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" Yesterday, a historian from Saudi Arabia\u00A0(where women are banned from driving) claimed that \u00A0Western women have cars because they don&amp;#039;t mind being raped by the side of the road. His claim was rightly\u00A0dismissed as completely ridiculous, his views widely derided. &amp;quot;Silly old sod,&amp;quot; most of us thought, before congratulating ourselves on living in a more enlightened culture.\u00A0 But unfortunately,\u00A0you don&amp;#039;t have to go quite so\u00A0far as Saudi Arabia\u00A0to find frighteningly\u00A0outdated\u00A0views on rape. New research from the Office of National Statistics has revealed that today, right here in the UK, a staggering 34% of teenagers aged 16 to 19 believe that a woman is between &amp;quot;a little&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;completely&amp;quot;\u00A0responsible for being raped if she&amp;#039;s drunk, rising to 46% if she was flirting \u00A0- flirting - with her attacker beforehand. And before you start\u00A0thinking, &amp;quot;Well, it&amp;#039;s only teenagers who hold these mind-bogglingly wrong views.\u00A0Adults in a court of law will know this is bollocks,&amp;quot; it seems those of us\u00A0aged 45-54 are almost as bad.\u00A0 Flirt with a guy who then rapes you, and\u00A034% of this age group will think you&amp;#039;re at least partly responsible. Unlike some myths (if you think a worm cut in half makes two worms, you just go right\u00A0ahead), these\u00A0are seriously\u00A0dangerous. They&amp;#039;re completely untrue and devastate lives - yet still, they persist. Overall, 6% of people think drinking makes a woman completely or mostly responsible for her own rape if she is attacked. It&amp;#039;s a terrifying statistic, and reflects a view we&amp;#039;re despairing still exists in Britain in 2015. These\u00A0pernicious, distorted\u00A0views (sadly held by many people in authority, from the police to the courts, as well as the general public), are just one of the\u00A0daunting\u00A0barriers\u00A0women who have been raped have to face before even attempting to get justice. It&amp;#039;s statistics like these which have lead Cosmo to call for better sex and relationships education in schools - including lessons on issues such as consent and abuse in and outside\u00A0relationships. When a Saudi historian says Western women don&amp;#039;t mind being raped, he&amp;#039;s seen as ridiculous - a man offering out deranged opinions\u00A0no-one in their right mind would listen to.\u00A0It&amp;#039;s about time we realised the people who perpetuate rape myths\u00A0right here\u00A0in the UK might not be so different after all. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a33446/we-still-think-rape-victims-are-to-blame-wtf/>