Rape of 8-year-old girl tears Arizona's Liberian immigrant community apart The hundreds of Liberian families who sought refuge in Arizona fled a West African civil war that piled the unthinkable upon the more routine horrors of conflict, many at the hands of children. In Phoenix the families thought they had put all that behind them but in recent days they, and much of the rest of Arizona's capital, have grappled with what appears to be a terrible crime apparently made worse by an almost incomprehensible response. It was bad enough that four boys, one only nine years old, allegedly lured an eight-year-old girl in to a shed with a promise of chewing gum and took turns raping and assaulting her. But what followed has left Phoenix residents and authorities perplexed and angry. When the police arrived, the girl's mother told them to take her daughter away and not bring her back because she brought shame on the family by saying she was raped. "Nothing has happened to my daughter. Nobody has touched my daughter," said the mother who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of her daughter. The child's older sister said she only has herself to blame. "I said to her: It's not good for you to be following guys because you're still little," she said. "She always bring trouble." The girl has been taken in to care. The police say there is evidence of rape. They allege that the boys held the girl down and took turns to "brutally sexually assault" her for about 15 minutes. The police were called when the girl was found screaming and with her clothes torn. Four boys who were found running from the scene have been charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. Steven Tuopeh, 14, is being prosecuted as an adult. The others, aged from nine to 13, will be tried in juvenile court. Now the mother is calling for her daughter's alleged attackers to be released saying that it is an internal matter within the close-knit refugee community of about 1,200 Liberians who fled their country's civil wars, notoriously brutal even by African standards, but cannot escape their legacy. The conflicts were marked by indiscriminate killing, mutilation and rape - and the recruitment of child soldiers who were responsible for all three often while high on drugs or alcohol. Children were also frequently the victims of rape. Many others witnessed killings, sometimes of parents. Before they made it to America some were struggling by in refugee camps. Lasana Kamara, who helped found a support organisation for Liberian refugees, the Arizona Mandingo Association, said that a culture of violence continues to grip children from the community. "The families have been traumatised, the children have been traumatised. Sometimes they have seen things. Sometimes their parents were killed. The violence they have seen is part of them. They form gangs according to where they are from in Liberia," said Kamara, who fled the west African state in 1992 and now works as a detention officer at a local sheriff's jail. "That war was total destruction. With all they have seen, then coming here, it's very difficult. It's going to take a very long time for the children to really get themselves together. Every month we have meetings and tell the kids don't do this. But sometimes it's beyond control." Some of the children were too young to have witnessed the conflict first hand, but they are still drawn in to its aftermath, particularly with attitudes toward violence and rape. Sexual violence in Liberia may have been widespread but it was barely taken seriously. The victims were often made to feel responsible. Rape was outlawed in Liberia only in 2006. That law was passed by the country's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has sought to remove the stigma by revealing that she was the victim of attempted rape during the war. Johnson-Sirleaf criticised the girl's family. "I think that family is wrong. They should help that child who has been traumatised and they should make sure that they work with the US law authorities to see what can be done about the other young boys who have committed this offence," she said. "Not only should they abide by the law, but they too need serious counselling because clearly they are doing something, something that is no longer acceptable in our society here."
It is terrible, However, it is impossile for us to understand the culture the parents were brought up with, not only the regular Muslim beliefe system, but the sheer brutality that was and still is holding the country in a iron grip. - That will not go away just because they moved here. I think its horrile the way the mother reacted, but I also understand that she has a completely different frame of reference that we do. That cant be undone, when the whole family and its name being dragged in the mud when something like this happens - that is how they see it. The daughter now became a dirt spot on the family name. After all Honor-killings are alive and well, not only in muslim countries but also in the Western World. This has recieved a lot of attention in Sweden (Im sure in other countries as well) the past few years and they are trying to figure out how to change the cultural beliefes of some refugee groups - that leads to a rape victim of being brutally victimized again - or much worse. This right to kill your raped daughter/sister etc, is acctually still written in the law in some countries. Hopefully, this can start a dialogue for some efforts to try to change this - I truly hope it will. And my thoughst and prayers go out to this little girl.
excellent post FG...these families are only adopting as little as possible of western society...enough to live here and get by...perhaps making an example of these little boys is what it will take to shake their community to the core...i hope for this little girls sake she does not return to the family and that someone outside the culture can adopt her...i can no more understand why this mother doesn't support her child than i can understand how women in china give up their little girls in hopes of having another child that is a boy...
