The number of reported cases of sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence worldwide do not come close to revealing the actual number. Underreporting may be caused by a variety of factors including the fear of not being believed by the police, self-blame, fears that other people will blame them for what happened, not equating what has happened to them with the legal definition of rape, or fears of being re-victimized by the criminal justice system during a trial.[1] Through available statistics, however, it is widely accepted that “sexual assault is a pervasive problem in all societies.”[2]
Though the physical and psychological consequences of sexual violence will be discussed more fully in another post, it is important to briefly discuss some of the most common here in order to highlight the severity of this crime. Common consequences include genital injuries and gynecological complications, bleeding, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, and urinary tract infections. Psychological effects may include shock, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, disturbed sleep, relationship problems, and loss of self-esteem.[3]
Whether sexual violence occurs in conflict or during times of peace, the effects on women are horrific. Further, all rape stems from the same roots – hatred of women and the desire to control or inflict pain. Many of my posts about sexual violence, however, will focus more on sexual violence during conflict for several reasons. First, throughout much of military history, sexual violence has been used by soldiers for a variety of reasons including punishing the enemy, spreading fear, controlling civilian populations, or as part of a campaign of expulsion or ethnic cleansing. However, despite its long history, women’s experiences of sexual violence during conflict have remained largely hidden. It was not until widespread and systemic sexual violence was reported during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s that international and scholarly attention began to shift to women’s experiences of sexual violence during war.
As Susan Brownmiller points out, rape in war is nothing new.[4] In recent history, mass rape was used in numerous conflicts, including the 20,000 Chinese women raped, sexually tortured, and murdered in Nanking in 1937 and the rape of 200,000 women in Bangladesh in 1971.[5] Rape was also widespread in both World Wars and more recently in Europe in Bosnia,[6] as well as in numerous conflicts in Latin America and Africa. Brownmiller also emphasizes an important point concerning the depictions of war rape and the attention these crimes traditionally received by the international community:
The plight of raped women as casualties of war is given credence only at the emotional moment when the side in danger of annihilation cries out for world attention. When the military histories are written, when the glorious battles for independence become legend, the stories are glossed over, discounted as exaggerations, deemed not serious enough for inclusion in scholarly works. And the women are left with their shame.[7]
In other words, despite the use of rape throughout the centuries, most historical instances of sexual violence never received adequate attention or prosecution.[8] Rape was often viewed as an “inevitable by-product” of war and ignored in military histories, military tribunals, and international humanitarian law, even when rape and forced prostitution were mass and systemic.[9]
Second, due to the large number of women who have been subjected to sexual violence in recent conflicts, it is imperative that this phenomenon be publicly discussed and examined in order to better understand how it occurs and then what steps must be taken in order to eradicate it. Finally, since sexual violence in many societies is an issue shrouded in shame and secrecy, especially if victims belong to the “losing” side of a conflict, allowing women to speak publicly about their experiences serves a two-fold purpose. It promotes dialogue on a sensitive topic and encourages the international community to hold perpetrators accountable. It is for these reasons, therefore, that several of my posts will discuss the theoretical explanations for rape during conflict, as well as examine several specific country case studies in order to better understand this crime against humanity.
Before examining theoretical explanations, however, it is important to first discuss sexual violence in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These are two of the most notorious cases of sexual violence in recent history and through an analysis of these two cases, many scholars have developed theories to help explain why sexual violence is often used in such a widespread and systemic nature in many of the world’s recent conflicts.
Sexual Violence in the Former Yugoslavia
Rape, sexual violence, and sexual slavery were used extensively in Bosnia during the 1990s.[10] The historical events leading up to the war in the former Yugoslavia are beyond the scope of this post, however, certain elements of the conflict as they relate to sexual violence are important. After Joseph Tito’s death in 1980, long-standing ethnic and religious tensions flared up again along with increased nationalistic sentiments.[11] Many Serbs believed they had been treated poorly during Tito’s time in power and had suffered more than people in other regions through “economic and political discrimination at the hands of the Croats and the Slovenes.”[12] These ethnic and political rivalries, as well as strong nationalist sentiments prevalent in the country after Tito’s death, set the stage for the resulting violent conflict.[13]
By 1991, Serbia desired to create a Greater Serbia in order to unite all Serbians in one state that would include a large portion of the territory of Bosnia, while at the same time Croatia planned on creating a Croatian territory out of the remaining sections of Bosnia. This desire for territory led to a clash over Bosnia between these two powers.[14] In 1992, when Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, war erupted. Mass rape was used as a weapon in this conflict and the majority of rapes were committed by Serbian men against Muslim women.[15]
Rape spread terror across the conquered territories… It often involved gang rapes that were performed in public places as a spectacle that would terrorize the local population and induce them to flee the region….Women were also transported from rape camps to the front lines for the entertainment of soldiers. Women in the camps were raped frequently, with an alleged strategy by their captors to impregnate them in an effort to breed Serbian children.[16]
