Depravity

Almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we've seen a steady flow of reports of widespread rapes committed by the invaders.  Now comes evidence that these abuses were systematically encouraged* by the military leadership:

There is evidence that Russian commanders in several instances were aware of sexual violence by military personnel in Ukraine "and in some cases, encouraging it or even ordering it,"..... some of the sexual violence involved a level of organisation by Russian armed forces that "speaks to planning on a more systematic level."

These assessments are based on testimony from across the country, which included "allegations of family members being forced to watch or multiple soldiers participating or acts being conducted at gunpoint."  It seems that this is not just a matter of individual soldiers committing rape on impulse -- something which happens in almost all wars and occupations -- but of Russian authorities deliberately using rape as a weapon to demoralize the Ukrainian civilian population and break their will to resist.

Similarly, in Iran, there have been many cases of women and girls who were arrested during the rebellion being raped while in custody.  CNN has a detailed report here, including testimony from victims, witnesses, and doctors who examined one victim.  The similarities among these accounts, and the fact that the assaults take place in custody where it's impossible for persons in authority to be unaware of them, strongly imply that the regime as a whole is tolerating, encouraging, or flat-out ordering such abuses -- again, as a means to demoralize and intimidate the opposition.

As I noted in the last link round-up, minor girls in Iran who have been sentenced to death are forced to "marry" prison guards and then raped before being executed.  This is not a sporadic abuse, it's a systematic practice which dates back to the 1980s.

Of course abuse and torture of various kinds are a common feature of authoritarian regimes.  In these cases specifically, the Putin regime makes much of its Christian character, using its civil laws to enforce Christian taboos (on homosexuality, for example) that the secular West has mostly abandoned, and the regime is enthusiastically supported by the Russian Orthodox Church; and the Iranian regime, of course, is an outright theocracy.  Given the Abrahamic religions' subjugation and denigration of women, and their general view of sex as dirty and contaminating, it would be surprising if religious authoritarians didn't resort to sexual abuse as a major weapon to degrade and humiliate their opponents.

(In Iran there have also been some reports of rape of male detainees, doubtless meant to represent an ultimate humiliation in view of the Islamic taboo on homosexuality and the attitude that such an assault "lowers" the victim to the level of a woman.)

And of course we've long known about the very widespread sexual abuse of minors by priests of the Catholic Church, going back decades and likely centuries, while the Church's cover-ups of the abuse and practice of moving priests from place to place to protect them from prosecution are so consistent and systematic across the world that they must represent actual Church policy approved at the highest level.  More recently, numerous cases of sexual abuse by powerful leaders within conservative, authoritarian Protestant churches have also come to light, with the crimes being covered up and the victims shamed and silenced.

Both Christianity and Islam have a twisted view of women as sources of evil sexual temptation who are expected to go to ridiculous lengths to avoid "leading men astray", even inadvertently, rather than men being expected to exercise self-control -- hence the hysterical obsession with how women dress, and the impulse to blame the victim when a sexual assault occurs, which are so pervasive among fanatics of both religions.  Such attitudes no doubt help rapists in the Russian army and in Iran's prisons to feel guiltless, even virtuous, for their crimes.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.  Expose these vile men, and let all the world see their depravity for what it is.

[*Link found via Reaganite Independent blog, which is following the Ukraine war closely.]