The anguish is clear on the face of Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, who takes long pauses in an attempt to steady his tearful voice, as he recounts to the interviewer about how American interrogators repeatedly raped and tortured, or pretended to rape and torture, a woman in the cell next to him in an attempt to force him to falsely confess.
Begg’s eyes cloud over and he stares off into the distance as he relates how they manipulated his biggest fear, that his wife and children who were with him at the time of his arrest, were also imprisoned and in danger:
“I heard the cries of a woman (in the cell next to me) and an American voice shouting, ‘Spread your legs!’ and the woman is screaming and crying (as if she is being raped). Before I used to (always) ask the Americans about what happened to my wife and children since my arrest. They said ‘We don’t know,’ but at this time I didn’t ask because I was afraid of the answer. I thought my wife was in the cell.”
Begg was tortured and assaulted physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and sexually as the American interrogators tried “breaking him down” in order to make him sign false confessions. Begg was released after three years spent in US custody without any charges held against him.
It is still not clear to this day whether the woman in the cell next to him was a fellow inmate also unjustly prisoned or an interrogator posing as a woman in distress.
It is known but hardly ever reported that the United States detains (Muslim) women who they “suspect” of being terrorists for no apparent reason, an example being Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (shown below in a picture of her taken while in US custody) who was abducted with her children by US intelligence.
After severe mistreatment in custody, during which she sustained a gunshot wound, Siddiqui was sentenced to 84 years in prison. Her young children who were with her when she was kidnapped and subsequently detained and interrogated have only recently been relocated. Siddiqui’s youngest son, who hadn’t even started walking yet, has disappeared since her kidnapping with no hint whatsoever of his whereabouts. Her older son has claimed that “the bloody body of his baby brother” was tossed to the side of the road by US soldiers when Siddiqui and her children were arrested. During her trial, Siddiqui was repeatedly removed from the court room for interrupting proceedings to scream out that her children had been tortured in front of her.
Four men who were imprisoned with Dr. Siddiqui in Bagram and who managed to escape reported in an interview:
“When they torture you, they threaten to sodomise you, they threaten to bring your wife and rape her in front of you and do other things to her. My words can never fully explain to you what happened during those interrogations.”
“Those American criminals think that they are the lords of human rights and that they are the callers for the freedom of the woman and her rescuers from oppression. There is a woman from Pakistan. She was put in solitary confinement for two full years in Bagram prison among more than 500 male prisoners and guards. She was treated the same way as the men were. This woman stayed there until she lost her mind, until she became insane, hitting the door and screaming day and night.”
(via twentysomethinghussy)
(Source: danielodowd, via systemofadowny)
There are so many women (and men) on here that I admire for their point of view and their arguments about feminism and I want so often to be like “hey, I just had this discussion with this person and would really like to hear your input on the topic” but I feel like it’s unfair to ask somebody to read this huge long thing and write up a thing on it and I feel like I’d be bothering them and sigh.
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine: I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have...
I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have gotten mansplained today… or at least sabotaged. Like, it didn’t register immediately, but when I was replaying the moment tonight, it occurred to me what actually happened and now I’m pissed.
This new guy got hired, and he seems…
…somebody call security.
Oh, I logged into that social networking site Yahoo bought the other day. Tumblr? Yeah, I logged in and told everyone how I wanted to fucking kill my coworker because he said something I didn’t like. I talked about how entitled he was, and how inexperienced he was, and how I was trying to decide if I wanted to come right out and threaten him, or just kind of bide my time.
Because I’m completely not fucking saying shit that should cause me to be terminated from my place of employment immediately because you’re publicly talking about the urge to fucking kill a coworker.
Bonus points for the hate because of his race and gender. I’ll be putting up a mockup that includes your face and posting it on various social networking sites with a screenshot of what you said.
I do this in the hopes that someone who knows you sees it and can notify your employer of what you’ve said. Threatening to kill people is wrong. Telling people you have the desire to kill people is pretty bad.
