What Would You Say To A Victim Of Torture?

on Monday, 24 August 2009.

Last week countless people worldwide were sickened by the harrowing personal account of a 15-year-old boy who was almost certainly brutally beaten and raped in an Iranian prison.

This boy's story is shocking. Equally so is the fact that, according to Amnesty International:

Torture is a real problem around the world with many hundreds of thousands of victims. Amnesty International has documented torture in more than 150 countries, including the United States.

Torture is widespread in more than 70 countries. People in 80 countries have died as a result of torture.

The victims, including women and children, are mainly detained on minor criminal charges; the methods include rape and brutal violence.

Rape is a crime of power and violence, not of sexuality. It degrades, dehumanizes and humiliates the victim, as well as the perpetrator.

Rape is a form of torture and intimidation practiced by people who think they are powerful (but who are in fact weak and insecure), against victims who are often unable to defend themselves.

Like all forms of torture, rape leaves life-long psychological scars, which more often than not never fully heal.

Rape is a crime. Torture in any form is a crime.

It’s incomprehensible that some governments use torture as a means of forwarding their own agendas. Rape, and other kinds of torture, must not be tolerated by anyone, anywhere, anytime, least of all by those whom people have entrusted to lead and govern.

The victims of torture (no matter who they are or where they are) deserve our love, acceptance and support.

What they have suffered is beyond what the rest of us might ever imagine in our worst nightmares.

Like my Mom says, we should feel sorry for the evil that's been perpetrated against torture victims - they, and their families, might never recover.