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27 septembre 2017
- handle: 10670/1.misjvx
- isbn: 9780776630441
- eisbn: 9780776626178
https://www.openedition.org/12554 , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Mots-clés
violence viol femmes agression sexuelle droit rape sexual assault violence law women Sociology SOC051000 JFFESujets proches
Criminal assault (Rape) Assault, Sexual Assault, Criminal (Rape) Nonconsensual sexual intercourse Sexual assaultCiter ce document
Natasha Bakht, « 23. What’s in a Face? Demeanour Evidence in the Sexual Assault Context », Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press, ID : 10670/1.misjvx
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Natasha Bakht’s chapter examines another manifestation of law’s understanding of sexual assault — the need to test the credibility of complainants — this time expressed by a claim that Muslim women must remove their niqabs so that their “demeanour” can be scrutinized. Many authors in this collection have explored this constant in sexual assault: from the moment of reporting to police through to the criminal trial, women’s accounts are disbelieved and filtered by police “unfounding” rates that are simply not comparable for other crimes, as explained by Teresa DuBois in Chapter Nine, and by other forms of “credibility-testing,” such as the Sexual Assault Evidence Kit discussed by Jane Doe in Chapter Sixteen. Natasha’s analysis joins with that pursued by Maria Campbell, Tracey Lindberg, and Priscilla Campeau in Chapter Five by exploring the role of racism and colonialism in marginalizing and stigmatizing complainants. She argues here that the demand that Muslim women “take off their clothes” in order to testify to their experience of sexual assault amounts to cultural and religious discrimination and to yet another form of “whacking the complainant” by defence lawyers