Zabihullah Mohmand booking photo, Missoula County Sheriff

After 19 year old Zabihullah Mohmand, a recent evacuee from Afghanistan living in a hotel room in Missoula, Montana was charged with raping an 18 year old woman, Republican Governor Greg Gianforte released a statement complaining to the Biden Administration:

“We support providing a home for our Afghan allies that have been fully vetted. We had a tragic situation with alleged sexual assault yesterday, with someone who arrived here in the state earlier this month. I called on the Biden Administration. This individual did not have an SIV status, and I called on the Biden Administration to assure us that these refugees are fully vetted. It’s not clear to us that that occurred in this situation. So, we’re asking the Biden Administration to halt the placement of refugees here until they can assure us that the people that are being placed, our allies being placed here, are fully vetted” said Gianforte in response to the man’s arrest.

Now, having read that, you would probably assume that the “terrorist” broke into the victim’s home while she was sleeping, tied her up, and chanted some ritual Taliban prayers to Al-Shaitan before, during, and after he was having his way with her. After all, wouldn’t proper refugee vetting by the Biden Administration have flagged this scumbag as a member of an evil Islamic sex cult?

Except that’s not what happened, per the criminal complaint, in which the victim recounted having gone out drinking at a bar with a group of people earlier that night, Mohmand included, and was willingly hanging out with him in his hotel room afterward. This is not meant to be victim blaming or shaming of the “you were asking for it, honey” type of misogynist bullshit, it’s simply a statement of the facts: This all-too-often tragically happens when teenage boys get drunk, stupid, and alone with a woman they feel themselves entitled to. No means no, and it appears Mohmand wasn’t taking no for an answer with the victim, described as “blonde” in the complaint.

Had Zabihullah Mohmand been blonde too and named Zack Morton, Gianforte wouldn’t give a shit. Well maybe he’d be asking to make sure the victim got an abortion no later than in 20 weeks from now had she become pregnant and had the legally required ultrasound first before the procedure, and also asking the prosecutors to cut the kid some slack based on the acreage of his dad’s hunting preserve and frequency of donations to Republican candidates. But he’s an Afghan refugee and the perfect foil for Gianforte to willfully ignore the facts of the case to serve up some Fox News rage porn. His statement omits the salacious details of the case because there aren’t any. It’s just the fact that Mohmand is an Afghan refugee that’s supposed to stick out because Biden.

Room at the Residence Inn, Downtown Missoula

Seriously think about this: How the fuck was Homeland Security supposed to vet this guy to make sure he wouldn’t get drunk and force himself on a woman his age when they were in a hotel room together at 4:00 AM after hanging out with each other all night? What possible purpose would Gianforte have for suggesting that vetting would have prevented this, besides just tossing some bloody red meat to the MAGA jackals because the words “Afghan refugee” and “rape” were in the same sentence, just as Newsmax predicted? If there’s another explanation I would love to see it.

Sexual violence toward women is a freaking minefield to report on and much better writers than I have failed at doing so in a manner sensitive to the victims and readers – many of whom have been victimized themselves and can find it deeply painful and traumatic to read about it happening to another woman. This one’s easy though: The crime was horrible, but cheaply using it to rile MAGA hillbillies against Afghan refugees is far worse. Fuck Greg Gianforte.