The War on Women

I recently came across a list of the Ten Worst Countries to be a Woman. It was a grim list of places where women have little opportunity or where they are actively discriminated against. The second worst country for women to live was the Democratic Republic of Congo. When I think about the different ways women’s bodies become sites for social and political control, it is imposible to escape the topic of sexual violence. It is a really horrible topic, but sexual violence against women is the most brutal and oldest form of attack against women’s bodies and psyches.

A few months ago, I wrote an essay on the impact of war on women’s health and bodies. It was around the time when the UN Security Council was passing a resolution to end sexual violence as a tactic of war. When it comes to war, women and children bear the brunt of civilian casualties in all the recent conflicts in the DRC, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda parts of the former Russian Federation among others. Women and girls are subject to sexual torture, sexual slavery, military rape, mutilation and other extremely violent acts. Military rape is actually a tactic of war, it is used to brutalize and humiliate civilians and weaken the communities. It has even been used for ethnic cleansing by impregnating women. There are those who die a “clean death” from sexual violence, but for the women who survive, it is often a “living death” filled with life-long psychological trauma as well as social and cultural stigma, not to mention the morbidity from infections such as HIV and poor reproductive health outcomes. All in all, it is beyond devastating.

Of all the many wars that are going on around the world right now, thousands of women (and girls) become targets simply because they are women. Here is a video from Women for Women International on the situation in DRC and the organization’s initiative for rehabilitating victims of sexual violence and stigma. This is one topic that seems so huge and hopeless, but it is one that definitely needs great attention and real intervention.