[The Sexuality Blog] Apparently, now you have to “fight” to prove you were raped

This is a story of Mahmood Farooqui, a film director who raped an American foreign exchange and got sentenced for aggravated rape in 2016 but just got off during his appeal using this ridiculous justification:

She didn’t fight till the end.

In a world where the blurry lines of consent are increasingly becoming clear, the last place you’d expect anyone to be lax about consent and rape is in India, where millions of women are violently raped and sexually assaulted every year, with several high profile cases of women being horrifyingly raped to death. But it seems even that is not enough if you have some money, privilege and the access to the ear of a sympathetic judge.

Film director, Mahmood Farooqui was sentenced to seven years for aggravated rape in 2016, after he sexually assaulted an American foreign exchange student who visited his house while doing some research for her post graduate degree.

After plying the woman with alcohol, Farooqui forced himself on her, ignoring her repeated pleas that she did not consent to having sex with him. He restrained her arms when she tried to stop him from taking off her clothes and was menacing enough that she eventually let him have his way, afraid that he would get physically violent if she didn’t.

Using his influence, Farooqui was able to obtain an appeal, with the argument that the American exchange student was lying, and even if she did tell him that she didn’t consent to sex with him, he was unaware of her repeated refusals. Farooqui’s lawyer’s suggested that since the American exchange student DIDN’T FIGHT him till the very end, getting physically violent, she must have consented to sex with Farooqui eventually. Justice Ashutosh Kumar, the appeal court judge agreed with Farooqui’s lawyers,  offering this exact quote as justification for his decision

“Instances of woman behaviour are not unknown that a feeble no may mean a yes — in an act of passion, actuated by libido,” consent could be complex, “and it may not necessarily always mean yes in case of yes or no in case of no”.

India is the middle of reforming its gender equality and sexual harassment laws, and Kumar’s decision to overturn Farooqui’s conviction is the kind of precedent that will send many influential men to the courts to dodge their sentences and deny their crimes. It does no one any disservice. It is also perpetuates the harmful myth that if rape is not violent or perpetrated by a stranger, then it doesn’t count as rape. Hopefully Kumar’s decision is appealed.

In case you need a primer on what constitutes as consent, we already covered it here. 

 

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