And publicly telling everyone you want to murder your new young colleague out of professional spite is fucking scary. I don’t normally condone this sort of thing, but the alternative is to do nothing in the hopes you won’t act out on your fucked up fantasies and hatred. That’s a risk I’m not willing to take with someone else’s life.
Can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about rape culture or are just generally an idiot
So, if someone threatens to kill a coworker I shouldn’t care?
Because you know if I had logged in, talked at length about my desire to ruin a female co-worker because they spoke up about something I didn’t like… and ended by telling everyone I wanted to strangle her… you so wouldn’t be flipping the fuck out, right?
Yeah, you’re a real fuckin bastion of equality.
How stupid are you she literally didn’t
She wished she had spoken up/said something different in an interaction with that coworker where he said something she found inappropriate
“That little prick, I could strangle him.”
The fuck does that look like to you? Now I know you wouldn’t care if she stuck an ice pick in his throat (because he’s male)… but I’d like to think you could at least recognize what a threat is.
If someone at work (assuming you have a job) said the above to you… would you be concerned about your well being? What if a man told you he felt that way about a female co worker? That he had the urge to strangle her.
Would you say something? Would you speak up? Of course you would. However, because this is a woman, and the object of her threat is male… you’re being dismissive, and deflecting and making sure we all know it’s nothing terribly serious. Right? Right? Nothing to see here folks. Just one co worker telling us she all has the desire to kill another co worker.
No I wouldn’t because it takes less than an ounce of common sense to realize that she’s not being serious
And how the fuck do you know that? You don’t. You’re assuming *because she’s female*. You’re a sexist fuck, you know that? If they were male you’d be flipping the fuck out… but she’s female so you’re all like “It’s no big deal, she doesn’t mean it, pay no attention,…”.
Did I say that? Ever? At all? In any way? You literally just pulled that one out of your ass dude
So you’re telling me if a male was on here talking about strangling a female co worker you wouldn’t be concerned?
No, I would not, because I have some critical thinking skills
There are actual battles to be fought and this is not one of them
I’m not saying that her words or even speaking badly about a co-worker on a public forum are good or wise but there is a world of difference between “ugh I could kill that person” and “I am actually going to kill that person”
So, it’s okay to threaten to kill someone, but you know… jokingly. How do you think *he* would feel after reading that? Think he would be concerned? Not that you’d give a shit about what he felt, but if you were him would you want to know about someone publicly posting the above?
Making death threats is never ok even as a joke. Why would making rape threats as a joke not ok then? You would have flipped off if it was a man making a rape threat as a joke (and would have been right to do so) but here she is joking about wanting to kill him and it’s suddenly ok?
I am not ok with that and for once agree with Mr.Cappadocia.
I think you’re absolutely right and have not once in this conversation condoned her behavior but with regards to the rest of your response all crimes (their prevalence and the widespread social attitudes surrounding them and the victims of said crimes) are not equal and cannot all be taken in a vacuum
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine: I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have...
I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have gotten mansplained today… or at least sabotaged. Like, it didn’t register immediately, but when I was replaying the moment tonight, it occurred to me what actually happened and now I’m pissed.
This new guy got hired, and he seems…
…somebody call security.
Oh, I logged into that social networking site Yahoo bought the other day. Tumblr? Yeah, I logged in and told everyone how I wanted to fucking kill my coworker because he said something I didn’t like. I talked about how entitled he was, and how inexperienced he was, and how I was trying to decide if I wanted to come right out and threaten him, or just kind of bide my time.
Because I’m completely not fucking saying shit that should cause me to be terminated from my place of employment immediately because you’re publicly talking about the urge to fucking kill a coworker.
Bonus points for the hate because of his race and gender. I’ll be putting up a mockup that includes your face and posting it on various social networking sites with a screenshot of what you said.
