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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Veterans for Peace Ann Wright, event coordinator, 808-741-1141 October 12, 2009 Sandy Kelson, National Rape Awareness week coordinator, 814-382-4887 Michael McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace, 314-303-8874 |
Press Conference and Action for 'Rape in the Military Awareness Week'
WASHINGTON - October 12 -
Time: 10:30am, Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Location: In front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station, Times Square, Broadway and 42nd, New York City, NY
Participants:
Ann Wright, Colonel, 29 year veteran of the US Army and US Army Reserves
Leah Bolger, retired US Navy Commander and National Vice President of Veterans for Peace
Sandra Lee, US Army soldier survivor of sexually assault while in the military
Eve Ensler, author and playwright of the Vagina Monologues and V-Day
Due to the incredible epidemic of rape in the military in which 1 in 3
women in the military have been raped or sexually assaulted, Veterans
for Peace, a national veteran's organization has designated October
12-16 as "Military Rape Awareness Week." (http://www.veteransforpeace.
VFP chapters will have actions during that week at Armed Forces Recruiting stations around the country to demand that military recruiters alert women who are thinking about joining the military about the high possibility they will be raped while in the controlled, highly disciplined military environment.
Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright said, "It is a responsibility of us as veterans to warn young women that according to Veterans Administration studies, one in three women are sexually assaulted or raped while they are in the military."
On Tuesday, October 13 at 10:30am members of Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans against the War, Granny Peace Brigade, Codepink: Women for Peace, World Can't Wait, Artists Response Team and We will not be Silent will warn potential women recruits at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square about the alarming rates of sexual assault and rape of women in the military. Several victims of military rape may speak.
Following the press conference, members of Veterans for Peace and other organizations will warn women thinking about joining the military by plastering the windows of the recruiting station with stickers that state: "1 in 3 women are raped while in the military."
Background:
Sexual assault and rape of women and men in the US military increased so dramatically during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that in 2005 then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld formed a task force on sexual assault-however, the task force did not meet until 2008.
Nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of women veterans who sought health care through the Veterans Administration said they experience rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped. Department of Defense has been reluctant to release statistics on sexual assault of men in the military, but anecdotal evidence indicates that the statistics are alarmingly high.
Over the past 10 years, more than 700 US Army Recruiters have been accused of sexual misconduct or rape.
60 years of US military studies and task forces since women began entering the military in larger numbers have not lessened the incidents of assault and rape. We call on the Department of Defense and the US Military Recruiting Commands and the Military Entrance Processing Stations to formally notify women and men of the statistics on the incidence of the criminal acts of sexual assault and rape of women and men in the military committed by fellow members of the military, many in their chains of command.
References:
"Factors Associated With Women's Risk of Rape in the Military Environment"
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE 43:262-273 (2003),
http://www.veteransforpeace.
Sara Corbett, "The Women's War," New York Times Sunday Magazine, March 18, 2007
(www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/
Amy
Goodman, "The Private War of Women Soldiers: Female Vet, Soldier Speak
Out on Rising Sexual Assault Within US Military," DemocracyNow.org,
March 8, 2007
(www.democracynow.org/article.
Helen Benedict, "The Private War of Women Soldiers," Salon.com, March 7, 2007
(www.salon.com/nesw/feature/
2 Comments so far
Show AllI am surprised by the veterans for peace data that one in three women in the military have been raped.I was not aware of this.
I assumed that military women were proficient in defending themselves,having had rigorous training in combat.However that would lead me to wonder if more than one rapist is involved in these rapes in order to render the woman helpless.
It seems appalling and given the huge numbers,why has it not been addressed? Either to have the consequences for this crime so scary that a rapist would not dare, or have military women protected by a program of preparedness ,which effectively makes it's occurrence rare to nil because she can defend herself effectively.
The Topic is a bit shocking
Time is running wisdom & courage must prevail, first of all I would like to spare you Mister Obama I would like to think there is some good there the problem is when a good man is surrounded with a considerable amount of bad man what happens than is, a good man does bad things.
Dear mister Cheney bush the rest and some of the Generals I hereby hold you accountable for the rape of a nation its people it's land it's culture, it's spirituality, it's dreams it's soul and it's flesh, it's innocence in both sense of the word.
I hold you responsible of the rape and misuse of the innocence of your own children, commonly called soldiers which they no longer are you have turned them into low paid mercenaries. Clearly that is where you are heading an army of mercenaries and robots. You have created a moral abyss a girl who wants to go to Iraq to kill a life or two so she can afford to go back home and study medicine , a boy who wants to go to Iraq to bring down a hospital or two and use the money so he can come back and study architecture (INSANITY <>HORROR)
I finally hold you responsible of the rape of your own children violated in a million way including their own sexuality.
In a school , in a church or institutions like penitentiaries, rapes and violations have taken place within the environment where these young man and woman evolve. consequently society hold a teacher or a priest, to various degrees humanly morally and legally responsible for these failures
I will skip the first two adjectives in your case cause you no longer subscribe to those weak state of being, (humanly&morally) but I will hold you legally responsible in exactly the same way I hold a teacher a priest and a prison administrator.
Not only you must be stopped for the sake of the children of America, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan Palestine and probably dozens of other countries, you must be stopped in order to discourage China to mimic replicate the bloody trail of bloody lies and lack of vision.
i have no doubt that a real a genuine coordinated international effort could bring balance in the region and perhaps a new era where humanity resolves its conflicts in an infinitely more creative ways, I could mention a multitude of them.