Rape. It’s a great, feel-good topic of discussion, isn’t it? Sexual assault isn’t really considered dinner table conversation. While ‘Sex’ is everywhere, and talked about quite openly, sexual assault is that retarded cousin you go to school with but don’t acknowledge in the hallways. It’s embarrassing, a source of shame, and with it comes equal parts sympathy and revulsion. So much so that even victims of sexual assault don’t talk about it; and, sadly, in many cases, don’t report it either.
But how about incidents of sexual assault that everyone knows about but ignores? How about sexual assault as a policy of government? How about sexual assault used as a weapon of war?
Amnesty International report that rape is being used as a military strategy; and it was in Rwanda that acts of sexual violence against Tutsi women were legitimised by government backed, Hutu military leaders through organised propaganda. As a means in which to break the morale of their enemy and increase their own, loot their enemy’s prized possessions, taint the women’s standing in their villages and tribes thereby interrupting their social structures, and to spread AIDS and other STIs. These women were raped, in the most disgusting ways imaginable, solely because of their gender and ethnicity.
When these facts came to light, the world made like Helen Lovejoy and collectively gasped, flabbergasted by the indecency and the inhumanity of it all. But this wasn’t the first instance of rape used in war. Rape and war have been linked since antiquity. Like most — if not all — cases of sexual assault, rape was used to exert dominance and power. This war is a silent one. Read the rest of this entry »
