cinda geel/xaliimo)?

- is she poor/orphan/low-status and is the alleged rapist a shaikh/rich guy/elite ?

If any of the answers to these questions are yes, then it's her fault dhilada waskhada ah. /sarcasm


My beebal need to wake the fuq up, smh.

[Hyperactive]

how some one be raping in airplane? sheekhadu wa7ba ka qasan. however, somali woman or not, gaalo or muslim , Allaho yan horteyda qof laku kufsan. definetly, i would do something and not just sit there!

[Thuganomics]

^
hyper,plane iska daaye,bus bey isku kufsadaan bariis cunoyaashu.In broad day light too.At least in this scenario it was at night and the lights were off

[Leftist]

how some one be rapen in airplane

bro! bro! bro! xataa anta yaa shaykh?

How can someone be raped in the masjid?

Please read below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/world ... -rape.html

It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex.

But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an “honor killing” in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.

How can a "kibaar al-culuma", one of the greatest scholars in the world, sexually assault and molest a young girl with the Quran right in front of him:

Once, she said, he sat on a bed, covered in a brown blanket, and put her hand on his genitals while he taught her a chapter of the Quran called al-Qari’a, about the Day of Judgment when people will be held to account for their good and evil deeds.

“The Quran is right on top of us and he is doing this,” she said. “What disrespect he had in front of the Quran.”

Stop blaming the victim bro. Human beings(including men and boys) are raped anywhere and everywhere, including Masjid Al-Xaram, and various masajid all over the world. Because thats what humans do to other humans, including humans that incidentally happen to be Muslim: they rape.

[Hyperactive]

leftist, i am serious, that kind of voilent , no one can commit with people around.

in the masjid, maybe , they took advantage when no one around. but this incidant, people sitting around/next seat. qofku wo qaylin kara, wa la maqli. rape is not easy to commit in public.

[Hyperactive]

^
hyper,plane iska daaye,bus bey isku kufsadaan bariis cunoyaashu.In broad day light too.At least in this scenario it was at night and the lights were off

but its like some one stealing when people looking at them, but again they may take and run. but to rape needs too much time to commit and not easy to get away in public. qofku wo hanoonsan , o voices bo sameyni.

most criminals scare to be cought. sorry , this is a judge who got use to evidane talking.