Question for Roman Polanski Petition Signers: Is Rape Due to Duress Also OK in the Congo?

Emma Thompson’s name will be removed from Roman Polanski’s petition this week, says Jezebel.

This is a correct move on Ms. Thompson’s part.

With a long and illustrious history of work on women’s issues, significant numbers of Emma Thompson’s fans were dispayed when she signed a petition, calling for Polanski’s release.

Especially for people supporting the criminalization of sex trafficking and numerous other women’s rights issues in nearly every country in the world, a suggestion that Roman Polanski get a pass on a crime to which he pled guilty is confusing, unsettling and indefensible.

Our readers expressed equal discomfort over Penelope Cruz’s signature on a Polanski-related petition. The first petition is housed on French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy’s website. The second petition, claiming to reject the manner of Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland, is an industry SCAD petition.

Caitlin Hayward-Tapp, a 19-year-old student at Exeter University – where Thompson’s adopted son graduated this year – arranged a meeting with the actress this week and was granted 15 minutes to try to convince Emma Thompson to change her mind about signing the petition.

A counter petition called “Drop the petition for Roman Polanski’s release” has also been launched.

Supporters of Polansky have pointed out the grim details of his life including losing his mother at Auschwitz and the murder of his wife Sharon Tate.

The systematic rape of women in the Congo is escalating. Increasingly in conflict zones, women are weapons of war. The realities of life are that young men in the Congo have also lived through innumerable atrocities. Should we grant them the same “pass” on raping and murdering women at random in the Congo?

Bill and Melinda Gates write on their foundation website “All Lives Have Equal Value”.

Much as Roman Polanski has suffered, so do millions of other men in ravaged hot spots in the world. All violence from men against women is wrong. Period.

‘Journey’ Emma Thompson’s art installation about the miseries of sex trafficking on womenWe wrote earlier today about Emma Thompson’s sex trafficking installation ‘Journey’, which readers can experience in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park from now through Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. Anne