By Alexis Bullin
Trigger Warning: This contains discussion including sexual violence, abuse, warfare, and death.
“I was thirteen when the war spread to my city. I was kidnapped by four sol
diers who locked me in a house where I was raped every day by
different men for eight months. I had a miscarriage while I was there. When the war ended, soldiers wearing unfamiliar uniforms came and told me to go home, but my city had been destroyed and
my family was dead. I moved to Sweden with a man I trusted, and he sold me to a pimp in Stockholm. Later the police sent me back to my country, but I am still afraid to go outside, because I worry that everyone can tell what happened just by looking at me”. The encounter above is told by Suada, a woman from Bosnia-Herzegovina. This encounter is similar for many women and children globally. Manipulation and violation perpe
tuated through war is a growing threat. The instability of war leads to the victimization of women and children in the wake of warfare perpetuating the manipulation of women and children through sexual assault/violence, forced militar
y recruitment, human trafficking and displacement.
Women are often the victims of violence during warfare. They can be killed or maimed but they also suffer sexual violence through war rape. Many times, soldiers view rape as a way to terrorize and humiliate the male members of enemy groups. But women bear the consequences which can include pregnancies and psychological trauma. Women and children are also used for forcible impregnation causing them to bear their rapists’ children. The US labels this a form of implicit genocide, where the rapists take over the bodies of their victims and act to exterminate the indigenous population.
forced pregnancy – a tactic that has been recorded historically and used by Genghis Khan. Forced pregnancy is a form of enacting genocide or slavery. These various attacks and violations against women and children are used as an extension of the battlefield.
In addition, women and children are often forced into serving the military goals of the enemy as forced soldiers or terrorist instruments. Attacks such as these have been seen during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women and children are forcibly recruited and used to facilitate armed conflict and terrorist attacks. This is a direct violation of human right as well as the murder of millions of women and children. Forced soldiers lose their rights to healthcare, education, and autonomy; working against their will, wounding themselves and others.
The political and economic instability of war creates the conditions leading to increased labor and sexual trafficking of women and children. Human trafficking is a global threat, however, areas that are riddled with warfare are subject to exponential spikes in activity. Many women and children are sold or forced into the sex trade. This trade sustains the sexual and mental abuse of women and children. In many places, prostitution is considered illegal and punishable, however, human trafficking is widely tolerated by governmental officials and police. This is true for many areas post-war.
Finally, women and children, are often displaced from their homes and livelihoods after war and bear a disproportionate burden of trying to find sustenance and support for their families. Poverty and displacement effects women and children at a disproportional rate. With the destruction of property, women and children often fall into the direct disadvantage of displacement and poverty. This is often the result of little to no governmental or monetary protection provided to women and children. Women’s responsibilities following war are formidable, considering women are expected to be peacemakers that maintain order on a familial and communal level. Often underrepresented, women and children find themselves excluded from governmental protection. This omittance of protection amplifies the stress and trauma that women and children face in the wake of warfare.
Women and children face adversity daily; however, these adverse circumstances are amplified in the face of war. Using women and children as an extension of the battlefield, whether through sexual violence, forced labor/recruitment, human trafficking or displacement is malice in its deepest form. For too long women and children have been the scape goats for violence and extremism, therefore something has to change. March Twelfth of this year the United Nations met to discuss the threat associated with war that women and children face. Within the next year, they plan to allocate and demand legislation that will protect women and children from the catastrophe and trauma of war. “To the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by a woman. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict” – Aung Sun Suu Kyi.
Alexis Bullin is a Senior at East Carolina University. Graduating with a Bachelor of the arts in Anthropology, Alexis’ main interests are Middle/Near Eastern Ethno-Archaeology, the cross-cultural treatment of women, and the effects of warfare. In her free time, she loves gardening and songwriting.
I enjoyed your choice of topic, I also really liked the quote at the end about how the perpetrators of war are mostly men but women and children are the most victimized and suffer most in warfare. I was very interested by forced pregnancy, something I did not previously know about. I had never though of it as genocide, and that was a very real concept that I am now educated about. I agree that it is a violation through taking over someone’s body to exterminate the enemy’s population. I hope that we can do more to protect this vulnerable population, one that doesn’t belong to the horrors of war and especially one that they did not chose to be part of war.
Yes! When I first started researching the topic, forced pregnancy was a new concept to me. Previously, I had just thought as human trafficking as the number one issue stemming from war; however, I found that women and children face a horrible reality often becoming extensions of the battlefield – being used to perpetuate a silent war. These are important topics and I totally agree with the fact that women and children NEED more protection and relief from the horrors of war.
Thank you so much for reading!
The first time I ever heard about war rape was three years ago, in a Geography class. It was horrible then and reading about it now is still horrible. It pains me that women and girls have to go through such things, at the hands of men — because of war. Like you said, men are the perpetrators of war yet women are the ones who are punished and suffer most. I never equated the concept of forced pregnancy to genocide, until now. Thank you for opening my eyes to this.
It’s an awful reality for women and children in war torn countries. It was a really hard topic to swallow, because it is so sad and horrible. Originally when I decided to do this topic, I was thinking that I would just primarily focus on human trafficking; however, as I started looking more and more into the topic, I felt that it was important to talk about forced pregnancy and war rape as an act of genocide – topics that I had previously been uneducated on as well.
It was very eye opening for me too and thank you so much for reading!
It is terrible to think of these women and children being dragged into something that they have hardly anything to do with and then being punished for it in these horrid ways. I had never heard of forced pregnancy before, that was something I didn’t know existed or being practiced. It is terrible for these innocent women and children to go through these terrible situations. This is something that is hard to psychologically recover from, if they can ever recover. These soldiers have not only scarred them physically, but mentally was well. Those children will never be the same, and will have a hard time ever getting their lives back. It is really a terrible thing to think about.
The quote at the beginning of the op-ed is from a book written by an Anthropologist named Susan Dewey and she quotes multiple women (about 4 or 5) that have stories very similar to Suada. All of these women had stories of being manipulated, raped, abused and dehumanized as an act of war. The trauma women face on a global scale is troubling, sickening and unacceptable.
Thank you so much for reading!
I was also thinking of how in Argentina, the soldiers and families forcefully adopted the children of arrested people and then, raising them as their own children, also enacted a form of genocide. It was only when the grandmothers of those who disappeared kept up a campaign to find them that it all came to light.
Yes! I actually remembering hearing about that recently as well. The act of genocide is so sickening to me. I don’t understand how people can rationalize the act of erasing a culture or group of people. The fact that in many places that women and children are used to perpetuate this cycle is horrible and often goes unchecked, continuing for years without consequence. Very similarly, prior to 2012, Kony of Uganda remained unchecked and unregulated for almost a decade as he murdered thousands of women and children, forced many young girls into human trafficking and trained boys to become child soldiers. It has been a long standing problem globally and I hope that as more research is done, protection for women and children will be enforced disallowing the exploitation of women and children.