Rape victims advocate leader responds to opinion column

Rape victims advocate leader responds to opinion column

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There are some local rape victims’ advocates who are taking a Chicago Sun-Times columnist to task for a column she wrote about an alleged rape case. Mary MItchell wrote recently about a prostitute who answered an ad on the Website Backpage.com. The woman says she showed up to a client who not only refused to pay, but held her at gunpoint and raped her. Mitchell wrote that she doesn’t agree with victims facing blame for dressing or behaving a certain way, but in this case, when you, “agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are putting yourself at risk for harm.” Rape Victim Advocates Executive Director Sharmili Majmudar wrote a letter to the paper that Mitchell’s language does equate to blaming the victim, which is always wrong, no matter what profession she’s in. Majmudar joins us with more on her reaction to the column.