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April 18, 2006

Singapore: Muslim Father Jailed For Raping Daughters

We reported on April 14 on the case of a Muslim man in Singapore who pleaded guilty to raping his daughters. He had used passages from the Koran to justify to his wives and to his daughters his rights to sexually abuse his own flesh and blood, though there is nothing within the Koran, nor the Hadiths, to justify incest, unless one takes liberties in their interpretation.

The man had employed the controversial custom of mut'ah marriage to avail himself of numerous women over a period of more than twenty years. A mut'ah marriage is legal in Iran, and also Bahrain, and is mainly a Shi'ite custom. This is a short-term contract marriage, which allows a man to have a sexual relationship with a woman for a fixed period of time. Although illegal in Singapore, his exploitation of mut'ah marriage meant that, at the time of his arrest on June 25, 2005, he had 10 wives, six more than is allowed under Islamic custom. He also had a grand total of 66 offspring.

He had raped six of his daughters repeatedly between December 2003 and June 2005. The girls had been aged between 12 and 15 at the time they were raped. At least four of his wives colluded with the assaults, telling the girls they had to give in to their father's desires. The man's defence lawyer, Harold Seet, had argued that the 45-year old man had thought that by satisfying his daughters' needs he could prevent them from associating with boys. He also argued that the man was stressed from running his own firm, and providing for his large family.

The man who, to protect his children's identities, is not named in court reports, admitted the rapes and asked for 34 more cases to be taken into consideration. It is believed he committed more than 43 instances of sexual abuse.

News today from Channel News Asia states that at the Supreme Court in Singapore, Justice Tay Yong Kwang sentenced the man to 32 years' imprisonment. He said the man had wielded a strong influence over his family.

The judge said: "It was a sad and shameful abuse of this trust and respect that allowed him to do what he did with the five daughters. Equally, it was because of this trust and respect that no violence accompanied each occasion of violation as none was needed to make the daughters submit to him....Like any other young girl, I am sure they appreciated their father's love but simply could not comprehend why it was taking a perverse dimension."

The man was arrested after his eldest daughter had reported the matter to the police on June 24, 2005. Justice Tay said that the girl had done the right thing. He added that none of the girls should feel any shame, because their father had done the wrong thing.

Justice Tay conceded that the man had admitted his crimes, thus sparing the family the ordeal of testifying in court. He said it was hard to sentence the main provider of a family, but said that his dependents must now accept that the family breadwinner would not be contributing financially for some time. They should adjust to that.

After sentencing the man to 32 years' jail, Justice Tay allowed the man and his family to meet for 15 minutes.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 18, 2006 5:52 PM

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