Rape allegation
The week's news at a glance.
Baghdad
In a rare public accusation of rape, a Sunni woman went on Al-Jazeera television this week and said she’d been assaulted by three men serving in the Shiite-dominated security forces. Her face veiled, only her teary eyes visible, the woman said she was arrested on suspicion of helping insurgents and then gang-raped at a police garrison. Sunni leaders said the rape proved that the security forces could not protect Sunnis; Shiites said the woman made up the story to smear Shiites. When the official who oversees Sunni mosques called for an international investigation into the rape charge, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, promptly fired him. Rape victims almost never come forward in Iraq, as they risk being killed by their own relatives to erase the stain on the family’s honor.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Home Depots are the new epicenters of ICE raids
In the Spotlight The chain has not provided many comments on the ongoing raids
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?
Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?
-
The pros and cons of banning cellphones in classrooms
Pros and cons The devices could be major distractions