Rape As A Weapon Of Warfare And Civil Conflicts

“The Longest War” by Rebecca Solnit convinces readers that the violence against women are in the content of the United States and the world. Solnit presented information that is regarding violence and rape statistical and personal views of gender and the inequality of male violence toward comparing women’s violence to men or women. She uses numerical facts ad provides statements of how this affects the way women perceive their surroundings. Solnit clearly makes a strong frequency and violence of rape by listing the details of rape and violence eight times within the first paragraph of the text. She uses many examples of how rape is a gendered issue and how many victims that fall prey to violence which lends us toward an engaging need to

“In the Combat Zone” written by Leslie Marmon, is about how the roles of women have been taught for generations. Women are smaller and weaker, and that we are sitting ducks waiting to be victims by our prey. Women are taught to be easy targets by their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. They were told that women should not kill, or use weapons. In this essay Leslie Marmon, explains that we can put a stop to the crimes done against women by strangers. Females must learn how to take aggressive action individually. In the 20th century woman no longer have to fit in the box that they have been put in. We can defend and protect ourselves.

The future of genocidal intervention must allow us to move beyond a definition affixed to body counts, and particularly when we don’t gender those victims. By gendering the way violence impacts both men and women, we can both detect genocidal acts earlier as well as paying attention to the act of rape as genocidal in and of itself. While those who committed these acts certainly are evil, to understand the gendered logic (if it can be called such) of violence is conducted provides us better perspective in identifying it within conflicts, and understand which populations are at risk and in what ways.

According to ICRtoP, the Democratic Republic of Congo is reported to be the “rape capital of the world” with an estimated 15,000 rape cases in the Congo’s eastern provinces alone. Rape is a tool of war used by the various armed forces in the Congo in order to “create instability in

Rape has been a weapon of war for as long as armies have marched into battle. By the 20th century, attitudes of rape in war have gone from something that is inevitable because men are deprived of female companionship for long periods of time

“The gendered character of warfare is extraordinarily consistent across human cultures. This war system is among the most consistently gendered of human activities. Every known society assigns war roles differentially by gender, with men as the primary fighters (and usually the only ones). Since nearly every society has war in its social repertoire, gendered war roles have broad social ramifications.” (War and Gender, Goldstein, Joshua S.)

During the Rwandan genocide, some rapes occurred recurrently throughout a timespan. “Sexual enslavements occurred when a woman was detained, typically in the house of an Interhamwe, and subjected to repeated sexual assaults over a period of days,” (Mullins 727). These kinds of rapes belong in their own category because of the added element of confinement and intent to continually rape and therefore, harm. An Interhamwe soldier named Rafiki, personally sought out one Tutsi woman whom he had

Rape can be used as a weapon of war and is a common occurrence in prisons. For the purpose of this presentation, we will be focusing on civil societies, especially as the topic was covered last year.

Gender is an often a contentious term, feminist scholars have introduced this vital term to the language of international relations. Since its inception, gender is most prominent in distinguishing the differences between male and female, however it has articulated different interpretations by both parties in different realms of thought. The duration of this paper will help to explore the different definitions of gender and its associations with the practices of war. This paper will look into how power is used as a gendering tool to exert ones dominance over the other, with a close look at how rape is used as a tactical tool for warfare. As society portrays women as vulnerable, helpless victims, this paper seeks to look into how power can influence women as the perpetrator but also an option for resolution in conflict.

While they were on their way out of Kabul, the truck that Amir was riding on had to stop at a checkpoint. There were two soldiers at this checkpoint, and they wanted to see what was in the truck. Amir watched the Russian soldier, as he stared each passenger and finally, his eyes landed on a woman in a black shawl. The soldier told Karim what he wanted and Karim said, “the soldier wanted a half hour with the lady in the back of the truck” (111). The soldier clearly wanted to rape the lady as a payment for letting them pass. This shows how women used their body as a payment. They let the men do as they please to their body, with no question. They don’t resist against them because they know that they are just tools for pleasure.

In “Rape as Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victim's’ Perspective” by Anna Maedl, It begins to describe the problems around the community and how some respond with rape to help it stop. Rape as a Weapon used against people? For me it doesn't matter if you deserve to suffer, rape isn’t something to be played with or become an answer to a problem. “Indiscriminate violence against civilians, including mass rape and sexual torture, are not an exception in so-called “new wars”18 or “complex political emergencies,”19 but are the modus operandi by which these armed conflicts are fought.” (Rape 131) Modus Operandi? Which means a new way of doing things, but why rape? During the wars they believed as something normal one could do to another country’s women, yet after the massive rapes happening many women were destroyed emotionally. Not only did they chances to marry pure has disappeared, but also they are unable to even look at their love one like they did normally. When a person rapes another person, I think of them as animal that shouldn’t be considered human. Why don’t they think, “what happens if someone was raping one of my family member? How would they feel? And what would I do?” they don’t think about the consequences of the victim and of the child they may posses in the near future. However, even though the research that was conducted knew there were massive of rapes, they were able to conclude a concise number because of the numerous women who didn’t want to be interviewed of the situation that happened to them. What makes me angered is most of the victims were unable to fight back for their freedom because about 90.9% of the attackers were carrying weapons like pistols, spears and Machetes/knifes (Rape 140). Though I was unable to get a clear picture on which side Anna was trying to argue with, I have a clear statement on how the victims felt and the massive rape that was happening during the wars like World War II.

Women between the ages of 15 to 44 are at a greater risk of rape than cancer, malaria and a motor accident (Wood, 2009). According to Amnesty International (2014), 40 women are raped everyday in South Kivu regarding the on-going armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sexual violence during armed conflict has historically been known as one of the legitimate spoils of war (Brown, 2011). Spoils of war result from defeating a population and claiming benefits due to its instability. Thus violence towards civilian’s asserts dominance, however the implications involved must be rooted to deeper consequences to a nation. In this essay I will argue that rape is perpetrated against women

I have always known that some victims are regarded as more “ideal” than others; however, after reading this chapter, I am utterly overwhelmed by sadness arising from the fact that some women will commit horrific crimes. I do not believe that society is completely ready, nor will ever be ready to see women in military positions capable of committing crimes of murder, rape, and kidnapping. Some victims are, therefore, regarded as more “ideal” than others.

Analyze Rape as a tool of war under light of decisions by ICTY and the ICTR?

To this day, I can discretely remember watching an episode of war in an historical Indian drama where the men were out fighting a war, while women left in the city gathered in preparation for Jauhar. Innocently, I asked my mom what the women were doing. They are preparing for the possibility that their army might lose the battle. I didn’t understand her answer at the time, in fact it slipped my mind until I started reading If We Were Birds. Researching the usage of rape as a tactic of war and reading the two works have enhanced my understanding such that I am now able to infer, very accurately, the meaning behind my mom’s incomplete explanation. Like Philomela, I can remember a time when I wasn’t afraid of the dark and was blissfully unaware