Trends in Sexualized Violence

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Trends in Sexualized Violence

Women and children have historically been victims of sexualized violence in times of

war, and conflict. Their vulnerable position in society has made them susceptible to widespread

human rights crimes. Although both men and women experience abuse during times of conflict

this paper employs a focused lens on how gender-specific abuse and therefore trauma is

inflicted upon women and children. Wartime sexual violence is often committed by

governmental military groups, insurgent groups, and generally armed militia. The sexual

violence inflicted on the most vulnerable groups of society i.e. women and children often

entails gang rape, forced marriage, mutilation, forced pregnancy, and slavery (sex or labor).

Patriarchy and oppressive gender attitudes embedded in cultures worldwide have created

an environment where women are seen as subordinate to men and treated as second class. These

universal gender attitudes of misogyny and patriarchal ideas create an atmosphere where

women and young girls are vulnerable to sexual harassment, rape, and suppressive gender roles

and create gendered targets in times of war where large-scale human rights crimes are

committed. A patriarchal society creates an imbalance in the power dynamic between men and

women and creates a possibility, when war and conflict occur, of the abuse of women and

children used as strategic tools of war, and as a means to achieve their goals.

So much so that in the 20th century we have seen a rise in sexual violence during war

and conflict that overwhelmingly includes ethnic cleansing, genocide, and forced sexual labor

that there is a clear trend of implementing institutionalized systems of rape war tactics to

humiliate victims, drive them out of their land or area, appropriate the next generation,

dominate or destroy opposing ethnic groups, and a way of brutalizing targeted groups.

Perpetrators of sexual violence in the 20th century are steering away from pre-modern war
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tendencies of assimilating women into their post-war communities and alienating or

exterminating women altogether.

This paper will explore systems of rape implemented in the Bosnian War, Rwanda, and

the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria. It will also view the role sexual violence plays

in genocide, and how the life chances of women are determined. It will conclude by examining

how politics of identity fuel sexual violence and genocide while exploring how disastrous the

after-effects psychological trauma has on victims.

Systems of Rape Implemented In the Bosnian War, Rwanda, And the Abduction of Chibok

Schoolgirls in Nigeria

The Bosnian war involved a civil war between the Serbians, Croats, and Muslims in

Bosnia. The resulting conflict was mostly aimed at driving out the Muslims from the territory,

with the defining characteristic of this conflict being the use of sexual violence by the Serbian

militia on the Bosnian Muslim women and young girls. Accordingly, the system of rape used in

the Bosnian war was the setting up of various torture camps across the country where both men

and women were segregated. For the men, they were subjected to cannibalism, castration, and

beatings often until death.

Women on the other hand were subjected to continuous gang rape, with some cases

involving a single woman being “raped by more than forty men in a single day, for months until

impregnation.”1 Furthermore, the system of rape in Bosnia involved camps set up specifically

as rape camps where the prevailing policies of the war, which included mass rape campaigns,

forced impregnations, and forced maternity. The authorities in the Serbian militia had

developed organized strategies for mass rape and forced impregnation campaigns, as the rape

1
Patricia A Weitsman, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and
Rwanda," Human rights quarterly (2008), 569
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camps across the country shared a common layout and used the same pattern of rape.

Additionally, mass rape campaigns occurred simultaneously across the country. The system of

rape in Bosnia was also not voluntary for the soldiers carrying out the act.

As noted by Weitsman2, the soldiers were ordered from above to rape Muslim women

and consequences would follow for those soldiers who would not do as commanded. This

situation of ordering soldiers to mass rape campaigns was in line with the objective of the

conflict. Raping Muslim women was not meant as a means of killing; rather, it was for

impregnation, forced maternity, and bringing the pregnancy to term to give birth to Serbian

babies. Ironically, accounts from women in these rape camps show that once a Muslim woman

got pregnant, they no longer endured rape, they were given special treatment, attended to by

gynecologists, given special food, and were even protected.

