The Strauss-Kahn accuser and female genital mutilation
Strauss-Kahn’s accuser appears to be quite a piece of work. She’s a serial liar and an operator, at least as far as her immigration story goes. She said she was gang-raped in Guinea, and apparently this was not the case. And in this country, she’s in tight with drug dealers.
We still don’t have any idea whether Strauss-Kahn raped her or not. But in her taped conversation with her prison-residing boyfriend, she told him a version of the rape story that was very similar to the one she told authorities—and the discussion was in their native Guinean tongue, which authorities translated from a “unique dialect of Fulani” into English. This points to at least some credibility on this score.
Now that this woman has been exposed as a habitual liar, it’s hard to evaluate the following for its veracity. But if true, it’s an ironic twist in the case:
…[I]f the woman’s application [to enter the US] was based on fraud, the Justice Department could seek to reopen the case and have her thrown out of the country. Her attorney Kenneth Thompson said she went to prosecutors to tell them the truth, and she had initially feared she’d be deported if she told them why she really left: because she was a victim of genital mutilation and she didn’t want her daughter, now 15, to be similarly affected, Thompson said.
Whether or not the accuser has been a victim of FGM (female genital mutilation, rampant in north Africa) would be an easy enough fact for the court to determine. But it is indeed likely that this women has been genitally mutilated, because the practice (according to this study of Guinea in 1998-1999) is so widespread there as to affect virtually all of the woman in the country: 99%. Guinea may actually have the highest rate of FGM (called the more neutral FCC, or “female genital cutting,” in the study) in the world.
What’s more, in 1998-1999, respondents reported that the cutting was occurring at a younger and younger age to girls there, often performed by the age of 9. The accuser’s daughter is reportedly 15 years old now, and the accuser’s application for political asylum to the United States was made in 2004, which would mean that her daughter would have been about eight at the time. That would be the age at which FGM was imminent, and it tends to support the accuser’s new story on the true motive for her emigration, which is at least as sympathetic as her original story of gang rape.
This woman represents a conundrum for feminists and the left. Originally she was the perfect victim: black, poor, and sexually abused by a man. She’s still black, but it seems she’s not so poor, since hundreds of thousands of dollars have been deposited in her bank account by the drug-dealing boyfriend and his confederates. As for abuse, if the accuser’s FGM tale is correct (and it is very very likely to be), she has most certainly been sexually abused, although paradoxically it would have been by women, who tend to perpetuate the practice, although the motivation is to be “pure” enough to be accepted in marriage by a man.
In 1969 the practice was made a crime in Guinea, but no one has ever been prosecuted there for it. There are varieties of FGM, some of which are more mild than others, but the milder forms are exceedingly uncommon in Guinea and elsewhere. I will be a bit graphic here: according to the 1998=1999 study, only 1% of women in Guinea (mostly members of a certain tribal group that is predominantly Christian) are unmutilated, and only 2% of women undergo a mild nicking of the clitoris. Eighteen per cent of Guinean women have had a partial clitoral removal, while 28% have had a total clitoral removal, and 50% a total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora as well (that is, the entire external genitalia of the woman and the significant organs of pleasure). At the time of the study, 80% of the girls there were operated on at age 9 or younger. In the Fulani group (to which the accuser seems to belong) the figures are 12% undergoing partial removal of the clitoris, 35% complete removal, and 50% complete removal of both clitoris and labia minora.
If FGM was indeed the woman’s motivation for immigration, and if she lied about that motive on her application, it would be ironic, because FGM itself is grounds for an asylum application. It is incredibly hard to know the truth about went on with this woman, but her lawyer says she was unaware that FGM would have sufficed as a reason for asylum, and was told by a friend to invent the gang-rape story to buttress her case.
Of course, none of this excuses anything she may have done or the lies she’s told. But a culture that does this to its women is even more inexcusable. I don’t care about the custom’s antiquity and its origins; it is a brutal and violent outrage.
[NOTE: I have previously written two posts on FGM, here and here.]
[NOTE II: And don’t come on this thread and compare FGM to male circumcision. There is absolutely no analogy, except to the mildest form of FGM that is very seldom practiced (1% in Guinea, and uncommon elsewhere). If you want an analogy, try comparing the process to removing all the external male genitalia. Fortunately, this is not a regular practice of any culture any earth—and if it were, that culture wouldn’t last long.]