I do this in the hopes that someone who knows you sees it and can notify your employer of what you’ve said. Threatening to kill people is wrong. Telling people you have the desire to kill people is pretty bad.
And publicly telling everyone you want to murder your new young colleague out of professional spite is fucking scary. I don’t normally condone this sort of thing, but the alternative is to do nothing in the hopes you won’t act out on your fucked up fantasies and hatred. That’s a risk I’m not willing to take with someone else’s life.
Can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about rape culture or are just generally an idiot
So, if someone threatens to kill a coworker I shouldn’t care?
Because you know if I had logged in, talked at length about my desire to ruin a female co-worker because they spoke up about something I didn’t like… and ended by telling everyone I wanted to strangle her… you so wouldn’t be flipping the fuck out, right?
Yeah, you’re a real fuckin bastion of equality.
How stupid are you she literally didn’t
She wished she had spoken up/said something different in an interaction with that coworker where he said something she found inappropriate
“That little prick, I could strangle him.”
The fuck does that look like to you? Now I know you wouldn’t care if she stuck an ice pick in his throat (because he’s male)… but I’d like to think you could at least recognize what a threat is.
If someone at work (assuming you have a job) said the above to you… would you be concerned about your well being? What if a man told you he felt that way about a female co worker? That he had the urge to strangle her.
Would you say something? Would you speak up? Of course you would. However, because this is a woman, and the object of her threat is male… you’re being dismissive, and deflecting and making sure we all know it’s nothing terribly serious. Right? Right? Nothing to see here folks. Just one co worker telling us she all has the desire to kill another co worker.
No I wouldn’t because it takes less than an ounce of common sense to realize that she’s not being serious
And how the fuck do you know that? You don’t. You’re assuming *because she’s female*. You’re a sexist fuck, you know that? If they were male you’d be flipping the fuck out… but she’s female so you’re all like “It’s no big deal, she doesn’t mean it, pay no attention,…”.
Did I say that? Ever? At all? In any way? You literally just pulled that one out of your ass dude
So you’re telling me if a male was on here talking about strangling a female co worker you wouldn’t be concerned?
No, I would not, because I have some critical thinking skills
There are actual battles to be fought and this is not one of them
I’m not saying that her words or even speaking badly about a co-worker on a public forum are good or wise but there is a world of difference between “ugh I could kill that person” and “I am actually going to kill that person”
So, it’s okay to threaten to kill someone, but you know… jokingly. How do you think *he* would feel after reading that? Think he would be concerned? Not that you’d give a shit about what he felt, but if you were him would you want to know about someone publicly posting the above?
1. She did not “threaten to kill him” a threat implies saying that you are going to do something, that you are intending to do something - she did not say “I am going to kill him”
2. I think he would have a right to be upset about being spoken about in such a way on a public forum when she could’ve spoken one-on-one with him about her concerns but I would be absolutely blown away if he took her so-called threat seriously and actually felt that his life was in danger because I don’t think anyone besides you and your little cronies would
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine: I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have...
I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have gotten mansplained today… or at least sabotaged. Like, it didn’t register immediately, but when I was replaying the moment tonight, it occurred to me what actually happened and now I’m pissed.
This new guy got hired, and he seems…
…somebody call security.
Oh, I logged into that social networking site Yahoo bought the other day. Tumblr? Yeah, I logged in and told everyone how I wanted to fucking kill my coworker because he said something I didn’t like. I talked about how entitled he was, and how inexperienced he was, and how I was trying to decide if I wanted to come right out and threaten him, or just kind of bide my time.
Because I’m completely not fucking saying shit that should cause me to be terminated from my place of employment immediately because you’re publicly talking about the urge to fucking kill a coworker.
Bonus points for the hate because of his race and gender. I’ll be putting up a mockup that includes your face and posting it on various social networking sites with a screenshot of what you said.
