Category: Rape as a weapon of war

Systematic Rape: Weapon of Choice

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By Kyli Lepine

Have you ever wondered exactly how realistic video games are? Warlike video games such as Call of Duty have become increasingly popular in modern society, typically with a rifle as the weapon of choice. The game is based on the events of World War II and includes a variety of explosions, enemy bases to overthrow and plenty of victims to destroy.

However, games like this neglect to highlight the true weapon of choice during war, systematic rape.

Sexual violence against women has been a vital weapon of war since the beginning of humanity with reported accounts during armed conflicts in Rwanda, Germany, Bosnia, Cambodia, Uganda, and Vietnam. The relationship between sexual violence and war is defined through Skjelsbæk’s Three Conceptualizations:

  1. Essentialism- any and all women are potential victims; This is used in order to establish a sense of militaristic masculinity.
  2. Structuralism- women are targeted based on membership to a specific ethnic, religious, or political group; This is used as form of “ethnic cleansing” to punish a specific group.
  3. Social Constructionism- both men and women are targeted. This is used to establish dominance and masculinity in the attacker and submission and femininity in the victim.

The true events of World War II resulted in over one million mothers, sisters, and daughters being gang raped in Germany alone. Some reports of up to 20 men in uniform at a time. The Soviet Red army participated in a form of Essentialism when they raped any and every woman no matter their age. The goal was to show militaristic power over Germany in every possible way.

The Rwandan Genocide is the clearest example of Structuralism in reference to wartime sexual violence. The Hutu militias are responsible for the systematic rape of hundreds of thousands of Tutsi women and girls. The targeted gang rapes were often preformed in public town squares so the girls would be humiliated, afterwards they would be mutilated by a machete or deliberately infected with HIV. The ultimate objective for the Hutu was the systematic ethnic cleansing of Tutsi minorities from the population of Rwanda.

A few consequences of wartime sexual violence can be death, disease, and mental subversion. If these women were not killed immediately after the attack, she was at risk of committing suicide or contracting a purposed disease (HIV, AIDS). Survivors of wartime rape typically experience higher levels of Post-traumatic stress and anxiety than non-sexual survivors of war.

The consequences did not stop with the survivor, they often extended to the child conceived as a result. Some women would commit infanticide or abandon the babies at birth. Malicious terms were created to describe these children, such as “War Child” or “Fruit of Hate”. They were isolated, discriminated against, and often disowned by family members.

Attention needs to be brought to the fact that systematic rape during war is a grievous act of inhumanity. This can be achieved by:

  • Informing and Encouraging others to share their story and demand to be heard. Ignoring rape harms women by reinforcing the belief that “female” is synonymous with “victim”.
  • Forcing informative sexual education on both girls and boys. Girls are often taught to avoid the dangers of men, all within the age old saying “Boys will be boys”. Girls are taught that we must accept the advances from men because “they don’t know any better” Ideas of hyper masculinity encourage aggressive behavior in men which endangers women under the promise of sexual rewards.
  • Removing the stigma that sexual violence is a result of sending men to war. Wartime rape is not performed for the pleasure of the attacker, but to humiliate the victim under a vicious attack.
  • Petitioning for United Nations to enforce militaristic reform on systematic rape as a tool of war.

To act against this injustice, considering supporting many of the organizations who are working to end the use of systematic rape on women during war, such as:

These organizations provide firsthand opportunities to assist these women through emergency shelters, hotlines, and escape routes as well as initiatives towards the prevention of wartime rape. They enforce women’s voices in governmental institutions to ensure they are complying with their commitments to end systematic wartime rape.

Within the manifestation of the next war, may it in your backyard or across the globe, it is our responsibility to ensure that a woman’s body is no longer considered a continuation of the battlefield.

