What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Except for the foundational belief that rape is a crime, with a criminal and a victim, I will not take anything else for granted.
Sohaila Abdulali was gang-raped as a teenager in Bombay. Indignant at the silence on the issue in India, she wrote an article for a woman’s magazine challenging the way in which rape and rape victims were perceived. Thirty years later her story went viral in the wake of the 2012 fatal gang rape in Delhi and the global outcry that followed.
Drawing on her own experience, her work with hundreds of survivors as the head of a rape crisis centre in Boston, her research, and three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally, WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT RAPE is about changing the conversation around rape culture, questioning our assumptions, and deciding how we want to raise the next generation.
Sohaila asks pertinent questions: Is rape always a life-defining event? Does rape always symbolise something? Is rape worse than death? Is rape related to desire? Who gets raped? Is rape inevitable? Is one rape worse than the other? Who rapes? What is consent? How do you recover a sense of safety and joy? How do you raise sons? Who gets to judge? She doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, but she passionately believes that we must talk about rape and we must talk about HOW we talk about rape, and as she says, draws shamelessly on the fact that she is both victim and survivor.
#metoo, sexual assault, sexual harassment, the womens march. Never has the disparity between how men and women are treated in particular environments been interrogated more – in the media and in private discussions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Abdulali (The Year of the Tiger) brings precision, clarity, and style to her exploration of a topic often treated as more confusing than it is. A former coordinator of a rape crisis center, she uses her own brutal rape as a touchstone and springboard for this series of extended reflections on the discourse surrounding rape, with stories from Australia, Egypt, India, Italy, South Africa, and the U.S. Drawing on interviews, personal emails, government reports, and other documents, Abdulali discusses varied scenarios, from date rate, marital rape, and incest to gang rape and war crimes, acknowledging the high rates of rape perpetrated against trans people and sex workers. She approaches debates about consent, responsibility, motive, honor, and prevention with deep compassion, humor, a healthy dose of irony, and anger. Though Abdulali doesn't claim to have answers, the book's assertions are clear: victims deserve belief, support, and a fair hearing; rapists, not their targets, are responsible for rape; and survivors can go on to live full and joyful lives. Her clear-eyed assessments, grace, and literary touches will make this book valuable reading for sociologists, therapists, feminists, and anyone who believes women should be able to move through the world free from fear.
