Director, Lisa F. Jackson travels to villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo to explore the world of the women of Congo and the horrific pandemic of sexual violence that strikes their villages repetitively. Due to its prominence throughout history, sexual violence is often dismissed as an unavoidable and unfortunate feature of conflict. Sexual violence in war is most commonly expressed, that male soldiers have unfulfilled sexual urges and an overwhelming sex drive and also that the frequency of war on sexual violence is an abnormality caused by the disorder of normal morals and rules of society, caused by the conflict. Megar states that “There are three conditions under which soldiers perpetrate acts of sexual violence. Recreational rape …show more content…
The use of sexual violence in conflict is an effective war strategy because of preexisting sociocultural dynamics that attach concepts of honor, shame and sexuality to women’s bodies. Studies state that “The conflict is often referred to as ‘Africa’s World War’ due to the fact that the DRC is inseparably embedded in the larger context of other local conflicts” (Megar 113). Violence against women is often used as a method of war to weaken their populations, destroy communities and family bonds. It has become more common and increasingly brutal in recent years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Reports from the DRC indicate that “sexual violence is widespread and includes gang raped, abduction for purposes of sexual slavery, forced participation of family members in rape, and mutilation of women’s genitalia with knives and guns, among other atrocities” (Peterman, Palermo and Bredenkamp …show more content…
In the DRC, studies show that upward of 40% of women experience sexual violence. Many of these women undergo what is known as “social death” or rejection by their husbands, family and community. Some experience poor standing within their communities. This community reaction is a product of existing problems of gender inequality and harmful gender attitudes that blame sexual violence survivors. Some other severe traumatization that occur as the result of the rape include fear of diseases including “STI and HIV (even if tested negative), local customs (e.g., marriage annulled if the wife has sexual relations outside of the marriage, survivor considered married to rebel groups), having a child after rape, decrease in worth of woman, pressure from family, friends, and community members, fear of military personnel, fear of perpetrators returning, inability to communicate as before, loss of wealth, witnessed rape and, being raped more than once, or by more than one person” (Kohli, Tosha and Ramazani
There was a war in Sierra Leone, Africa, from 1991 to 2002 where a rebel army stormed through African villages amputating and raping citizens left and right (“Sierra Leone Profile”). Adebunmi Savage, a former citizen of Sierra Leone, describes the reality of this civil war:
“The sweetly sickening odor of decomposing bodies hung over many parts of Rwanda in July 1994: . . . at Nyarubuye in eastern Rwanda, where the cadaver of a little girl, otherwise intact, had been flattened by passing vehicles to the thinness of cardboard in front of the church steps,” (Deforges 6). The normalcy of horrible images like this one had cast a depressing gloom over Rwanda during the genocide, a time when an extreme divide caused mass killings of Tutsi by the Hutu. Many tactics such as physical assault or hate propaganda are well known and often used during times of war. Sexual assault and rape, however, during times of war is an unspoken secret – it is well known that rape occurs within combat zones and occupied territories, but people tend to ignore, or even worse, not speak of the act. There have been recorded cases of rape and sexual assault in almost every war in human history. Genocidal rape was used as a gendered war tactic in the Rwandan genocide in order to accomplish the Hutu goal of elimination of the Tutsi people in whole, or part.
focused cognitive behavioral therapy for sexually exploited, war affected Congolese girls. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 52, 359-369.
An elemental point made throughout the book is the shift away from the linear and sequential methods for healing transformation and reconciliation to a dynamic and circular process. From their perspective, the linear method is not equipped to handle post-conflict environments where the end of the conflict does not signal the end of violence. As Lederach & Lederach point out with their story of Sierra Leone, the disturbing reality for women is that the sexual debasement and the silencing of their voices increase after a peacekeeping agreement has been made. The ebb and flow of violence found in a multifaceted experience of protracted violence requires a process that can correspond to a f...
In this paper, I argue that while sexual violence is arguably the monopoly of men, it is culturally cultivated rather than biologically determined. Consistent with the concept of Hegemonic Masculinity which theorises male domination of other males and subordination of females (Connell, 2005), I assert that rape is particularly rampant in societies where sexual violence is an effective means of attaining this status quo. Thus when rape is institutionalised in the context of war where masculinity is measured by the ability and willingness to assert violence upon the enemy, rape becomes rampant because it is not only condoned but authorised (Price, 2001). I then debunk the claims of biological determinism that men are inherently predisposed to rape in order to ensure reproductive continuity (Knauft et.al, 1991) by highlighting that victims of non-consensual sexual penetration are often males, children and post-menopausal women through whom reproduction cannot occur. Thus, rape does not demonstrate biological propensity but rather societal pursuit of male dominance. I conclude that since the occurrence of rape is consistently higher in more patriarchal societies, the issue of rape is more deep-rooted than isolated cases of unregulated male testosterone or criminality but it is rather the by-product of cultural legitimisation of male sexual violence.
