I wrote last week about the terrifying possibility that Colonel Gadhafi's soldiers could be using rape as a weapon of war - and even exacerbating their efforts with Viagra. Now, Pascale Harter of the BBC is reporting on what happens to the victims of rape in Libya, especially the women who become pregnant as a result of the sexual attack. According to aid workers, many of these women are murdered by their families in honor killings.
"In Libya when rape occurs, it seems to be a whole village or town which is seen to be dishonoured," Arafat Jamal, an employee of the United Nations' refugee agency, explained.
The most distressing aspect of these horrible killings is the fact that the families think they are helping the women they murder - by protecting them from dishonor.
In some ways, they probably *are* helping them, as sick and twisted as that sounds. Their lives are a living hell, the knowledge of that violent attack will mark them for as long as they live. In a culture where women dare not leave the house without being covered head to toe, that's ostensibly a living death sentence to them anyway.