[ADDENDUM: The plot—and the accusations against the accuser—thickens. Now an unnamed informant told the NY Post that she’s a hooker. If so, and if the NYPD didn’t find this out right away, I think they could be accused of negligence.
And then there’s this, reporting that DSK used other prostitutes in the past who complained about his roughness and aggressiveness and refused to see him again. Make of it what you will.
And am I the only one who thinks the mainstream press and the National Enquirer have recently merged?]
The plot—and the accusations against the accuser—thickens. Now an unnamed informant told the NY Post that she’s a hooker. If so, and if the NYPD didn’t find this out right away, I think they could be accused of negligence.
Iirc the woman’s colleagues vouched for her good character when the story first broke.
Which makes me wonder what else is going on at the la-de-da ever-so-exclusive NYC Ritz Carlton.
Good God.
The whole episode is an embarrassment to all primates.
1. gs Says:
Iirc the woman’s colleagues vouched for her good character when the story first broke. (p)Which makes me wonder what else is going on at the la-de-da ever-so-exclusive NYC Ritz Carlton.
I’m still wondering about the Ritz Carlton even though cough DSK stayed at the Softel… 🙁
2. PJM indeed notes that there’s more to the story.
3. By accusing DSK, the woman may have busted up a profitable enterprise run by, perhaps, ruthless people.
I don’t know about a merger, but the Enquirer did scoop the rest of the MSM on the John Edwards affair.
A criminal for a boyfriend. Suspicious bank accounts. Immigration violations. Shady background where she might even be a hooker and also defrauded people in a pyramid scheme.
With so much to hide, why would she report the “rape?”
A person with this much to hide would only become part of the spotlight for a lot of money. Or perhaps she’s being blackmailed. Or maybe she’s just crazy. But if these allegations about her activities are true, it seems very likely that she was part of a set-up on DSK.
The one curious thing that makes me think she was raped was that she revealed the fact that she lied to get in the United States. I see that as a preemptive act of someone who isn’t as adept as a liar or quite the scoundrel she is being made out to be. If she is an accomplished villain, why would she offer that information?
This case is going to be interesting because it is doubtful that absolute proof will appear.
Can’t quite decide which of the principals in this drama is the least likable. Let’s see, DSK was a member of the elite who apparently liked rough sex and she was a member of the victim class who runs with a rough crowd. Quite a pair!
Well, the DA seems to believe he’s guilty but they cannot get a conviction because she’s basically rotten on several levels. What to do now? Why not do what Obama would do? Pass it off to good old Joe Biden. Problem solved!
If you lie down with dogs, you can wake up with fleas. Scratch away, DSK. You and your socialist buddies have lost all credibility to lecture us on the poor and the downtrodden. You use them to serve your needs, but you don’t know them and you shouldn’t screw them.
The National Enquirer also scooped the MSM on the blue dress.
You shouldn’t libel the Enquirer by grouping it with the MSM.
Thank you for writing about this so concisely and informatively. I had no interest in the story, given the salacious headlines, but I suppose it is good to be apprised all the same.
Just because she’s a grifter doesn’t mean she wasn’t assaulted.The sheer volume of favorable press leaks on behalf of DSK shows me how the NYT will circle the wagons for a well known member of the International Left.The defense teams is certainly living down to it’s rep for ruthlessness.
“but it seems she’s not so poor, since hundreds of thousands of dollars have been deposited in her bank account by the drug-dealing boyfriend and his confederates.”
I wonder if she actually has authority and control over her bank account, or if she is owner of the account in name only…
As you say – truly a strange story with twists and turns enough to make a completely just outcome unlikely.
no one knows what went on in that hotel room but the two protagonists. nor how much money has been employed to spin the character assassinations on both sides. for a poignant film on genital mutilation:
http://www.filmsofafrica.com/Senegal/moulade.htm
but James Brown was right: this is a mans world.
no one knows what went on in that hotel room but the two protagonists. nor how much money has been employed to spin the character assassinations on both sides. for a poignant film on genital mutilation:
http://www.filmsofafrica.com/Senegal/moulade.htm
but James Brown was right: this is a man’s world.
“James Brown was right: this is a man’s world.”
But it ain’t nothin’ without a woman or a girl.
PS – Happy 4th of July everybody!
If DSK really did assault this woman, it probably is not the first instance. Similar allegations may surface.
Steve,
The French journalist who accuses DSK of attempted rape has filed a complaint against him in France. John Rosenthal has the latest at PJM.