 

Kyli Lepine is senior at East Carolina University who will graduate in December 2020 with a double major in Anthropology and International Studies and a minor in Ethnic Studies. After graduation, Kyli hopes to pursue a career in international human rights or cultural diversity reform. In her spare time, Kyli enjoys playing with her dog, Azkaban.

The Cataclysmic Ripples of War in the Lives of Women and Children

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transgender person allegedly gang-raped in Peshawar

The culprits also threatened to kill S* if she disclosed to anyone about the incident. PHOTO: EXPRESS

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1615383/1-transgender-kidnapped-gang-raped-peshawar

https://www.dawn.com/news/1384776

A transgender, whom was advocating for the rights of the transgender community, was first kidnapped and then gang-raped by at least nine people in the Gulbahar neighborhood of Peshawar. The culprits also threatened to kill her if she were to say anything about the incident. This was an obvious attack on the LGBT community. They picked the victim up and raped them throughout the night.The following day after being released, the victim wrote in a complaint that was filed at the city’s Police Station however, they never registered the complaint or even sent the victim for a medical evaluation.

The Gulbahar Police Station rejected the victim’s claim and tried to accuse her of her “false” allegations of gang rape. The victim was then targeted for speaking up on the violence that went on against the LGBT community and was then warned not to take part in any future opportunities to advocate for rights of the transgender community or else she would be killed.

Question: Is it necessary to pose a threat so serious as death to someone who is fighting for their right to simply be who they are?

The Express Tribune. Transgender kidnapped, gang-raped in Peshawar. January 23, 2018. <https://tribune.com.pk/story/1615383/1-transgender-kidnapped-gang-raped-peshawar.> May 28, 2018.

Akbar, Ali.DAWN.COM. Transgender person allegedly gang-raped in Peshawar. January 23, 2018. <https://www.dawn.com/news/1384776.> May 28, 2018.

India rape cases spark political protest movement

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/16/asia/india-rape-bjp-protests-intl/index.html

 

In India, thousands of women have come together to protest the high rates of rape cases. The protest was started after a 2012 rape and murder case resurfaced because of a political official who was not charged for his crime early 2018. Specifically, these women are after high-profile men who have been getting away with a clean slate after being accused of rape. Most of the rape-murder crimes have involved girls from the ages of 6-10. In addition, since 2015, India has had an increase of rape cases by 12 .

 

Do you think that activism can help decrease violence against women? Or do you think that activism creates a stronger resentment to women’s crimes?

Punishing Rape with More Rape? DRC Trauma Stories

Last week, Lauren Wolfe of Women Under Siege wrote about the rape and violence of everyday life in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This violence is tearing families apart. Men, women, and children are caught in the horrors of war and the men are fighting for a sense of control. Husbands of women who have been raped often choose to leave their wives because these women have “lost their value.” 43% of men surveyed thought men whose wives had been raped should leave. Those women whose husbands choose to stay are often beaten or raped again. More than half of these men reported perpetuating some form of violence against their wives. Rape among civilians has increased 17-fold and violence, trauma, hunger, and poverty are rampant and studies have found that men are dealing with the trauma by inflicting more violence, usually on their wives and children. Researchers state that “Family has become the battlefield where men try to regain control and power that is lost elsewhere in life.”  Lindsay Cortwright

Living Peace is an organization that is trying to promote community support for families that have experienced trauma because of the war and giving hope to these scarred communities. You can read the full article here.

Mass Rape in War: History’s Forgotten Victims

Lena Jones

As George Santayana famously quoted in his book Reason and Common Sense, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” These words foreshadow a sad and sickening future for women and girls of all walks of life in every corner of the globe. Mass rape in warfare has been an ongoing problem since the beginning of human history. Evidence suggests that there were mass rapes during the Trojan War and the First Crusade as well as from the American Revolution through World War II and in subsequent political actions since, including, Vietnam, Bosnia, Rwanda, and even the War on Terror of today. Approximately 130,000 women and girls were victims of repeated rapes committed by Soviet soldiers in Berlin following the liberation in WWII. In 1993, the number of victims of war rape in the Bosnian conflict was estimated to be between 20,000 and 50,000. The following year in Rwanda saw between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls suffer brutal and systematic rapes during the ethnic war between the Tutsi and Hutu. These numbers are staggering, and yet I did not learn about any of these statistics until I began graduate school – why is that? Why is an issue that directly affects half the world population (women) and indirectly affects the other half (everyone has a mother!) not deemed important enough to grace the pages of our history books, or to be taught to our children a long side Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of the Alamo?