I do this in the hopes that someone who knows you sees it and can notify your employer of what you’ve said. Threatening to kill people is wrong. Telling people you have the desire to kill people is pretty bad.
And publicly telling everyone you want to murder your new young colleague out of professional spite is fucking scary. I don’t normally condone this sort of thing, but the alternative is to do nothing in the hopes you won’t act out on your fucked up fantasies and hatred. That’s a risk I’m not willing to take with someone else’s life.
Can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about rape culture or are just generally an idiot
So, if someone threatens to kill a coworker I shouldn’t care?
Because you know if I had logged in, talked at length about my desire to ruin a female co-worker because they spoke up about something I didn’t like… and ended by telling everyone I wanted to strangle her… you so wouldn’t be flipping the fuck out, right?
Yeah, you’re a real fuckin bastion of equality.
How stupid are you she literally didn’t
She wished she had spoken up/said something different in an interaction with that coworker where he said something she found inappropriate
“That little prick, I could strangle him.”
The fuck does that look like to you? Now I know you wouldn’t care if she stuck an ice pick in his throat (because he’s male)… but I’d like to think you could at least recognize what a threat is.
If someone at work (assuming you have a job) said the above to you… would you be concerned about your well being? What if a man told you he felt that way about a female co worker? That he had the urge to strangle her.
Would you say something? Would you speak up? Of course you would. However, because this is a woman, and the object of her threat is male… you’re being dismissive, and deflecting and making sure we all know it’s nothing terribly serious. Right? Right? Nothing to see here folks. Just one co worker telling us she all has the desire to kill another co worker.
No I wouldn’t because it takes less than an ounce of common sense to realize that she’s not being serious
And how the fuck do you know that? You don’t. You’re assuming *because she’s female*. You’re a sexist fuck, you know that? If they were male you’d be flipping the fuck out… but she’s female so you’re all like “It’s no big deal, she doesn’t mean it, pay no attention,…”.
Did I say that? Ever? At all? In any way? You literally just pulled that one out of your ass dude
So you’re telling me if a male was on here talking about strangling a female co worker you wouldn’t be concerned?
No, I would not, because I have some critical thinking skills
There are actual battles to be fought and this is not one of them
I’m not saying that her words or even speaking badly about a co-worker on a public forum are good or wise but there is a world of difference between “ugh I could kill that person” and “I am actually going to kill that person”
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine: I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have...
I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have gotten mansplained today… or at least sabotaged. Like, it didn’t register immediately, but when I was replaying the moment tonight, it occurred to me what actually happened and now I’m pissed.
This new guy got hired, and he seems…
…somebody call security.
Oh, I logged into that social networking site Yahoo bought the other day. Tumblr? Yeah, I logged in and told everyone how I wanted to fucking kill my coworker because he said something I didn’t like. I talked about how entitled he was, and how inexperienced he was, and how I was trying to decide if I wanted to come right out and threaten him, or just kind of bide my time.
Because I’m completely not fucking saying shit that should cause me to be terminated from my place of employment immediately because you’re publicly talking about the urge to fucking kill a coworker.
Bonus points for the hate because of his race and gender. I’ll be putting up a mockup that includes your face and posting it on various social networking sites with a screenshot of what you said.
I do this in the hopes that someone who knows you sees it and can notify your employer of what you’ve said. Threatening to kill people is wrong. Telling people you have the desire to kill people is pretty bad.
And publicly telling everyone you want to murder your new young colleague out of professional spite is fucking scary. I don’t normally condone this sort of thing, but the alternative is to do nothing in the hopes you won’t act out on your fucked up fantasies and hatred. That’s a risk I’m not willing to take with someone else’s life.
Can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about rape culture or are just generally an idiot
So, if someone threatens to kill a coworker I shouldn’t care?
Because you know if I had logged in, talked at length about my desire to ruin a female co-worker because they spoke up about something I didn’t like… and ended by telling everyone I wanted to strangle her… you so wouldn’t be flipping the fuck out, right?
