REFLECTIONS IN WEINSTEIN'S WAKE

Since somebody decided to open the Weinstein box of Pandora, many showpieces
appear to wait their turn to be mowed down. Let's take the case of Tariq Ramadan, recently accused of rape by two women. The well known  Muslim Swiss academic and writer teaches Islamic studies at Oxford university. He is considered by many an influential thinker. The concept Mr Ramadan developed about women might be religiously determined, a concept Henda Ayari was familiar with at the time she gave him her phone number. In front of running cameras now she is lamenting about his behavior, but after having given him her number she waited for a call, and when eventually that call came, she also accepted the rendez-vous. He proposed her to join him at his hotel, in his room, because the lounge didn't provide enough " privacy ". It would be unfair to believe that Mr Ramadan in that intimate atmosphere opened only his Holy Book, reading to her some fairy tales of thousand and one night, and not something else. And at the same time it would be unfair to believe that Henda Ayari isn't looking for adequate spotlights to promote her book, and uses her affair with Tariq Ramadan precisely for this purpose. It is anyway somehow bizarre to watch an ex-salafist woman accusing the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of rape.

Some revelations about sexual harassment performed by politicians are popping up here and there, even recently among members of Theresa May's government and members of British parliament. Sir Michael Fallon had suddenly to resign from his task as defence secretary, having been crucified by some women revealing his unwanted boiling ardency of about 15 years ago.
It seems even former president George H.W. Bush isn't out of range of some mud splashes.

Movieland is still shocked by the Weinstein case. In the past Roman Polanski shook people's conscience, and so Woody Allen did. Now actor and producer Kevin Spacey is accused to be a sexual predator by his alleged victims, one of them being a boy aged 14 at that time. Spacey's recent apology and homosexual coming out did not really protect him from many other similar allegations. A tide of whining men is now overwhelming Spacey's reputation, which now resembles a collapsing house of cards.
In Italy film director Giuseppe Tornatore is grilled because of accusations of an almost forgotten showgirl.
Also Dustin Hoffman,  James Toback and Ben Affleck seem to suffer some severe headache at current days, because the recoils of the same peccadillos.

Above mentioned cases should be a warning to all men of power, wealth and fame. Their sexual hunger make them prone abusing of their position in order to prey their victims. But victims not always remain as such, accepting peacefully and silently all kind of impertinence or violence. Sooner or later they will make them pay the steep price, particulary those women craving for career, celebrity and money. Sex as bargaining chip among adults is definitely not as low as that pervert behavior of some adults having sex with children. It is clearly not as cruel or piggish like that bogeyman tying a young girl to a tree trunk before raping her. However  not being that bad doesn't yet make such persons virtuous and upright.

Miserable is that person who collects sexual services just because of his position of might. Also miserable is that other person selling her/his body in order to grab the job, stepping lightly over the corpse of another person who was working hard and honestly in order to get that same job.
The current epidemic outbreak of sexual harassment cases are nothing new under the sun. They are just a glimpse of a widespread phenomenon which goes back and back in history, unto the rape of the Sabine women and even beyond, being as old as the human world could be.

In the eighties a well known medical school professor at Pavia's university systematically made fail the exams of some female students caught by his greedy sight. Many of them, in order to carry on with exams and eventually graduate, gave him what he desired. Shying away certainly entailed retaking the test over and over again. Some decided anyway to do so, choosing the narrow path of dignity.
In a similar way adult women facing a sexual predator like Weinstein have always a chance to clearly say no. And if they speak the opposite language, it would better suit them to maintain hidden through the years their useful complacency.
Somebody indeed could easily mistake it as being just an other form of world's oldest profession.