Crimes of a sexual nature – i.e. gender-based, sex-based or sexual crimes – amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are almost always physically violent and/or gravely denigrating. By nature crimes involving sexual violence are serious – otherwise they would not constitute or amount to atrocity crimes. For the purposes of this paper, atrocity crimes of a sexual nature, sex-based atrocity crimes and gender-based atrocity crimes are generally referred to as “sexual violence”.
Sexual abuse of women has become a trend in most civil wars. Rape is one of the most dangerous weapons today being used in civil wars against women. Some of the countries that have used genocidal rape as a weapon of war are Sierra Leone, Liberia and former Yugoslavia. The emotional hurt from sexual abuse leaves a deeper scar, strips away the dignity and identity of women. Genocidal rape was first recognized as weapon of war in 1992 in the former Yugoslavia and later in Rwanda because of the alarming number of women who were raped. During the three months of genocide in 1994 in Rwanda, 100,000 and 250,000 were sexually violated . Oftentimes women are traumatized from the experience. Rape as a weapon of war was and still is being used in both Congo and Rwanda genocides. Although the Congo and Rwanda genocides occurred at different times, the damages and pain inflicted on women through sexual abuse are the same. Rwanda genocide only lasted a short few months, but Congo genocide on the other hand lasted for over a decade and still is going on. Unfortunately Congo women are still experiencing the brutality and harshness of genocidal rape. In this paper I will examine:
The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
Rape as a weapon is not just a way to spur troops but also has a political objection, it is this objective and feminist international relation works makes the experience of war rape more visible in the international political sphere (Farwell, 2004, p.395). Ethnic cleansing can be defined as the intent to make an area ethnically homogeneous by eliminating member of the other ethnic group through systematic use of killings, violence, sexual violence, rape, intimidation, forced deportation (Biken and Bagge Laustsen, 2005, p.113). Therefore Rape in the context of a campaign of ethnic cleansing is done so to bring about the end of the
Congo is Africa’s third largest country, home to over 68 million people. Congo has been referred to as the “Africa’s world war” because according to D.R. Congo genocide awareness, Congo has had an invasion which was known as the Colton war. In the Congo there has been “wars” but throughout those wars and even after there are conflicts like rape/sexual violence, destruction, death, child labor, diseases, poverty and torture. There have been more than five million people whom reach their death including children, women and men in Congo as the site eastern Congo initiative states because of the “wars” and the other conflicts. The democratic republic of Congo has had the deadliest conflict since world war ll. According to united to end genocide the Congo, minerals has a huge impact because it is also used as a weapon. Minerals like gold, tin are being mined by children and they use the minerals to help more campaigns ad to enrich the political leaders and warlords. Genocide is not something rare nor is something that’s everywhere but when it appears it is hard to get rid of.
Within the prison system rioting in prison is no more than a rare occurrence in history as they are normally down to a special reason like the prisoners wanting change to their current predicaments (Carrabine, 2005). Alan Lord’s protest was due to agreed feelings of injustice as the statement made by Lord (1990) stated that the treatment of prisoners is barbaric and that it was only the sentence that reflected the crime and it was highlighted that he wanted to expose the prison systems regime: the torture it puts them through having to live in atrocious conditions (Lord, 2015). Being subjected to inhumane conditions like overcrowding inevitably led prisoners having higher levels of frustration and aggression (Woolf and Tumim, 1991). It is argued
Rape was used as a way to terrorize the population, distract the communities and to change the ethnic composition of the next generations. In this paragraph, we will report a research that figured in Diken’s book Becoming Abject, Rape as a weapon of war. According to Diken , the rape was used in two different ways; as a rite of initiation and in order to recreate distinctions between ethnic groups. Diken found that the majority of the studies of war rape focus either on the woman as victim or on the soldier as aggressor.
The society we live in is rape-conducive, rape-friendly, if you will. Despite the anger I feel joining those two words together, I know the sad paradox holds within it a great deal of truth. We are a violent society that has shrouded rape in mystery and shame. To stop this nightmare’s venomous crusades, all people must wage a private war to eradicate their own acceptance of the savage crime. While it is only a minority of men that actually commit rape, it is everyone’s silence that tells them it’s ok.
It can be argued that rape which occurs during a time of war, has a special social function; to regulate power relations between the male and female gender. During wars rape is employed as a military strategy, as a way of undermining the will and morale of the enemy populations (Seifert, 2014). In societies today, the female is perceived as the one who unites the family, the community, so the mass raping of ‘enemy women’ during war could be a physical and emotional attack aimed at the enemy. “The rape of women of a community, culture, or nation can be regarded … as a symbolic rape of the body of that community” (SEP, 1996). In short, the mass raping of women during a time of war is an effective way to exert power over the
For centuries it was rare for a raped woman to speak out India. Especially in the smaller villages like Dabra, they are branded by the actions of their rapists. To this day, the stigmas are s...