Missed this one when it was published in August

> The class lines of rape

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/08/the-class-lines-of-rape/

QUOTE

If people will remember, a number of years ago a group of Lebanese boys and men went on a rape rampage through Sydney, the fact that half of them were named Mohammad or versions of that name, didn’t help community tensions about Muslims and mass migration.

Not once did it occur to me that people identifying the rapist as Lebanese, implicated my Lebanese husband or my Lebanese Muslim family in the crime. I remember feeling disappointed when I found out that the rapists were Lebanese, but in no way, on any level, in any corner of my mind, would it have occurred to me to silence the rape victims in identifying the ethnicity of their attackers or in talking about the culture and religion of their attackers as a contributing factor to the attack. The idea of suggesting such a thing, to save the reputation of Lebanese people, would never occur to me, because Lebanese are very obviously wonderful, hospitable and kind people.

In the feminist world, we talk about rape culture a lot. International cross-culture studies have found that more patriarchal cultures, and cultures that diminish the value of women, do have escalated incidences of sexual violence. The relationship between rape and culture and rape and certain interpretations of religions is well established. The connection between sex and rape is also real, but then there is no connection between race and rape. These concepts are so simple we could explain them to a child.

This is why when a prominent commentator read out a letter on radio referring to ‘Lebanese men’ as ‘vermin’ in 2005 I was disgusted. Tensions in Sydney continued to escalate and in 2005 there were riots in the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla between young white Australian men and Lebanese Australian men.