My eye was drawn this afternoon to an article on the front page of the paper edition of The New York Times titled, "In Rape Case, French Youth Takes on Dubai". I assumed that the French youth referred to was a girl. Instead, it is a story about a double taboo and an extraordinarily brave boy involving male rape, a country with a justice system based on Islamic law, and a child seeking justice.

To sum up, Alexandre Robert is a French 15 year old boy who lived with his family in Dubai. In July, he was offered a ride home from an arcade by a school acquaintance. When he got into the car, he discovered three Emerati men inside, who kidnapped him and took turns raping him. He reported the crime and was accused of being a homosexual, a "crime" punishable by up to a year in prison. The Dubai police semi-investigated the case, bringing death penalty charges against two of the three men. Alex and his family were initially informed that none of the men were HIV positive, although they knew full well that one of the assailants did indeed have the disease. The case is currently dragging on, although Alex fled to school in Switzerland fearing that he would be prosecuted for his "deviancy" as well. He told the Times that, "It's hard, but we have to be strong. I'm doing this for all the other poor kids who got raped and couldn't do anything about it."

Alex's mother, Veronique Robert, began Boycott Dubai, a website in French and English in support of her son and all other children – girls and boys – who have been raped. She writes:

I dedicate this website to all the children of the world whose wounds were never recognized, their words never heard and their suffering never known.

I dedicate this web site to all the mothers of the world even the ones of my son's aggressors.

To all the Pakistani, Filipino, and Indian mothers who were expelled from Dubai to their countries of origin with their little children, wounded in their hearts, flesh and minds.
This web site is open to all the mothers of the world united in the same Combat.

Tears have no identity, no religion. We must unite so when tears run , it will no longer be in loneliness but in front of the whole world’s eyes , with many hands to wipe them.

The website offers a call to action and specific recommendations so that no other child in Dubai who is raped has to suffer further at the hands of the authorities. Many individuals have signed onto the statement, and the Times notes that the site is full of testimonials from people who were also sexually attacked. (Most are in French, though, which I don't understand.)

The Robert family is exceptionally brave and generous to go public with their story and their quest for justice, particularly given the stigma of male rape and the way homosexuality is being used as a character assassination against Alex. The fact that United Arab Emirates does not even legally recognize the rape of males, calling the crime "forced homosexuality," indicates the bias that raped males face. Not that women who are raped fare any better. According to Freedom House, a proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictatorships of the far left and the far right founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and other Americans in 1941, in the UAE:

…women who report rape may be subject to punishment for adultery, which ranges from death by stoning in some emirates to imprisonment and deportation in others. A French businesswoman who reported to the police that she was gang raped in Dubai in 2002 was taken to court and faced a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison for having "adulterous sexual relations." She was bailed out of jail by the French consulate while the perpetrators were not punished at all.

No matter where male rape victims live, it is an incredibly underreported crime for a variety of reasons. Go Ask Alice, a fantastic, informative blog run by the health services division of Columbia University, notes that:

Most research suggests that 10 to 20 percent of all males will be sexually violated at some point in their lives and that one in every ten rape victims is male. Recent studies by the Department of Justice and other governmental agencies found that victimized men accounted for 6% (9,040 men) of completed rapes, 9 % (10,270 men) of attempted rapes, and 11% (17,130 men) of completed and attempted sexual assaults reported. Additionally, studies sponsored by gay and lesbian studies programs at various universities suggest that 12 - 30 percent of gay and bisexual men surveyed had indicated that they engaged in sexual intercourse when they did not want to because they felt coerced to do so. Recent studies show that more than 86% of male survivors are sexually abused by another male.

Experts believe that current male rape statistics vastly under-represent the actual number of men who are raped each year both because crime statistics often do not actually include men as potential victims of rape and because men are less likely to report rape. Research suggests that the rates of under-reporting among men are even higher than those of women.

It is not just the "homosexual issue" that stops men from reporting rape in the US and abroad. As Go Ask Alice points out, gender stereotypes of men as strong and invincible make many men reluctant to report that they have been sexually violated. This fact only makes my admiration of Alex Robert even stronger. It is sad that reporting a crime and bringing attention to injustice is risky to anyone. Yet he is sticking his neck out to make sure that others do not have to go through what happened to him. He is a remarkable young man to stand up to these falsities and stereotypes. We all thank Alex for his courage, and wish him and his family the best.

Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants