Monday, September 08, 2014

The Rotherham Scandal- The Culture Behind It

There is an interesting piece about the Rotherham scandal and other similar cases of Pakistani sex abuse gangs by a British Pakistani woman:
Growing up in an Asian Muslim household, ever since I can remember to be like a white girl, a “gori” was a very bad thing indeed. At primary school age, we were taught how “goras” were dirty. They didn’t wash when they went to the toilet. I was told not to eat with goras, because they ate pig – only dirty people could eat such a filthy animal. 

As a teenager, I discovered there was nothing worse than acting like a gori. I was a rebellious youth, pushing all the boundaries. I didn’t want to wear a hijab and traditional Asian dress. I wanted to be in jeans. I wanted to wear my hair out. I wanted to go out and see my friends. I wanted to meet and talk about boys. I learned that these were “white things”: what white girls did, and so strictly forbidden to me by my parents. Why? Because they were seen to be against Islam and therefore shameful. There was no honour or value in girls who dressed or acted like that. Girls like that, it was made very clear to me, didn't deserve any respect. They were the lowest of the low. 

.....

That is why I find it so infuriating in light of Rotherham that some Asian men (and women!) are still looking to blame Western culture – "the goras' culture" – and denying the part their own plays in the abuse. Gora culture, like the white girls who were targeted, is deemed to be shameless and without honour. I’ve read articles describing western culture as “pornified”, like they describe those girls as “whores” to then conclude that the abusers were somehow led astray or not fully responsible. 
On the last point about  how Western culture is "pornified" and girls wearing inappropriate clothes, that might be the justification used but I doubt it is how the victims were targeted. 

I have a female friend who worked in a heavily Pakistani part of Leicester when she was about 19/20, and there was more than one attempt to behave very inappropriately towards her- unwanted grabbing, men trying to get her in the car etc. What was interesting is that these incidents tended to happen when she was very dressed down- in baggy clothes with not much skin showing- not when she was wearing the sort of clothes that get blamed for leading men astray.

This makes sense when you think about it- the abusers target girls they perceived as vulnerable and lacking in self confidence, not those who were confident in themselves.

4 comments:

JohnM said...

Thank god the Grauniad doesn't run endless articles about the pornification of western women.

Ross said...

Yeah there is a left-wing feminist convergence with Islamic fundamentalists on that kind of thing.

Umbongo said...

But but but - according to the Guardian and the local head of the CPS there's no religious basis for the abuse and subsequent cover-up. The biens pensants are closing ranks and giving the finger to the rest of us. After viewing the select committee hearings on this one you would be convinced that no-one is going to suffer from this (except those abused, of course).
The perps might get a slap on the wrist - maybe a couple of years chokey if they're really unlucky. The public "servants" responsible will either stay (having "learned lessons"), retire on a prodigal public sector pension or, following resignation, be appointed to a more senior, even more generously rewarded public sector post elsewhere. The career of Lin Homer - a conspicuous failure in each of her successively more senior public sector positions - is a fine predictor of the public "service" fall-out from Rotherham.

Ross said...

The perps who've actually been convicted might get punished, but there's no way more than a fraction will be.

I hadn't heard of Lin Homer before, but I've seen the type before.