Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 12:03 PM EDT, 5 September 2012 SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – At 10:42 am a powerful magnitude-7.6 earthquake rocked the Costa Rican country side about 140 km (87 miles) west of the capital, San Jose. The U.S. Geological Survey (USG) which tracks earthquake activity around the world reported that the […]
Girls Escape 10-Year Captivity and Rape by Castro
How to Achieve Peace in a Storm
Tortured by the Media, Women Cannibalize Themselves
Four Arrested for Bangladesh Factory Collapse
China Earthquake Kills 189
Undeterred by Threats North Korea Prepares for Missile Launch
![Rehtaeh Parsons, a teen from Nova Scotia, was a gorgeous, kind, straight-A student with her whole life ahead of her. On Thursday, she hung herself in her bathroom. On Sunday night, her family took her off life-support. Approximately a year and a half earlier, in November 2011, when Rehtaeh was 15 years old, she was reportedly gang-raped by four boys, classmates of hers. The trauma did not end there. One of the boys reportedly took a photo of the act and circulated it among Rehtaeh’s school and community where, as noted, by Rehtaeh’s mother, “it quickly went viral.” Authorities reportedly investigated the sexual assault but claimed there was insufficient evidence to make formal charges. Rehtaeh’s mother recalls the investigation: They didn’t even interview the boys until much, much later. To me, I’d think you’d get the boys right away, separate them…. Nothing was done about [the photos] because they couldn’t prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone. [She was told that the distribution of the photos is] not really a criminal issue, it’s more of a community issue. Even though she was 15 at the time, which is child pornography…. The whole case was full of things like that. We didn’t have a rape kit done because we didn’t even know (anything had happened) until several days later when she had a breakdown in my kitchen. She was trying to keep it to herself. Tormented and bullied, Rehtaeh was forced to leave her school and tried to start fresh in a new community. Despite efforts, she continued to struggle, at one point checking into a hospital to cope with suicidal thoughts, anger, and depression. In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident. “The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut. “This day changed the lives of our family forever.” Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.” “She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.](http://ayannanahmias.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rehtaeh-parsons-17-canadian-rape-victim-commits-suicide-3.jpg?w=45&h=45&crop=1){kind=small}
Canadian Gang Rape Victim Takes Life
Boston Terrorist Bombing Silences Martin Richard
President Otto Perez Molina Accused of Genocide
Women’s Rights in the Middle East
Pakistani Elections: Uncertain, Yet Laudable Milestone
India-Backed Myanmar Dam Displaces Thousands
India Enacts Tougher New Anti-Rape Laws
The Fallacy of Western Love | Meriam Al Khalifa
Taliban Shoot 14-Year-Old Pakistani Activist, Malalai Yousafzai
KKK Burns Black Woman Alive
Melkam Addis Amet 2009 | Happy Ethiopian New Year
Naija Style Gele | Nigerian Fashion
The Sexual Hyprocrisy of the Taliban
Mother Kills Daughter with Acid
Tunisian Police Rape Woman then Charge with Indecent Exposure
Frida Kahlo | The Thorned Princess
The Rabbit Hole of ‘Legitimate’ Rape
Twenty Commandments for Ethical Living
Welfare, a State of Connectedness
Death by Marriage | Rape Victim Amina Filali
05/09/2012
4 Comments