Sexual Assault Cases Are Our Modern-Day Witch Trials
By Hillary Di Menna
Mandi Gray is considered a deceptive mistress with an ardent thirst for exacting revenge against innocent men. She is known to partake in late-night merrymaking alongside other women. Her goal, it is said, is to achieve fame and fortune through the telling of fallacious stories designed to contradict patriarchal narratives.
The judicial system automatically assumes her to be guilty of lying and lechery, and she possesses the ability to make a court body go wild under her spell.
Gray’s story may sound like something straight from the Salem witch trials circa the 1600s — but in actuality, she’s a woman from modern-day Toronto, Canada, who has been embroiled since February in an often-ugly trial to convict the man — fellow York University graduate student Mustafa Ururyar — who allegedly raped her last year, after the two had been dating for a couple weeks (Editor’s Note: Ururyar was found guilty on July 21 and sentenced to 18 months in prison in September; he’s currently appealing the verdict).
The fact that the details of her case so clearly mirror those of the witch trials of yore is both telling and chilling. Then as now, we are conditioned to consider women who take a stand against the patriarchy sexually manipulative liars. Then as now — literally or…
