Sexual And Gender Based Violence As A Weapon Of War In Darfur

Yesterday, I attended a forum on the “The Darfur Conflict: The Use and Impact of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War”. The event was hosted by Fordham University’s Leitner Center for International Law and Justice. The speaker, Ms. Joe Read, is the Darfur Fellow at Physician for Human Rights. Ms. Read has done extensive work with various humanitarian organizations, international NGO’s, and academic studies on the conflict in Darfur as it relates to sexual and gender based violence against women. I wanted to share notes that I took on the event with Conducive Chronicle readers.

Within the past six weeks, 250,000 people have been internally displaced within Darfur. It is difficult for members of the world community to be fully aware of what is taking place there, as there is a dearth of information available regarding the conflict. Only a few East African press networks cover the conflict thoroughly. Ms. Read noted that Barack Obama’s Sudan Policy Review, which normalized relations with the U.S. and Sudan, marks a step towards progress in addressing the conflict in Darfur.

Sexual violence and rape during times of war is not merely an attack against an individual; it is violence against an entire community. Ms. Read explained that rapes taking place in Darfur are very public attacks. Girls as young as seven years old have been raped. Sometimes, multiple generations of women within the same family are raped in front of entire villages. She continued to explain that when understanding the use of rape as a weapon of war, one has to understand the cultural context of rape before violence and war take place. Ms. Read explained that intimate partner violence has not been discussed publicly in Darfur. Silence around acts of intimate partner violence and rape has been fostered by perpetrators in an effort to protect the private sector of family and marriage. This former way of dealing with intimate partner violence and rape is being completely reversed. Rape is now taking place in public. Instead of hiding rape to protect from an outbreak of chaos within society, it is now being exploited as a means of perpetuating chaos.

Women who are victimized by acts of sexual violence are victimized ten-fold. The most extreme form of female genital cutting takes place in Darfur. Hence, women who are raped here have already suffered physical, emotional, and psychological stress as it relates to their bodies. FGC leaves women at a greater risk for contacting sexual transmitted diseases and HIV. Rape survivors in Darfur are excluded from their communities after they endure the pain and violence of horrendous public rapes at the hands of one attacker or a gang of attackers. Women who seek medical attention after being raped are given a pregnancy test, HIV/AIDS prophylactics, counseling, and a version of the “Morning After” pill. Medics can supply women with their immediate needs but humanitarians are faced with how to supply women’s long-term needs as well.

However, women who are victimized by rape may not report to medical clinics immediately. Medical clinics are scarce in Darfur, especially after the Humanitarian Aid Expulsion in March of 2009. Women who do not live in a major city must travel incredibly long distances in order to reach medical clinics. Some clinics may only be open for three hours a day because doctors and physicians drive long distances to reach the clinic and would potentially forfeit a days’ wage by visiting. Lines at these scarce medical clinics are long and visitors are not guaranteed a meeting with a doctor. Since the Humanitarian Aid Expulsion of 2009, 13 clinics in Darfur were lost. The medical attention and humanitarian programs that were available to service citizens of Darfur, specifically victims of sexual and gender based violence, are now closed.

In order to address the issue of sexual and gender based violence in Darfur, Ms. Read noted that humanitarians are looking to increase the socio-economic status of women while making them less vulnerable to rape. For example, women who collect fire-wood in displacement camps and other rural areas of Darfur have a low socio-economic status. These women are vulnerable to robberies and attacks when they travel outside of their villages. These women are aware of the dangers of working. But, these women have no other vocational prospects and are endangered by this daily routine. Women who are raped are in turn at a higher risk for lowering their socio-economic status because they will be socially-excluded from their villages. People who are internally displaced within Africa are typically displaced for 17 years. Hence, women who are cast out of their villages and communities will be at risk for poverty for this amount of time.

Programs set in place to provide women with literacy skills, counseling and medical services for victims of SGBV have sharply decreased since last year’s humanitarian expulsions. The most pertinent question now is how humanitarian efforts will make up for the time and resources lost over the past year. Ms. Read made a great point that in order to end rape in war one has to end rape in civil society as well. She was sure to clarify that domestic violence and sexual harassment of women should be included in one’s definition of SGBV. Ultimately, Ms. Read would like to change the way that victims of rape are viewed by members of their society. For example, conceptualizing a victim of rape as a veteran of war will make her transition back into the labor and village life easier for her.

Efforts from groups such as Women without Borders, Girls without Borders and other humanitarian aid groups attack these dangers head on. Women are necessary to the stability of society. Without security for women, families, villages, towns, and cities will be at risk for social and familial collapse. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, has made marked efforts to shine a spotlight on SGBV. I encourage readers to learn more on SGBV and join the efforts to liberate the world’s women.

Please watch this presentation on the implications of the Humanitarian Aid Expulsion of 2009 in Darfur: Fears of More Misery in Darfur

Other articles by Eryn on Sexual And Gender Based Violence Against Women:

Female Genital Cutting Worldwide

The Herstory of Haiti

The Herstory of Lorena Bobbit

Violence Against Women on College Campuses

Human Trafficking Domestic and Abroad