Being a disabled woman in Korea means you are exposed to double discrimination: for being physically or mentally challenged and for being female.

The government estimates that there are nearly 5 million disabled people in Korea ― half of them women. As minorities, they face difficulties in every area of their lives.

Most seriously, disabled women can be exposed to sexual assault.

According to a study on 1,583 females nationwide by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Affairs last year, 1 percent of mentally disabled women had been raped in the previous year and about 2.1 percent had been victims of attempted rape in the same time period. 

This is equivalent to one in every 100 mentally disabled females being raped last year and another two at risk of becoming victims, the ministry said, adding that an additional 5.2 percent were victims of sexual harassment.

“I think the actual number of victims is much higher because many people tend to conceal their case rather than taking it out into the light,” Kwoun Sun-ji, head of Daegu Differently Abled Women United, told The Korea Herald on Tuesday, a day ahead of the Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Kwoun, who runs a counseling center for disabled women who have suffered sexual assault, said that society is still not doing enough to prevent such crimes.

According to a petition by a group of disabled people to the National Human Rights Commission, out of 239 cases of sexual assault and harassment filed to the prosecution in 2009, only 39 percent led to indictment.

“The law stipulates that a victim’s ‘desperate resistance’ to a completed rape attempt constitutes rape. However, many investigators downgrade a disabled victim’s testimonies of resistance and simply would not acknowledge the crime,” Kwoun added.

The gang rape of a mentally disabled school girl by 12 high school students last year, a middle-aged villager who repeatedly raped a mentally ill teenager over three years, and many other similar cases were given leniency for this reason.

Kwoun said that victims’ family members, therefore, tend to keep such crimes to themselves. The victims often develop depression and are even neglected by their non-disabled family members, she added.

Kwoun, who has polio, called for the government to establish more shelters for the disabled female victims of sexual assault so that they can talk more easily about their trauma and start a fresh chapter in their lives. Currently, there are only three facilities in the country offering sex crime victims a comfortable atmosphere.

Rep. Choi Young-hee of the main opposition Democratic Party has recently submitted a bill to scrap the desperate resistance condition for sexual assaults but it is still pending at the National Assembly. The law revision would be expected to encourage more females to speak out.

“Yes, the society has improved for disabled people. But it isn’t enough. We will strive to reach equal status,” Kwoun said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)