Rebecca Hayden - During the long days of the rape and murder court-martial of Sgt. Jesse Spielman at Fort Campbell where I was reporting a story for the Women’s Media Center website—I was struck by the language I was hearing and the apparent meaning of the words.

For example, “pussy” was used to describe a coward. I didn’t hear the slang term “balls,” referring to the male anatomy and often meant to denote courage, but the themes of courage and cowardice hung in the air throughout every exchange with the witnesses. To explain the actions of his client--and perhaps to indicate the testosterone charged atmosphere--the defense attorney emphasized the difficulty of escaping the tensions of the posting as he questioned a witness about what happened if you took combat stress leave. “They'd call you a fucking pussy,,." he stated. "Yes, that's right," Sgt. Anthony Yribe responded.


Abeer’s national ID card, made when she was 2, shows her date of birth as August 19, 1991.

Rather than risk their reputation as courageous soldiers by requesting leave, these men remained in what was often described as a very stressful station - Traffic Control Point 2 - and became involved in a plan that took the lives of four civilians—one male and three female members of the Al-Janabi family. Each of the four soldiers who directly participated in this crime armed themselves well before taking their unarmed victims by surprise, two of whom were children. The parents and youngest daughter were herded into one room and shot while 14-year-old Abeer was raped by two soldiers and then a third. Shortly afterwards, Abeer was shot and her body was burned. Read all @ THE WOMAN'S MEDIA CENTER

Rebecca Hayden, based in Toronto, is a film researcher and screenwriter who co-wrote the film Abeer, a dramatized documentary to premiere at the International Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto this fall. With a background in philosophy, she has always had a strong interest in women's issues, which is reflected in her work.

The Women's Media Center was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem, who serve on the Board of Directors with Cristina Azocar, Jodie Evans, Gloria Feldt, Carol Jenkins, Pat Mitchell, Jessica Neuwirth, and Helen Zia. The WMC places female voices into the media, offers media training, and publishes original reports and commentaries as well as links to women columnists and bloggers, news organizations and journalism sources on its website

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