Approximately 200,000 people died in the war, two million were displaced, and at least 60,000 women were raped.[17]
Sexual Violence in Rwanda
Catrien Bijleveld et al. discuss how rape was used deliberately in the Rwandan genocide to destroy “in whole or in part” the Tutsi community.[18] The authors estimate that a little more than 350,000 women, mostly Tutsi, were raped during the genocide.[19]
During the Rwandan genocide, neighbours killed their own neighbours with machetes and knives while the Hutu government publicly exhorted Hutus on the radio to attack Tutsi men, women, and children.[20] Mass rape was an important component of the genocide:
Frequently, rape was merely a prelude to death. Some of the women were penetrated with tools of all sorts—spears, gun barrels, bottles or the stamens of banana trees. Women’s sexual organs were mutilated with machetes, boiling water and acid…Assailants sometimes mutilated women in the course of a rape or before killing them. They cut off breasts, punctured the vagina with spears, arrows, or pointed sticks, or cut off or disfigured body parts that looked particularly ‘Tutsi,’ such as long fingers or thin noses. They also humiliated the women.[21]
Christopher Mullins examines the “nature and dynamics of sexual violence” during the 1994 Rwandan genocide through an analysis of testimonies given to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).[22] He identifies three main forms of sexual violence during the genocide. First, opportunistic rapes were a product of the chaos of the genocide, they did not seem to be controlled or organized, and were motivated by individual desire for sexual gratification or pre-existing ethnic tension. This was the least common of the three categories of rape. Second, sexual enslavement involved cases where women were abducted or detained, usually in the home of an Interhamwe, for the specific purpose of on-going rape and other forms of sexual violence. Finally, structured genocidal rapes were carried out as part of the genocide, were often ordered and/or encouraged by those in positions of authority, and were “accompanied by additional forms of violence, humiliation and mutilation.” These rapes were the most common of the cases analyzed by the author and were part of a larger plan to eliminate an entire group of people.[23]
It was the widespread sexual violence in Rwanda and Bosnia in the early 1990s that began to awaken the world to a long-standing practice perpetrated by soldiers and members of armed groups throughout history. Despite this realization, however, sexual violence continues to be used as a strategic weapon in conflicts throughout the world.
[1] “Prevalence of Sexual Assault.” Stop Violence against Women: A Project of the Advocates for Human Rights (February 1, 2006). http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Assault_as_a_Form_of_Sexual_Violence.html (accessed July 23, 2010).
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Health Consequences of Sexual Assault.” Stop Violence against Women: A Project of the Advocates for Human Rights (February 1, 2006). http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Assault_as_a_Form_of_Sexual_Violence.html (accessed July 23, 2010).
[4] Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37.
[5] Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars,” Women's Studies International Forum vol. 19, no. 1-2 (Jan-Apr 1996): 37. AND Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37. AND Julie Stone Peters and Andrea Wolper, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights by Rhonda Copelon (Routledge, 1995), 197-198.
[6] Michela Wrong, “The Hierarchy of Horrors,” New Statesman vol. 136, issue 4864 (October 1, 2007): 23.
[7] Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37.
[8] Nancy Farwell, “War Rape: New Conceptualizations and Responses,” Affilia-Journal of Women and Social Work vol. 19, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 390.
[9] Julie Stone Peters and Andrea Wolper, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights by Rhonda Copelon (Routledge, 1995), 197-198. AND Nancy Farwell, “War Rape: New Conceptualizations and Responses,” Affilia-Journal of Women and Social Work vol. 19, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 389.
[10] Devorah West, “Radical Racial Ideals and Sexual Violence: Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nazi Germany,” Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (Brown University, Santa Fe Institute, Summer 2005): 21. AND Inger Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor: Narrated Social Identities of Women Who Experienced Rape during the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Feminism & Psychology vol. 16, no. 4 (November 2006): 373.
[11] Cindy S. Snyder, Wesley J. Gabbard, J. Dean May and Nihada Zulcic, “On the Battleground of Women's Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Affilia vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 184.
[12] Devorah West, “Radical Racial Ideals and Sexual Violence: Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nazi Germany,” Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (Brown University, Santa Fe Institute, Summer 2005): 23.
[13] Cindy S. Snyder, Wesley J. Gabbard, J. Dean May and Nihada Zulcic, “On the Battleground of Women's Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Affilia vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 184.
[14] Ibid., 189.
[15] Ibid., 189.
[16] Ibid., 190.
[17] Patricia Weitsman, “The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (2007): 12. AND Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars,” Women's Studies International Forum vol. 19, no. 1-2 (Jan-Apr 1996): 35.
[18] Catrien Bijleveld, Aafke Morssinkhof, and Alette Smeulers, “Counting the Countless: Rape Victimization During the Rwandan Genocide,” International Criminal Justice Review vol. 19, no. 2 (June 2009): 208.
[19] Ibid., 208.
[20] Patricia Weitsman, “The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (2007): 16.
[21] Ibid., 17-18, 20.
[22] Christopher W. Mullins, “’We Are Going To Rape You And Taste Tutsi Women:’ Rape During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide,” British Journal of Criminology vol. 49, no. 6 (2009): 719.
[23] Ibid., 726-728.
