Credibilidades

The prosecution of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in jeopardy because of "major holes in the credibility" of his accuser. This is a typical defence. A woman who reports rape is expected to have a virginal past to qualify as a credible rape victim. Often more resources are spent investigating the woman than the man she is accusing, especially if he is rich and powerful and she is not. Several women we work with who reported rape have been put under covert surveillance, with hidden cameras and phone tapping, their sex lives scrutinised. Some were accused of being bad mothers, of being either promiscuous or loners looking for attention, of hating men or being desperate to catch one. Most were working class and/or women of colour.
The question, however, is relevance. Kenneth P Thompson, the woman's lawyer, points to forensic medical evidence that supports the woman's account of what happened. He dismisses minor contradictions as the result of hours and hours of exhausting interviews. The best lawyers money can buy say DSK's accuser lied in her emmigration application, is a prostitute and is involved in drug-dealing. How is this allegation relevant of rape?
Why is a woman's credibility relevant to a charge when that of the accused is not? Does that mean a rape charge can be dismissed?...Other women with much more social power have accused DSK of being a sexual predator, of abusing his position as one of the most powerful men in the financial world and of attempted rape...So this is what victims of rape face: a criminal justice system where prejudice and politics may shape the investigation and any trial – and even determine the outcome..." (Katrin Asselsson in Guardian).
Concordo absolutamente. De resto, o perspicaz Medina Carreira quando lhe perguntaram sobre os últimos acontecimentos do processo Srauss-Khan respondeu com um sorriso: "Bem... trata-se de um homem muito rico e poderoso que gostava de apalpar o traseiro das senhoras nos corredores dos aviões. Não me parece que tenha hipóteses na corrida para as presidenciais francesas".
Não percebo porque é um indivíduo da chamada esquerda caviar, dirigente do FMI (só lá estava porque os americanos deixaram) é tratado com tanta condescendência.
"...Of course, that his accuser would turn out to have feet of clay, or a dubious tongue, does not prove that what she said in this instance is false. It shows only and merely that prosecutors recognize that she would have no credibility in a case that absolutely requires her having some. Nor does it make Strauss-Kahn’s behavior, which certainly seems to have involved a sordid act in a strange setting, suddenly admirable. “No man of power who uses his power in any way to have sex with a hotel maid should be called good,” a firm-minded feminist of my close acquaintance announced at midnight when the news got out, while a generation-Z feminist, only eleven but firm of conviction, and born in Paris, too, said that “if this man is now elected President, I will never again think of France as a moral country..." (Adam Gopnik in New Yorker).