As more sickening details emerge of what actually happened to CBS reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square on Feb. 13, the partisan rhetoric shows no signs of abating. Some claim that it was "pro-Mubarak" thugs who sexually assaulted and almost killed the 39-year-old mother of two, while others point the finger at "pro-liberation" hooligans. Still others have used the incident to demonize Muslims in general.
Such distinctions, however, have nothing to do with why Logan was attacked and, in fact, obscure the real issue.
Like many millions of women, girls and young boys around the world, Logan was not a casualty of right or left, pro- or anti-government forces, but of male sexual impunity. In countries as diverse as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti and South Africa, rape rates are astronomical because the status of women is so low that there exists virtually no legal redress when their bodies and rights are violated.