Women's Role In Rwanda Genocide Essay

In Rwanda, over the course of one hundred days, from April to July 1994, an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were murdered. “During this period of terrible slaughter, more than 6 men, women and children were murdered every minute of every hour of every day” (“Statistics”). Most genocides share a key factor: when genocide is reported, researched, and documented, female involvement is often ignored and women are type-casted as passive victims or bystanders. Contrary to the dominant narrative, Rwandan women played a central role during the 1994 Genocide of the Hutu against the Tutsi. Here, the lens is not limited to acts of direct violence. Women were active, exposing those in hiding, stealing and looting, and, in some instances, murdering. Researchers must attempt to account for the other 50 percent of the population, the women, in order to make sense of a largely unexplored aspect of the Rwandan genocide.

Women in Rwanda are assumed to only take the role as the mother. In Rwanda, a woman can be a mother, wife, sister, daughter and genocidaire. In traditional Rwandan society, women’s responsibilities included educating the children, welcoming

They believe than women are not violent and if there were more women in power, than the genocide would not have happened. This ideology is simply is not supported by the witness testimony, survivor interviews, and judicial evidence that there were women with authority in Rwanda who abused power as easily as men. For example, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the Minister of Family Affairs and Women’s Development in the government of Rwanda during the genocide, used her power to supervise and lead genocide killings. Pauline took care of the logistics; she distributed grenades, petrol and other useful equipment for militiamen to burn houses in rural areas and kill all who survived. After the genocide, she was put on trial; one witness