On Women’s Rights: Gadhafi and U.S. Military Have More in Common
Posted by www2.timesdispatch.com - Opinion in 
By ANNE M. COUGHLIN, KYLE MALLINAK
Reprinted from the Richmond Times-Dispatch
When Iman al-Obaidi burst into the Tripoli hotel where the Western media was headquartered and recounted details of her detention and rape by Libyan militiamen, the world was given yet more powerful evidence of the Gadhafi regime’s contempt for human rights, particularly for the rights of women.
Libyan authorities have tried to discredit al-Obaidi’s allegations by calling her a “known prostitute and thief,” and an official Libyan spokesman has announced that the militiamen she accused are planning to sue her for slander for telling her story to a broader audience. Al-Obaidi herself was forcibly dragged away and detained a second time by Libyan security forces, and it appears that only the widespread media coverage of her plight prevented her from permanently disappearing along with other Gadhafi victims. While this incident has brought increased attention to the harms suffered by women living in totalitarian regimes like Libya, what the American public does not know is that the U.S. military units currently bombing Gadhafi’s forces often treat women with the same contempt as their enemies.
This year, 17 plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia against the secretary of defense for a systemic failure to protect servicewomen and servicemen against commanders who tolerate rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment within their ranks. Fifteen of the plaintiffs are women and two are men. Some are veterans, some are still on active duty, and all served their country in a time of war.
According to their allegations, commanders actively thwarted the investigation of their serious rape complaints, threatened them to keep them silent, and fostered an atmosphere in which retaliation against them was tolerated and even encouraged. One Coast Guard sailor alleges that, after she reported a violent rape to her commander, he told her that she would be court-martialed for lying if she insisted on filing a complaint, even though the accused rapist had conceded that the sex had occurred. An Army soldier claims that, after she was raped and sexually assaulted during basic training and her deployment to Afghanistan, she sought assistance from her military chaplain. The chaplain responded by saying that “it must have been God’s will for her to be raped,” a sentiment that seems more reminiscent of the Taliban than modern American society.
Still another Coast Guard sailor alleges that she faced precisely the same type of retaliation that Libya has taken against al-Obaidi. Upon reporting that she was punched in the face and violently raped by a shipmate, her commander told her that if she did not stop speaking about the assault she would be charged with the military crime equivalent to slander. This sailor also claims that members of her unit responded to news of the incident by calling her a “crazy lying whore” and threatening to rape her again. Perhaps most telling of all are the allegations made by a soldier who was raped while serving as an Army Criminal Investigator. The alleged rapist was a senior CID agent. This soldier initially decided to file no report because as an investigator she had witnessed firsthand the negative attitude toward rape victims who complained.
These allegations have yet to be tested in a court of law, just as al-Obiadi’s account has yet to be vetted and verified. But the federal court complaint provides a chilling account of a pattern of official behavior in which commanders went out of their way to protect accused rapists and to leave servicewomen in harm’s way within their own ranks. Despite numerous congressional calls for reform and official statements from the Pentagon confirming that the epidemic of sexual assault impairs the ability of the military to carry out its missions, the Pentagon still estimates that 80 percent of sexual assaults are never reported. Given the disturbing allegations from servicewomen who did report such crimes, it is easy to see why.
It is a cruel irony that as American women continue to fight and die for their country, the Pentagon has tacitly admitted that its gender relations regime is almost as repressive as the regime of a dictator whose enemies we support. Whether or not the president eventually embraces a policy of regime change in Libya, there is no excuse for failing to adopt a policy of regime change within the U.S. military to secure the rights of female soldiers.
Some change can be accomplished through vigorous prosecution against rapists, their indulgent commanders, and those who retaliate against rape complainants. More fundamental change, however, will require the repeal of polices that cement the inferior status of female soldiers. These policies, which exclude women from formal combat roles and exempt women from registration for the draft, encourage a cultural mindset that the patriotic service of women is unnecessary and expendable.
According to the federal complaint, that mindset is articulated loudly and clearly by some superior officers. Every day that we continue to tolerate abusive and degrading acts toward U.S. servicewomen is a day that we mock their service and sacrifice for our country. Hopefully, the next time we confront a foreign dictator, our military’s treatment of women will have more in common with our president’s soaring rhetoric than with our enemies’ brutal actions.
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Anne M. Coughlin is Lewis F. Powell Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. Contact her at amc6z@virginia.edu. Kyle Mallinak is a J.D. candidate, Class of 2013, University of Virginia School of Law, and may be contacted at kcm2fq@virginia.edu.
