Sexual Violence in Wartime: Effects and Prevention
Sexual assault has been defined as “physical attack of a sexual nature on another person, or a sexual act committed without explicit consent”. Historically, sexual assault has been perceived as a sexual crime of men against women, although at present, it has been acknowledged that men can be victims and women can be perpetrators. However, sexual violence against men and boys often goes unreported and unchecked due to a combination of factors, such as prevailing notions of men as being aggressive and women being submissive. Sexual assault is often surrounded by a cloud of secrecy and shame; victims are often pressured and discouraged from speaking out on their experiences. Their families and communities often see victims as sources of shame (“dishonour”, in some cultures) and may blame them for the attacks rather than the culprits. This is especially true in family and community contexts, where the culprit could be a man with some form of power over his (usually female) victim. Misogynistic beliefs are common in patriarchal societies, and could lead female victims and those around them to believe that sexual assault has made them “impure” or unfit for marriage. Such concepts could lead to not reporting instances of assault, for fear of isolation and retribution from the offender or the community. In extreme cases, female victims of sexual assault may be murdered by their own relatives in honor killings.
War and conflict has long been a source of devastation to people and communities. Many times, wars have resulted in the extinction or near extinction of entire cultures (cultural genocide) .Apart from the deaths and maiming of combatants and noncombatants, starvation and disease often result from destruction of arable land, closure of trade and commercial routes, and reduced access to, or fouling of water sources by armed forces.
One “unique” weapon, a prominent feature of most wars, is sexual assault. Such attacks are carried out primarily by male combatants against people who are members of opposing groups. Some prominent examples include the rape of German women by advancing Russian troops during World War Two, the sexual enslavement of 200 000 Korean women by Japanese soldiers in that same war, and the genocidal rape of Tutsi women in the Rwandan conflict.
When conflicts are racial or ethnic in nature, a more devastating aspect to sexual assault appears. The crime then becomes a way of destroying the genetic and ethnic integrity of the attacked tribe, using the bodies of women as vehicles. Children born of such unions, in patriarchal societies, would be counted as members of the rival tribe or race. Such instances have been termed genocidal rape. Emma Wax, in her 2003 Washington Post article, We Want to Make a Light Baby, details the horrific experiences of women and children subjected to such rapes by members of the Janjaweed and associated armed groups in Darfur. In more recent times, rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages have been seen with armed extremist groups, such as Boko Haram (in Northern Nigeria) ,al-Shabab in Yemen and East Africa, and the ISIS.
While such cases are typically the most prominent instances, it has been pointed out that women in desperate states induced by armed conflicts, may be forced into unwanted sexual activity in order to obtain resources for survival. In this case then, the violation of bodily autonomy of women is a direct consequence of the devastation of war.
It has been shown then, that sexual assault, especially when it is targeted at women caught up in racial and ethnic conflicts, is a horrific combination of the scourges of sexual violence and armed violence. Each affects women disproportionately -- women make up the majority of those who “survive” dying by violence since they are not typically in direct combat, and sexual violence against women feeds off misogynistic beliefs that delineate women as submissive slaves, as property and as objects.
What then, can be done concerning the use of sexual assault as a weapon in conflict? Until some decades ago, rape and sexual violence was considered an acknowledged part of war, according to Inger Skaelsbæk, a professor who studies sexual violence in war, at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. It must be noted that sexual violence can be inflicted by players on all sides of conflict, not just the so called rebels or extremists. For example, there have been accusations of sexual assault targeting Colombian women and children, being perpetrated by US troops stationed there.
Thus, it is important, that any and all governments involved in armed conflict, have a responsibility to ensure that their forces do not commit (or protect those who commit) such acts. Furthermore, these governments must make and enforce laws that make sexual assault a major crime, both in wartime and peacetime contexts. In the absence of legitimate governments, organisations such as the United Nations, or regional bodies (for example, ECOWAS in West Africa) acting through their agents (such as troops sent for peacekeeping) would have the duty of preventing such actions, and reporting culprits and their abetters to the appropriate institutions for justice.
But it is not enough to simply enforce and punish. The survivors of sexual assault should not be ignored or neglected. It must be understood that survivors of sexual violence in wartime must not only deal with the trauma of losing relatives or suffering the, supposedly common effects of war. They must also deal with the widespread culture of silence imposed on survivors of sexual violence. This silence must end. Survivors must be allowed to speak up and share their experiences. They should be allowed to reintegrate with their families and communities. They must not be ostracized because of what was done to them.
As a boon, people in such situations can be empowered with the resources they need to have more control over their lives. If resources such as food and money are available to people and their families, they are less likely to find themselves in situations where sexual violence can be inflicted on them. This is especially true of wartime situations.
Male survivors face unique challenges, especially due to common cultural beliefs that stigmatize males who are assaulted, as being "not strong enough." Adequate counselling and care should be provided, and efforts should be made for them to be adequately reabsorbed into their host communities. These measures will often require challenging long held beliefs that associate rape with an inferior sexuality, thus describing male survivors of sexual assault as “not being real men”.
In conclusion, we must acknowledge that in many ways, the actions and occurrences during wartime are a direct reflection of the state of that society in peacetime. Thus, the prevention of abhorrent behaviour such as genocidal rape, must begin with the correction of beliefs that give rise to such things. Among other things, this means that people can and must be educated to understand that “women and girls, are just as valuable as men and boys”; When this is done, we will be closer to a truly peaceful world, a world that protects all its citizens, especially its most vulnerable, from the threat of all forms of violence.
References:
Sexual Assault. Definition retrieved from Wiktionary: “Sexual Assault” Wiktionary. Retrieved from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sexual_assault
Chris Dolan, Into the Mainstream: Addressing Sexual Violence against Men and Boys in Conflict. A briefing paper prepared for the workshop held at the Overseas Development Institute, London, 14 May 2014: Dolan, Chris. "Into the Mainstream: Addressing Sexual Violence against Men and Boys in Conflict." A briefing paper prepared for the workshop held at the Overseas Development Institute, London, 14 May 2014.
Raghu N. Singh, Honor Killings/Sociology/Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from: Singh, Raghu N. "Honor Killings/Sociology/Encyclopedia Britannica." Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/honor-killing
Definition of Cultural Genocide, on Wikipedia. Retrieved from: “Cultural Genocide” Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_genocide
Sherrie L. Russell, Rape as An Act of Genocide, 21 Berkeley. Journal of International Law. 350 (2003) Available at: Russell, Sherrie L. "Rape as An Act of Genocide." 21 Berkeley Journal of International Law, 350 (2003). Available at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bjil/vol21/iss2/5
Definition of Genocidal rape, Wikipedia. Retrieved from: “Genocidal Rape” Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocidal_rape
Kristine Grønhaug, Rape as a Weapon of War: Quiet, cheap and scarily efficient. Published on the official website of Flyktinghelpen, Norwegian Refugee Council. Retrieved from: Grønhaug, Kristine. "Rape as a Weapon of War: Quiet, Cheap and Scarily Efficient." Flyktinghelpen, Norwegian Refugee Council. Retrieved from: http://www.nrc.no/shorthand/stories/rape-as-a-weapon-of-war/index.html
Columbians Accuse US soldiers and Officials of Sexual Assault and Rape, Time.com. Retrieved from: “Colombians Accuse US soldiers and Officials of Sexual Assault and Rape” Time.com. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/3823044/colombia-us-soldiers-rape/%3famp=true
Quote from Katie Urteaga Villanueva
About the author:
Blessing Oziama lives in Lagos, Nigeria. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, in 2022. Her non-fiction writing explores how the perception of gender influences societal realities.