Rape is a fairly common practice in Africa and there has been no serious effort to stamp it out. In South Africa, all of the oppression that existed for blacks under apartheid has now been transferred to women. There is a rape fest there and in the Congo, very primitive and inhumane.
Very true and very, very sad and disgusting. However there are some faith based http://www.africasangels.org/Organizations/TreeOfFaith.asp and secular groups http://pfa-partnersforafrica.org/ working hard to end this plague. I urge anyone able to help to do so.
Funny how you assume they are Muslim. Coming from Liberia, chances are they are Christian. But somehow, if they are Christian, it will not reflect on Christianity.
I agree with everyone whp said that it is impossible to understand this sort of cultural practice, however, when you live in another country, you must adhere to the laws of that country. If the parents are unwilling to protect their daughter, then she should be removed from the home.
I don't believe she was suggesting that at all, but since you raise the issue there are modern examples where Christianity is used to sexually victimize young women. The fundamentalist Mormon church provides a notable example of that. A huge difference between when it occurs under Islam and Christianity is that Islam is corollary to the rule of law in many, if not most, countries where it is the dominant belief system. Christianity reached the peak of its power and influence in the western world centuries ago, and must now balance itself against secular values in how Europe and North America codify laws. Islam does not face a similar obstruction in that the Qu'ran resides at the core of legal codes in the Middle East and portions of Africa.
Oh she did go there. Reread what she said. Or go on and pretend I brought Islam into this when the core disfunction of this situation is colonialism and white supremacy. Most Sharia comes from Sunna, not the Qur'an. But most of the immigrants we get in the US are in fact Christians. And yet somehow, yet again, Islam is the boogie man. Of coarse it is close to Ramadan and our media has done their job of implanting this boogie into our psyche.
I agree that the inference was made in FG's post that the family was Islamic and that this (and the associated cultural implications) went some way in explaining the situation. The point still stands independently, however, that we cannot disregard the entirely foreign cultural upbringing of these people involved. Please note that I am not saying that excuses the behaviour. But, please explain how colonialism and white supremacy has anything to do with this? I'm not going to debate Islam with you, however as far as I understand it, Sunna is a part of the Muslim faith and therefore it is correct to say that the legal code within many majority Muslim countries (Arabia and parts of Nth Africa) is mostly dictated by Islamic morality and law. In which case, for countries that do use Islam as the rule of law, when actions such as this occur and the legal system allows it, to any extent, the path leads clearly back to Islam. In picturing this occurring in another African country, but one which is majority Christian, I see your point that the blame is rarely put on the church. I would make the point that it is because in those countries, Church and State have been largely kept separate and, therefore, it should be assumed that any legal code that does not castigate the behaviour must come from cultural norms and not religious dogma.
Most conflicts in Africa can be traced back to colonialism and the white mans need for their resources. But Liberia in particular can be traced specifically to the US. The US set up Liberia and used them for a presence on the Continent. We put our puppets in power to rule the country, they were the ruling class elite and they were most certainly Christian. (Our immigration policies favored Chrisitians so most immigrants from Liberia to the US are Chrisitian) The civil war was led by people who felt disenfranchized and marginalized by the US backed power structure. It is the same story that has played out and is playing out in most of Africa and South America. What these kids were acting out was not religious or culturally based, but a horrific affect of the white mans greed and the resulting wars. Personally I get tired of lazy people reaching for the same boogie men. Muslims are just radical, Africans just fight each other, South Americans just cant have a stable goverment. The whole idea lying underneath is that white people are the only ones capable of running a stable government and everyone else need their help.
I agree insofar that those old excuses get tired and that the level of arrogance from western society is tiring and really unnecessary, however that doesn't absolve people from their poor choices. Everyone has free will and chooses to use in the best way they see fit. In the same way that not "every African is fighting one another", so too it is not correct nor fair to blame western society for all the world's ills. Sure, there's a history and I'm not saying there was no influence, just that it works both ways. I still think you're stretching it by bringing colonialism in Africa into the discussion regarding the rape of a 8 year old child and the subsequent actions of her mother in rejecting her.
A lot(if not most) of Africa's problems are due to colonism, but I think in this case the mother is just very stupid.
No stretch atall. These kids learned this behavior during years of civil war brought about, financed and armed by Imperialist countries (in Liberias case, the US is to fault).
Well, we will have to agree to disagree. I'm not saying there's no correlation, only that all blame cannot be placed on history and previous political systems. That's like accepting a killer's actions because he had a f*cked up childhood.