Yeah, you’re a real fuckin bastion of equality.
How stupid are you she literally didn’t
She wished she had spoken up/said something different in an interaction with that coworker where he said something she found inappropriate
“That little prick, I could strangle him.”
The fuck does that look like to you? Now I know you wouldn’t care if she stuck an ice pick in his throat (because he’s male)… but I’d like to think you could at least recognize what a threat is.
If someone at work (assuming you have a job) said the above to you… would you be concerned about your well being? What if a man told you he felt that way about a female co worker? That he had the urge to strangle her.
Would you say something? Would you speak up? Of course you would. However, because this is a woman, and the object of her threat is male… you’re being dismissive, and deflecting and making sure we all know it’s nothing terribly serious. Right? Right? Nothing to see here folks. Just one co worker telling us she all has the desire to kill another co worker.
No I wouldn’t because it takes less than an ounce of common sense to realize that she’s not being serious
And how the fuck do you know that? You don’t. You’re assuming *because she’s female*. You’re a sexist fuck, you know that? If they were male you’d be flipping the fuck out… but she’s female so you’re all like “It’s no big deal, she doesn’t mean it, pay no attention,…”.
Did I say that? Ever? At all? In any way? You literally just pulled that one out of your ass dude
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine: I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have...
I’m grumpy and having trouble sleeping because I think I may have gotten mansplained today… or at least sabotaged. Like, it didn’t register immediately, but when I was replaying the moment tonight, it occurred to me what actually happened and now I’m pissed.
This new guy got hired, and he seems…
…somebody call security.
Oh, I logged into that social networking site Yahoo bought the other day. Tumblr? Yeah, I logged in and told everyone how I wanted to fucking kill my coworker because he said something I didn’t like. I talked about how entitled he was, and how inexperienced he was, and how I was trying to decide if I wanted to come right out and threaten him, or just kind of bide my time.
Because I’m completely not fucking saying shit that should cause me to be terminated from my place of employment immediately because you’re publicly talking about the urge to fucking kill a coworker.
Bonus points for the hate because of his race and gender. I’ll be putting up a mockup that includes your face and posting it on various social networking sites with a screenshot of what you said.
I do this in the hopes that someone who knows you sees it and can notify your employer of what you’ve said. Threatening to kill people is wrong. Telling people you have the desire to kill people is pretty bad.
And publicly telling everyone you want to murder your new young colleague out of professional spite is fucking scary. I don’t normally condone this sort of thing, but the alternative is to do nothing in the hopes you won’t act out on your fucked up fantasies and hatred. That’s a risk I’m not willing to take with someone else’s life.
Can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about rape culture or are just generally an idiot
So, if someone threatens to kill a coworker I shouldn’t care?
Because you know if I had logged in, talked at length about my desire to ruin a female co-worker because they spoke up about something I didn’t like… and ended by telling everyone I wanted to strangle her… you so wouldn’t be flipping the fuck out, right?
Yeah, you’re a real fuckin bastion of equality.
How stupid are you she literally didn’t
She wished she had spoken up/said something different in an interaction with that coworker where he said something she found inappropriate
“That little prick, I could strangle him.”
The fuck does that look like to you? Now I know you wouldn’t care if she stuck an ice pick in his throat (because he’s male)… but I’d like to think you could at least recognize what a threat is.
If someone at work (assuming you have a job) said the above to you… would you be concerned about your well being? What if a man told you he felt that way about a female co worker? That he had the urge to strangle her.
Would you say something? Would you speak up? Of course you would. However, because this is a woman, and the object of her threat is male… you’re being dismissive, and deflecting and making sure we all know it’s nothing terribly serious. Right? Right? Nothing to see here folks. Just one co worker telling us she all has the desire to kill another co worker.
No I wouldn’t because it takes less than an ounce of common sense to realize that she’s not being serious
