Across centuries and civilisations, the world has had a history of prosecuting sexual assault against women in a very unfair way. Even now, prejudiced legal systems deal with rape as they'd deal with a property crime, and not as violation of a person. A thread.

Exodus 20:17; King James Bible

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."

Quran 4 : 34

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women... https://twitter.com/musawah/status/1240209638051610624?s=20

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be quiet.”
(1 Timothy 2: 11–14)

“Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler the universe who has not created me a woman”
- A Jewish Prayer

Many ancient civilisations didn't have a proper notion of 'forcible violation'––just adultery with another man's wife or fornication with another man's virgin daughter. The other man, in either case, was the victim of the crime.

In Babylonia, if a woman who was set to be married was violated and she was a virgin, the rapist would be killed. But if the woman was married, she would be killed, too. In Assyria, the father of the victim was allowed to violate the rapist's wife as punishment. Unbelievable.

The strangest law came from Israelites, who made a distinction between what happens in the city & in the field. If a woman was violated inside city walls, it was assumed that she could have cried out for help if it wasn't consensual. She and her attacker would be stoned to death.

If the violation took place outside of city walls, however, the woman wouldn't be blamed, since no one would've been around to help her. Instead of being done to death, she'd be forced to marry her attacker (who'd pay a dowry to her father) if she were not set to be wed already.

But if she was already engaged, that wedding would be canceled because she was considered violated and impure, and she would be offered for wedding at a discount or with an old or physically challenged man. An ancient civilisation at its patriarchal best.

Sexual assault was nearly unheard of in America before the Europeans came. Native Americans had their own tribal courts, which would let victims decide what punishment they wanted for their attacker. In colonial America, it was much easier to convict black men of sexual crimes.

A woman named Sylvia was violated by Captain James Dunn in New York during early 19th century. He was only charged with 'assault with intent to seduce.'
The court convicted Dunn, but the punishment was only $1 - a real commentary on what they thought Sylvia's integrity was worth.

For the ancient Romans, the occurrence of sexual assault, the possibility of a legal charge, and also the punishment thereof, depended on the victim's status. That is, what actually occurred did not have legal consequences unless the victim fit in a particular social category.

“In her childhood (a girl) shall be under the will of her father; in (her) youth, of (her) husband; her husband being dead, of her sons; a woman should never enjoy her free will.”

The Ordinances of Manu; V 148.

The first known written law for sexual assault was contained in the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, circa 2250 BC. Woman had social status only in relation to men. Thus a woman might be a virgin living with her father, or a married woman living with her husband.

Violation of a virgin was punishable by death. Violation of a married woman was adultery, the woman equally responsible. Rapist & victim were executed by drowning. Victim's husband could rescue his wife by pulling her out of river.

Shockingly, the king could pardon the rapist.

Yes, there were exceptions.
Violating a Viking woman would not only have been an assault against her, but also against the community around her.

Rapists were subject to the strictest possible punishment. Anyone could kill a rapist without risking punishment themselves.

George R.R. Martin has been criticised for all sexual violence he uses as literary devices in his books. In his Game of Thrones book series set in the medieval ages, there are over 200 portrayals of sexual assault, most against women.

War provides men with the perfect psychological backdrop to give vent to their contempt for women. Sexual assault accompanies territorial advance in land conflicts as one of the spoils of war. There are numerous instances of soldiers violating the women of the vanquished side.

During the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in China, a woman had to prove that she had offered the utmost resistance and fought vigorously. Laws practically mandated women to die in defense of their chastity; to do less was not only unbecoming of "good" women, but also criminal.

Greek & Roman mythology subtly glorified assault on women. Greek God Zeus himself is part of many such stories – he is believed to have violated several women, namely, Antiope, Europa, Hera, Leda & others. Medusa was raped by Poseidon & was subsequently punished for being raped.

Throughout history, although the law recognized the victim's innocence, rhetoric used by the defense indicated that jurors harbored attitudes of blame. Assault could be committed only against people in good standing. The violation of a slave was seen as damage to owner's property

The first Christian emperor Constantine redefined sexual assault as a public offense. Constantine ordered that if the female had consented, she should be punished along with the assaulter by being burnt alive. If she had not consented, she was still considered an accomplice.

In Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 under General Zia ul-Haq subsumed prosecution of rape under the category of zina, making rape extremely difficult to prove and exposing the victims to jail sentences who failed to produce four witnesses.

In the US, only 5 out of every 1,000 rapes committed, that’s 0.5 percent, end in a felony conviction. The WaPo puts the figure at 7 out of 1,000, but pretty much everyone agrees it’s under 1 percent. Many rapes aren’t reported. The crime is also notoriously under-investigated.

Already a long thread. Instances of miscarriage of justice are too many to recount. The law has been lopsided, the society wilfully ignorant, and administrators cock-eyed, when it comes to enforcing laws on sexual assault against women.

Gender equality is a distant dream.