A bizarre case of alleged multiple rape of a 38-year-old Indonesian housemaid by at least 46 men is reportedly being investigated. A police patrol found the maid late at night recently on a Makkah street. When questioned, she said she had been physically and sexually assaulted, prompting the policemen to rush her to King Faisal Hospital at Al-Sheesha here, according to a report in Al-Watan Arabic newspaper. Preliminary inquires revealed that she had escaped from her sponsor's house at Al-Nuzha District in Makkah. She claimed that, while on the run, she had been picked up by a “patrol security man” who took her to a rest house at Al-Assaila District and sexually assaulted her. She said that several other men who used to visit the rest house over a period of time had raped her subsequently. The twist in the tale came when medical tests showed that she was HIV-positive – suffering from AIDS. Sources at the hospital where she is confined to the isolation ward said she got the fatal infection six months ago. The sources said it was premature to conclude that the men who raped her two months ago have contracted the fatal disease. Makkah police managed to arrest 46 of the alleged rapists. All except one of them denied having had any contact with her. The man who confessed, an unemployed youth, claimed that the others – who have not been tested for AIDS as yet – were guilty of the crime as well. The 46 accused have been freed on bail pending a probe by Investigation and General Prosecution in Makkah. Columnist Mohammed Al-Fehaid said in Al-Watan Friday: “This story offer a good example of the whims and lust of some our youth who are sexually schizophrenic! This poses a very important question: Where does the problem lie?Is it within the home or within the society that the minds of our young boys and girls are inculcated with the culture of lust?” He concluded: “I need not refer to religious deterrence because we have been losing this sense a long time ago!”
