What is the Perspective on Rape in the Middle East?

The New York Times article entitled Rise in Sexual Assaults in Egypt sets off clash over Blame got me thinking more about how people view the cause of rape in the Middle East. One of the reasons this hit me hard is the shear audacity and organization of the rapists. I highly recommend reading the article. 

The blame for the rapes "sometimes" lies "100 percent" with the woman according to some ultra conservative Islamists, one even saying that women "went [to Tahrir Square] to get raped." The thinking is that since men's sex drives are too powerful to resist when a woman who "stands among men", therefore she it is her fault since she ought to know this fact. 

Why isn't rape more prevalent among Western societies then? 

And, although Kurdistan seems to be a relatively egalitarian society compared with much of the Middle East, women still have very little protection. Parents don’t allow their daughters to go out alone because a lot of the men can’t be trusted to keep their hands to themselves. In fact Kak Amanj did not speak very favourably about Kurdish male youth at all. He says it is not uncommon for boys to resort to force when their romantic advances fail. What intrigued me was his pseudo-scientific explanation for why this happens. He spoke rapidly and in broken English but he seemed to be implying a link between circumcision and increased libido. ‘In Western countries the boys don’t have such strong sexual feelings as Kurdish boys because they don’t cut the skin off the penis,’ he said. Make of that what you will. 

(taken from a blog about travels in Iraqi Kurdistan). So sexual desire is increased by circumcision up to a point where desire is uncontrollable. Unfortunately for this theory, some Western countries like the US have over 50% of males circumcised. 

So then what is the root cause of this systematic rape? It does lie with the men, that is for sure, but how and why. 

As far as I am aware Islam does not condone rape. Then why are prominent Islamists not blaming the rapists? Could it be that this systematic rape supplies an incentive for society to rush to the "safety" of Islamic traditional Sharia law. Systematic rape is a means to an end for these Islamists, they do not condone the rape but they will not condemn because the results are favorable to them.