What constitutes torture A look into ancient and modern forms of torture - Research Paper Example

Sur 20 February What Constitutes Torture? A Look into Ancient and Modern Forms of Torture “A lot of voices were very loud, expressing their anger for taking a Christian military person as a hostage and killing him while they kept their mouth shut from saying anything supporting those poor Muslims who are in prisons and being tortured by the hands of the cross-believers.” Some of the modern world’s worst forms of torture have been suffered by detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison or Baghdad Correctional Facility in Iraq. The prisoners locked in there have faced torture in the form of sexual abuse, derogatory levels of humiliation, sodomy as well as other forms of heinous indecency. The worst part about the entire scenario was that that a number of explicit photos were published for the world to see, without keeping in mind the thoughts and feelings of the prisoners and their families. Members of the US CIA crossed the line in the process of interrogation of these prisoners and many had even been removed on charge of dereliction of duty, assault and even battery. Charles Graner and Lynndie England had been reported by a number of journalists and media persons to have themselves constituted a vast amount of torture to the prisoners and were sentenced to jail for a long time for the same. (Hersh, 2007) Torture to human beings is something that has been carried on for a very long time indeed as mostly minority groups are captured and subject to some of the worst forms of trauma and physical as well as mental pain in order to satisfy the thirst of the torturer. In many ancient civilizations as well, torture was seen as something very common indeed. Convicts were treated horrendously with a view to scare the rest of the population and make them comprehend that they should never repeat what the prisoners did otherwise they would eventually find themselves in the same position. Cruelty comes from the mind of a person and man turns sadistic when he finds that his demands are not being met. In ancient Greece, the Brazen Bull was a method used to torture a person in a way that he would eventually get roasted. Perillos, an Athenian brass worker suggested this technique and carved a hollow brazen bull in which a person was inserted. The bull was kept over a fire and the person inside eventually would feel the heat and die due to suffocation and pain released due to extreme temperatures. When the person screamed out in pain, the screams would come out of the bull in a manner that looked as if the bull was enraged. (Historical Facts, 2010) In Roman Catholic Churches, a device called Heretic’s Fork was used as one of the main techniques torture those who did wrong. The fork had two ends clawed with a strap in the middle which was secured around a person’s neck. His hands were tied behind his back as one end of the fork dug into his chin and the other into his chest. If the person moved, the fork would dig into his skin causing his veins to bleed. (Historical Facts, 2010) The middle ages or the Medieval Period has been also known far and wide for the kind of torture people were put through. Modern day depictions through the help of books and movies are not enough to reflect the kind of pain people suffered in those ages simply because they just are not explicit enough. The use of Sick Hanging Cages were very common back then as prisoners or convicts were made to enter iron cages naked and stay there till they died. These cages were placed in the open and prisoners were not given any food or facilities and when they died, their bodies were left to rot there as well till they were eaten up by scavengers. In the ancient Chinese civilization, the process of slow slicing commenced on the basis of ideas of Ling Chi. A steely and sharp knife was used to slowly cut parts of the body of the person being tortured as he lost a great amount of blood and died slowly and gradually as the main aim of this method was to try and extend the life of the victim as much as possible so he could feel the maximum possible pain before his final death. Also, according to Confucius, it was said that if a person died without a whole body, he would be tortured in his afterlife as well, thus this method ensured that the victim was never in his any later lives able to regain any kind of peace. Guillotines were also used for the purpose of execution in many parts of Europe. Yet another famous way of execution includes burning a person at stake, like was practiced in Salem as women believed to be witches were simply burned alive. (2008) In the modern times, during the reign of Adolf Hitler, Jews have been said to have suffered one of the worst forms of torture possible. They were thrown into concentration camps and gassed to death in chambers. Many men and women were even used for the purpose of medical experiments as doctors inserted toxic chemicals in their bodies and even used them as guinea pigs. (Rees, 2005) Psychological torture is also one of the widely used forms of torture in the world at present. Forms of this torture have been used in Guantanamo Bay as well as for the 9/11 prisoners. Countries like Iran have been accused of making use of this kind of torture in the world as well. (2009) Psychological forms of torture are said to be worse because they mainly involve the use of mental torture in its worst form. Even though prisoners are not really subject to much physical violence, they are made to undergo methods like shaving their heads, being nude, and are also deprived of sleep. Many prisoners are also subject to a great amount of humiliation with regard to their religion and are forced to do things against their religious views and faiths which lead them to fear their God and break them down completely. In Islam, it is said that criminals and prisoners are subject to a vast amount of torture as well. Allah is the lawmaker and it has been stated in the Quranic verses that criminals should be executed, mutilated or crucified. In accordance with Allah, only those that spread corruption or disgrace the religion in any form have to go through such forms of torture. The main crimes have also been described as usage of drugs and narcotics, prostitution, racism, colonialism as well as the giving up or disintegration of one’s religious personality or breaking away from the faith itself. (Arlandson, James) Today, a number of forms, methods and techniques of such tortures have been illegalized in the world; however that has not really stopped a lot of people from making use of them. Many women and children in underdeveloped countries are sold in the black market, used as slaves and are even raped and face a lot of sexual abuse. In many parts of the world, racism is still carried on as people consider themselves to be superior on the basis of skin color. All these methods boil down to cruelty in order to make others feel miserable about themselves and end the will to live and thus such sadistic methods of survival should be banned from usage at all. Works Cited  Hersh, Seymour Myron (2007). “The general's report: how Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.” The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh?printable=true Historical Facts. (2010) “10 Ancient Torture Methods from Around the World.” Retrieved from http://www.historyofcivilizations.com/10-ancient-torture-methods-from-around-the-world-part-2.html 2008. “The 15 Most Brutal Methods of Execution of All Time.” Retrieved from http://brainz.org/15-most-brutal-methods-execution-all-time/ Rees, Laurence (2005). Auschwitz: The Nazis & the Final Solution. Random House. pp. 326. ISBN 9780563522966. 2009. "NCRI Women's Committee calls for release of Taraneh Mousavi". Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Retrieved from http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ Arlandson, James. “Torture in the Quran and early Islam”. Retrieved from http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/torture.htm Read More