Women In Rwanda Genocide

In “The Longest War,” Rebecca Solnit discusses the vast amount of violence against women and how violence affects women. To begin with, she provides some stark facts: it is statistically proven the male population is more violent than women (522). Additionally, rape takes place more often than the average person knows. This is problematic because violence derives from the need for power and control. Women cannot simply “get out” of violence because of a man’s desire for power over the situation.

“Women aren’t the problem but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity” (Kristof & WuDunn, 2009, p. xviii). This quote does an excellent job of introducing the issues discussed in the book Half the Sky. In this book, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn present us with the issue of the unjust and cruel treatment of women in today’s world. Women throughout the world are treated in unthinkably bad ways, but the majority of people are not even aware of the suffering these women face on a daily basis. According to Kristof and WuDunn (2009), “Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined” (p. 61). However, Kristof and WuDunn (2009) also point out that if something dramatic such as a school shooting or bombing takes place, it makes breaking news, and everyone is aware of it all at once (p. xiv). Plenty of women are being mistreated every minute of

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

Twenty-three years ago, in a small, central African country identified as Rwanda, approximately 1,000,000 individuals belonging to the Tutsi tribe were massacred by a rival tribe, known as the Hutus. The hatred that resulted in the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis originated from a rivalry that was created centuries before the infamous massacre. Living in an agricultural community, the Hutus were traditionally peasant cultivators, while the Tutsis were cattle lopers. Through their work, the Tutsis gained wealth and, consequently, political power. The divide between the Hutus and the Tutsis was only made more dangerous as Europeans traveled to Rwanda, favoring the Tutsis. As the inferior race, the Hutus were denied government positions, higher education, and were forced into slave labor. In retaliation, the Hutus gained political power through a democratic vote put on by Belgian missionaries from the Tutsis through the 8:1 majority ratio. The Tutsi power was completely reversed into total Hutu power, as “the oppressed became the oppressor.”

Beginning on April 7, 1994, the Rwandan Genocide was a period of mass slaughter that followed the closure of the Rwandan Civil War between two major ethnic groups , the Hutus and Tutsis. After the assassination of Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, the uneasy ceasefire between the Hutu controlled government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (who were Tutsi backed rebels) was broken, sparking a systematic effort by police and militia to execute both Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Over the span of several months, Hutu civilians were not only encouraged, but pressured to maim and kill Tutsis - eventually leading to the decimation of 70% of the Tutsi population and 20% of the Hutu population. While the genocide continued, the UN and countries such

The US didn’t really help contribute to the genocide happening in Rwanda in 1994, they tried their best to keep a good distance from Rwanda as well. The US knew that the genocide was happening and we were well aware of the genocide. Bill Clinton found out about the genocide and didn’t show any sympathy or want to help Rwanda. He only worried about the media saying that US is doing nothing to help Rwanda, this media spread. The US claimed that they did not know the genocide was going on and failed to respond to the genocide in any way possible, things began to change but not significantly. Rwanda was not getting the attention they should have been getting when it was a major problem where over five people were killed each minute of the day.

The world is full of events, some are good and some are just plain cruel. Unfortunately humankind more cruel things than good things. Humans are probably the cruelest of them all. Humankind is so cruel that when humans do something other humans don’t like we revert to killing other humans and in severe cases genocide. One of those cases is the Rwandan genocide, it is one of the most recent genocides to happen to the world also it is the fastest and one of the most brutal mass killing in human history.

There were improvements post-genocide; there were more qualified female teachers than male. ( 86.0% to 84.4%). However there was also many problems. Data gathered in 2000, showed that the literacy rate for women was at 47.8% compared to the 58.1% of men.10

The 1994 genocide was a turning point for Rwanda and the voices of women began to resound louder. In the aftermath of the tragedy, women constituted a high proportion of the population. Women were impoverished but were challenged to take charge of their destiny; they were called upon to play a key role in reshaping the country’s direction through enterprise creation and development.

In 1994, tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda culminated in a three-month long civil war that included the massacring of many men, women, and children. At the conclusion of the Rwandan Genocide, the country felt the loss of over 800,000 people, with some estimates calculating the total at well over 1,000,000 (History.com Staff, 2009). The country needed to rebuild. Because women made up a majority of the population, with some estimating nearly 70% directly after the genocide, they were now able and required to fill more political positions than ever before (NPR Staff, 2014).

Throughout the 1600s to the mid 1990s, the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda, and the Hutu tribe of Rwanda have always been arch enemies. Although the Hutus have had a prolonged hate for the Tutsi tribe, this hate was not physically expressed, until 1994. From April to July of 1994, over 80,000 Tutsi people were murdered and tortured for their African heritage. The Rwanda genocide is considered to be one of the worst massacres the world has ever seen since the Holocaust. This paper will touch a few things that occurred after the massacre, and will also answer the questions of why this massacre started, what occurred during this genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a massacre based off of discrimination and hatred for a specific tribal group. This

War, a method people use when communication is useless. In Rwanda, an estimation of 800,000 people had died in such a short time. It was called Rwanda genocide. Rwanda is a small country in Africa with a great agriculture economy. It was controlled by Belgium. Belgium likes the Tutsi's family more than the Hutu's. The Hutu's did not like it so they started violence resulted of the migrating of most of the Tutsi. They were becoming less every time. On 1961, Hutus forced Rwanda's Tutsi Prince into dropping and declaring the country as republic. A year later, Belgium finally granted them their independence. In 1990, the Tutsi formed an army named (RPF) to conquer back their land from Uganda. The attacks started on the 7th of April and ended on

On April 6 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down after leaving a ceasefire negotiation with Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) in Tanzania. Which lead to what is known today as the genocide in Rwanda; a three-month period in which 333 people were killed every hour, or about five people every minute (125). All while the International powers that could have stepped in and made a difference either ignored the situation or supported and enabled the massacre. Gourevitchs book probably provides one of the clearest pictures on the ways that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved with just a little bit of intervention on behalf of the international community, or in some cases the seizure of international intervention. However,

Lately, there a rising number of individuals that claim in order to rehabilitate women offenders and support their victims, we must drive towards a more open-minded understanding of what makes them harm or kill in the first place. Female power and violence were acknowledged and even celebrated in the past. Such figures as Joan of Arc, Boudicca and the Amazon fighters are iconic and renowned, even heroicized. Even today, women in Western and non-Western societies can be found as leaders and officers in the military. Women have proved they are quite capable of violence, sometimes in shocking ways, yet it is usually found to be done with care and planning.

Violence against women is a hidden problem. People have knowledge of it and of how much damage it causes. However, nothing is done about it. People don’t take into account the multiple negative effects it causes on the victims; less do they try to take the issue into hands and try to take action into it. Even though this widespread problem has evolved and has gained international recognition as a threatening situation for women, there is still a long way ahead to fight for a world where women’s rights are treated equally as men and women do not have to suffer in silence due to the many acts of violence committed against them that threaten not only their health but also their lives.