Posted on 06/05/2011 4:49:22 PM PDT by decimon
PARIS (Reuters) – The arrest of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on attempted rape charges has unleashed a soul-searching in French politics, media and law that seems to deepen rather than wane as his case progresses.
Strauss-Kahn, who will plead not guilty Monday to charges he tried to rape a maid in a New York hotel, had been a likely future French President before his dramatic arrest three weeks ago as he sat in an airplane waiting to take off for Paris.
"The Strauss-Kahn affair is going to change a lot of things," said Chantal Brunel, a member of the ruling UMP party and spokeswoman for France's observatory on sexual equality.
Sunday's Journal du Dimanche published an outpouring of allegations by female members of parliament about crude remarks by male legislators to their women colleagues and staff under the headline: "Routine sexism in parliament."
Just two weeks after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, a junior minister was forced to fight allegations of sexual harassment of two female staff members, one of whom said the case encouraged her to come forward.
Prosecutors also opened an inquiry last week into accusations aired on a TV talk show that another former minister engaged in acts of pedophilia in Morocco.
Brunel said the scandal was ending a law of silence surrounding sexism in French politics and society. "The Strauss-Kahn affair has awakened fear in men who try to sexually dominate women," she said in an Internet debate this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“I have a hard time wrapping my mind around DSK going to Attica...”
I’m pretty sure that in the end, even if he is convicted, he won’t be going to Attica.
He’s got no prior record (in the US at least), so they’ll construct some punishment for him, but I’d be my bottom dollar it won’t include any long term prison sentence.
So I guess by that standard, sexually assaulting a chambermaid is not, in the words of Whoopie, “rape-rape”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.