punishment… and not the good kind

It’s difficult for me (having grown up in the Western world) to understand how other cultures view sex, and how they treat sexual offences. Even more difficult is understanding how they decide who gets punished, and how.
This AP report (via CNN) discusses the recent punishment of Amina Abdullahi, a twenty year old Nigerian woman who was found guilty (?) of sleeping with another man who was not her husband.
The “other man”, of course, denied the charge, saying that Amina was accusing him to sully his good family name.
And yet Amina is the one who will be punished, via 100 lashes of flogging. The report doesn’t say whether the flogging will be public or private. Place your bets today.
Even tougher for me to read, given that flogging has had positive connotations in my life, once or twice. 🙂
After all the dreck I’ve been sharing here lately, I feel the need to share something positive. The Good Vibes online magazine has a regular feature every month called The Survivor’s Guide To Sex – sex-positive articles about, and for, people who have been victims of sexual assault or abuse. This month’s feature is called Pleasure and discusses not only the emotional difficulty some survivors have embracing pleasure again, but includes some tips on how to start slowly and reclaim pleasure back into your life.