Just in time for 25th November...

Sorry, those of you who come here for the amusing ditties about my schizophrenic life in Jerusalem. I'm furious, and this is important.

A study publicised by Amnesty yesterday has revealed that 34% of respondents- male and female- believe that "flirty women" bring rape on themselves. Nice. After years of campaigning and awareness-raising, we're still in the dark ages.

I don't know why I am surprised: I recently discovered that several friends and family members feel the same way. Thankfully some of the responses on the Sky site reassure that not everyone in the UK chooses to subscribe to such offensive and incorrect views. But what about all the people who saw the news item and didn't care? Or who are reading this post right now, thinking "Boring!"?

The fact that this received scant-to-no coverage in the UK media is also testament to how shamefully low this issue is in terms of people's priorities. And if we're going global, it could also go some way to explain why yesterday, when a cross-Israel bike ride- organized by incest survivors especially to raise awareness of the issue of sexual violence- arrived at the Knesset for an ten-minute demonstration marking Nov 25th, not one of the MK's who pay frequent lip service to the issue (and more importantly who promised to show their faces for one lousy photograph opportunity) bothered to show up. I guess Ariel Sharon's inconsiderate dissolution of the government might have skewed their priorities somewhat, but still. When shocking attitudes such as these uncovered by Amnesty are proved to be alive and well and on the rise, and all we have to show for it by way of response are no-show politicians, or family members who tell this blogger that she doesn't know what she's talking about, and that women should cover up more to avoid being attacked, these are worrying times indeed.