A War of Sexual Assault Amidst the War of Genocide
The conflict still waging in Sudan’s Darfur region has been called genocide by the White House and many international human rights organizations. To date hundreds of thousands of people have died because of violence in Darfur, two and a half million more have been displaced – chased from their homes and villages. It is an ongoing struggle for the people of Darfur to survive—by the threats of their own government.
As if war, aerial bombardment, the burning of villages, and being relocated into Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps was not already too much for any conscience to fathom, in this conflict, rape and gender-based violence are being used as weapons.
For the displaced women of Darfur, risk of rape and abuse is a daily reality. Rape is being used by the government funded, Janjaweed Militias, as a tool of war to ruin families and humiliate communities already faced with many struggles. Women face the threat of rape even in meeting the basic needs of existence. For instance, in IDP camps across Darfur, firewood is a needed resource. The amount of people in these concentrated areas has taken its toll on the environment; there is no firewood to be found close by the camps for cooking. People have to look outside the camp--in the dangerous countryside where the Janjaweed still hunt for victims. It is often a conscious decision in families that the wife, mother, or otherwise a woman be the one to venture out and find firewood for her family. If a man is caught outside a camp chances are he will get killed, if it is a woman, she will be spared her life but raped by the Janjaweed.
This injustice is ongoing and compounded by a lack of medical care for these rape survivors. In Darfur, these women are without access to safe abortions, let alone emergency contraception. According to a UNICEF report:
"The legacy of such atrocities lives on when babies are born out of rape. There’s a fear amongst humanitarian aid workers that young mothers and their children could be ostracized as a result of what they’ve been through… What we know in Darfur, like many places in the world, often the women and the girls who are raped feel shame… They experience stigma and discrimination as a result of the rape.”
This assault on women’s bodies and rights in Darfur is another reason to fight for the rights of women globally and to fight for the end of the conflict in Darfur. It is out of an environment of terror and oppression when women are most marginalized and the most damage is done.
Some initiatives are addressing the issue. The Genocide Intervention Network works to provide affordable firewood, or propane stoves, to women in these camps to rid them of the need to leave the safety of the IDP camps. UNICEF is working to provide counseling and health care to the survivors of such attacks in Darfur, and many more global, national, student organizations are fighting for an end to the conflict in Darfur, a cause that would benefit everyone, most of all those that are being victimized through these terrible and humiliating acts. Let’s continue to build our grassroots support and raise these issues to public discourse.
 Send this page to a friend >>
|
