UPDATE: Prossy gets to stay in the UK.
News from Manchester that Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza has won her battle for asylum in the UK as the judge ruled in her favour and the Home Office are not going to appeal against the judge’s decision.
Prossy had been forced into an engagement when her family discovered her relationship with the girlfriend she met at university, Leah. Both women were marched two miles naked to the police station, where they were locked up.
Prossy’s inmates subjected her to gross acts of humiliation. She was violently raped by police officers who taunted her with derogatory comments like ‘’we’ll show you what you’re missing’’ and ‘’you’re only this way because you haven’t met a real man’’. She was also scalded on her thighs with hot meat skewers.
Prossy was eventually taken out of prison after her father bribed the guards. Her family had decided they would sacrifice her instead, believing this would ‘’take the curse away from the family’’.
Whilst her family were making arrangements to slaughter her, Prossy managed to flee to the United Kingdom to seek asylum.
When Prossy went for treatment to her local GP’s surgery in the UK they were so shocked by the extent of her injuries they called the police.
She was taken to the St. Mary’s Centre in Manchester, and she is still receiving counselling there for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Prossy’s asylum application has been refused by the Home Office, who acknowledge she was brutally raped and burnt because of the medical evidence, but have dismissed these appalling attacks as ‘’the random actions of individuals’’, and state she can be returned to a different town in Uganda.
This judgement ignores the clear danger to gay people throughout the country where the penalty for homosexuality is life imprisonment.
Also, in Uganda, you cannot settle in a new town without a reference from your previous village, and on the basis she is a lesbian, Prossy would be subjected to similar persecution wherever she went.
We consider that if Prossy is sent back, she faces the continuing threat of incarceration, and further sickening attacks – which next time may be fatal.
Prossy is a highly educated woman who can be a productive member of society.
She has a right to be free with her sexuality, which is causing no harm to anyone, and she has a right not to be raped, attacked, or murdered.”
“Prossy is a highly educated woman who can be a productive member of society.”
Not that this matters one iota in my opinion…of course.
Nor mine. I’m not one to rate someone on their level of education or ‘value’ to society.
Signed
Cheers me deers
Signed!
Makes me think, amongst all the other privileges, that I *also* have Country privilege.
An horrific story, and an example of how rape is a ‘message’ to all females, not just the victim.
She must not be sent back.
Yeah rape is a ‘message’ stormy…here we have some positive news re: rape and war. Ah yes ‘country privilege’ this struck me on my time in Thailand. Quite an ‘aha’ moment for me.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/06/0eb53781-2bc9-482f-8648-dde2142ddd6c.html
“Prossy is a highly educated woman who can be a productive member of society.
More than that she is a human being who deserves to be safe.
Off to sign now…
I signed it, thanks Sparkle. Rape is not just a war crime, because “our own” men rape us during times of formal peace, too. Rape is sexual terrorism, period.
I cannot imagine what Kakooza is going through right now. I wish I could really do more than just sign a petition online. It just feels so distant and detached. Too easy.
And to think that the very people who are supposed to love and support you the most, your family, are the very ones shunning you and seeing you as a “curse” or “burden” to be “rid of.” That makes me sick.
Sexual violence in war is nothing new. Accounts of women being raped by conquering armies as “spoils of war” go back centuries. But the resolution says rape is not just a by-product of war, but a military tactic.
Now, if they could just join the dots and figure out the role of rape in ‘peacetime’ in ‘civilised countries’?
Rape is the ‘message’ to all females, globally, to keep them in their place.
Needs repeating.
I have signed. Well said stormy, rape is about breaking people to the system, that, and child abuse: so we can be their little controlled reproductive pods, who’s damaged nervous systems make us easy to manipulate.
Hierarchies need subclasses, like farmers need livestock; and all the pens and the isles, the harnesses and the hobbles, are in place long before we arrive in this world.
Good for Prossy for breaking free, I hope she stays.
Signed! Again, here here Stormy.
When things like this happen I always think that is these women are criminals then I will happily harbor them and sod the consequences! Because justice to me is these women being safe not them being sent back to their abusers with a bow around their necks!
Signed! sent back? NO, NO, NO!
Just signed the petitition and yes indeed male sexual violence against women is systematic and endemic never ‘individualised instances’ as claimed by the Home Office.
Women must have the same rights as men – namely right of sexual autonomy and right to define their sexuality instead of having a patriarchal one forced on them. But this right challenges male sexual privilege hence the reason why the Home Office refuses to accept that male sexual violence against women is global and never, ever ‘isolated individualised cases.’
Prossy is a human being and the fact she is a highly educated woman is irrelevant in this instance. Rape is rape is rape and it is systematically used to keep all women subordinated to men.
Do you have to be British to sign the petition? Are they going to care that an American wants her to stay in England?
I’m not sure bonobobabe, so just go ahead and sign it – can’t see it would do any harm.
thanks.
Okay, in that case, I went ahead and signed it, too.
Thanks CoolAunt.
[...] asylum in the UK after being imprisoned, raped and nearly murdered in her own country, in her post Prossy Kakooza Must Not be Returned to Uganda, which reproduces an article telling Prossy’s [...]
Just got an e-mail stating she has been allowed asylum in the UK!
Woo excellent! I’ve been checking the site but haven’t done so for a few days.
News from Manchester that Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza has won her battle for asylum in the UK as the judge ruled in her favour and the Home Office are not going to appeal against the judge’s decision.
Prossy issued the following statement:
Dear friends: I get to stay!! Am still in shock, and am so sure it’s going to take days to sink in. But I have not stopped smiling since 12:00pm today, and won’t stop for a while.
I went with my friend Gwen and am so glad I did because when we left I was in a sort of daze! When this woman handed me the paper and said, “You have been granted leave to remain” my jaw nearly hit the floor. Always the pessimist, I thought this was where she told me “but the Home Office is appealing”. So Iasked if they were and she said no they were not. I had a bit of a hooray shout when we got out – couldn’t contain it.
You have held me together, you have held me upright when all I wanted to do was roll up in a heap and give up. You gave me the motivation to go on and fight! Going with me to places to collect signatures, encouraging people to sign online, coming to meetings, writing statements, going to court with me, and most importantly – all the prayers. And I don’t think you have any idea how the phone calls, texts and emails help. They kept me sane.
There are no appropriate words I can use to say thank you. All I can do is pray to my God to bless you all. You have changed my life and for that I will forever be grateful. THANK YOU!
Lots and lots of love, hugs and kisses,
Prossy
Such great news for Ms Kakooza. I only just checked my inbox this morning, from the petition we signed there was this response:
Dear Friend,
You signed an online petition asking the UK Government to grant asylum to Ms Prossy Kakooza, a Ugandan Lesbian who had fled to the UK after enduring horrific treatement from the authorities and her family.
Prossy’s court case was heard on 5th September and we have been waiting for the result. On Friday she was told three things: the judge ruled in her favour, the UK Home Office were not going to appeal against the judge’s decision and that Prossy had, therefore, been granted asylum in the UK! She is allowed to live her on the same basis as any UK citizen for the next five years. After that she can apply for indefinite leave to remain and take out British citizenship if she so wishes. Full information is on our website.
Thank you the part you have played in this campaign – you have helped to change Prossy’s life forever.
Yup, great news indeedy stormy.
News from Manchester that Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza has won her battle for asylum in the UK as the judge ruled in her favour and the Home Office are not going to appeal against the judge’s decision.
Wow, that’s great! I’m glad she’s won!