There seems to be a solid consensus regarding the magnitude of this problem among the Women’s Studies and Feminist academic communities, which leads me to question the reasoning behind history’s continued deletion of these atrocities from its pages. Why do these awful things keep happening to women, and on such a large scale? And why does no one seem to care? Why is it not worthy of our attention? Why aren’t women important? If we cannot even begin to acknowledge the magnitude at which these atrocities occur, then what hope do we have as a species to ever assuage the problem? Unfortunately, these traumatic experiences of women in armed conflicts throughout the ages are practically the same, which necessitates a consideration the underlying causes of the continued sexual torture of women in wartime. Two theoretical explanations predominate: that of the socialization of traditional masculine values and rape as a military tactic. If causal factors such as these are indeed to blame, then what can possibly be done to stop it? And furthermore, why are these widespread atrocities continually deleted from the pages of history?

The socialization of hyper-masculine traits in men is suggested to be a direct causal factor in both rape and war, and cultures which are more frequently engaged in armed conflict also have higher instances of sexual violence against women, including during peacetime. Widespread sexual violence in warfare is seen by many to be a strategic military tactic. Women are often viewed as the stitching that holds their community together, be it through the passing down of traditions and cultures or simply through the act of reproduction. With violent prone men engaged in armed conflict against an “enemy” population, it is not difficult to see how mass rape could be utilized in such a nefarious way…but why the omission from history? I believe that as a patriarchal society (and others, as well) that we do not hold women in the esteem that validates their experiences (or their importance as a woman) as being worthy of our attention, especially when there is a “bigger” issue at play – namely the war itself.

I call to action every government of every country, every media entity, every teacher and every person everywhere to stand up and say: “Yes, this has happened, and this has continued to happen, but we will not stand for it to happen anymore.” Until we take personal responsibility for ensuring an end to the atrocities that these women have and continue to suffer, we are condemned to condone and repeat them. The subject of mass and systematic war-rape is worthy of public discourse and discussion in every history classroom (not just academics that focus on women’s issues), but any and every history class. These outrages are a part of our history, and should not continue to be ignored. To do so will only condemn generations of women to this same fate, as well as to continue to disavow and discount the experiences of those in the past.

 

Lenna Jones is a first year graduate student at East Carolina University in the departments of Sociology and Women’s Studies. She received her BS degree in Criminal Justice from ECU in 2010. Lenna’s research interests are in rape myth acceptance and the criminal justice system, and is currently working on her thesis which is looking at the relationship between police officer education and the attrition of sexual assault cases at the investigative stages.

 

Some testimonies, historical photos, and other resources about comfort women

The following link goes to the e-Museum for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery.

http://www.hermuseum.go.kr/eng/en_index.asp

It provides some precious testimonies including late Hak-soon Kim’s historic confession in the year of 1991. It was the first confession for ‘coming out of the closet’ that she was a comfort women in Korea. And it definitely exploded the anti-Japanese mass protests and concentrated people’s awareness on this issue in Korea (in combination of some political troubles). The following figure presents the newspaper coverage of comfort women issue in Korea.

(Compilation Source: the Kyunghyang Daily, 1960-2010)

(Click to see a larger image)

When you visit this homepage, instead of Firefox, Explorer or Google Chrome is more recommended to use videoclips and some photos. Unfortunately, almost all videoclips do not have English subtitle.

Hyun Woo Kim