American Blogger Gang-Raped Filming Travelogue in Pakistan

A 21-year-old social media influencer with dual U.S. and German citizenship told Vice News for a report published on Wednesday that she was “brutally gang raped” by two Pakistani men during a recent trip to their country to film a travel video blog.

Arabela Arpi spoke to Vice News via Zoom call from Durham, North Carolina, for its August 10 story. She told the media outlet that she was “threatened, extorted and then ‘brutally’ gang raped by two men” in Dera Ghazi Khan, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, on July 17. Arbi said she had “befriended” the two men she accuses of rape during previous trips to Pakistan. She claimed that one of her alleged rapists “filmed the act and threatened to leak it.”

Detailing Arpi’s account, Vice News wrote:

Arpi said she managed to leave after promising the accused she would not report the incident. “The rape was one thing,” Arpi said. “But what happened after was equally tormenting.” Arpi said that in Lahore, she tried to register a police report and get a medical examination but officials refused, saying she needed to go back to Dera Ghazi Khan. {snip}

{snip} Arpi said she was subjected to the two-finger test, which was declared unconstitutional by Pakistan’s Supreme Court last year. She added that even though she had bruises on her body, the medical practitioner didn’t mention them in the medico-legal report. {snip}

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The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province, the site of Arpi’s rapes on July 17, declared a “rape emergency” on June 20 due to a recent spike in the rate of such crime in the region

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