Subsequently, the Rwandan genocide involved the conflict of the two major tribes in the

country: the Hutus and the Tutsis, the perpetrators being the Hutus in their drive to eliminate the

Tutsis from Rwanda. The perpetrators not only directly slaughtered the Tutsis but also practiced

mass rape, sexual torture, sexual slavery and mutilation, and public display of the reproductive

body parts of Tutsis women and girls. An interesting aspect of the Rwanda genocide is the

specific incentive of sexual violence towards Tutsi women. The mass rape of Tutsi women was

encouraged by the massive propaganda that propagated the idea that the women were

“seductress spies who believed they were too good for Hutu men.”3

Furthermore, before the war, the Tutsi women were viewed as highly promiscuous and

felt superior to the Hutu men who they also considered as of lower class and unattractive.

Consequently, much of the violence; sexual and otherwise, in the war was directed at Tutsi

2
Patricia, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda," 571
3
Patricia, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence,” 573
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women. Furthermore, the system of rape in Rwanda was a means of death and often involved

the rape of women with foreign objects and the mutilation of women’s reproductive organs.

Additionally, pregnant women would be sliced open and fetuses would be ripped out and

speared to death.4

In most cases, the mutilation of women’s bodies was an integral part of the mass rape

campaigns that involved cutting off women’s breasts, penetrations with foreign objects such as

machetes and bottles, burning reproductive organs with hot water or acid, and finally death.

Ultimately, the system of rape in Rwanda served the purpose of settling grudges against Tutsi

women, reward Hutu militia, and to encourage them to continue with the mass rape campaigns.

As such, Tutsi women who did not succumb to the sexual torture were kept as sexual slaves

where they were subjected to constant beatings and gang rapes for days on end.5 Unlike in the

case of the Bosnia war, mass rape campaigns in Rwanda were for the specific purpose of

degrading, punishing, humiliating and torturing Tutsi women.

The insurgent group, Boko Haram based in northeastern Nigeria did not start as a violent

group. With the kidnapping of the Chibok girls, the group’s transition to a terrorist group

employing organized violence to advance its agendas was complete. The groups guiding

principle is the elimination of western ideologies in Nigeria as well as establishing an Islamic

state in Nigeria. The primary reason for targeting and kidnapping the Chibok girls was that

Chibok is predominantly a Christian population, which was educating their girls; aspects that

Boko Haram opposed.6 The Chibok girls had gathered at the Government Secondary School to

4
Helen Fein, "Genocide and Gender: The Uses of Women and Group Destiny," Journal of
Genocide Research 1, no. 1 (1999), 55
5
Patricia, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence,” 573
6
Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, "Fleeing Boko Haram: The Trauma of Captivity and Challenge of
Freedom," Social Science Research Council-Working Papers, African Peacebuilding Network
apn working papers 11 (2017), 6
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write their final examination. In the middle of the night disguised as members of the Nigerian

army, Boko Haram members managed to kidnap two hundred and seventy-six girls. The

abducted Chibok girls, as well as other abductees by the group, were subjected to sexual

violence such as rape whereby multiple terrorists take turns having sex with a single woman or

girl per day, sexual slavery, and forced marriage and forced impregnation.7 The system of

sexual violence by the terrorist group is aimed at converting kidnapped girls into Islam, where

they are forced into marriage and impregnated to perpetuate the ideals of the group.

The Role of Sexual Violence in Genocide, and How the Life Chances of Women Are

Determined

The use of sexual violence as a means of committing genocide can be traced back to the

ancient world. However, unlike the contemporary world, genocide in the ancient world rarely

involved the elimination of women in favor of incorporating them into the conquering society

as slaves, concubines, and spouses. Furthermore, there was no incentive to keep the men of the

conquered societies alive; however, there were many incentives to keep the women alive. For

instance, as spoils of war, women were kept as slaves providing free labor or as concubines and

spouses where they could be impregnated to perpetuate the conquering society. Thus, the

chances of survival for women in time times of war in the ancient world were considerably

high.

However, scholars have argued that rape and slavery are an aspect and a means of

genocide. According to Fien,8 slavery was a form of rape as enslaved women had no right over

their bodies, they were subjected to continuous rape, and had no right over the children born

from the coercive sexual acts. In this regard, enslavement and rape of women only continued
7
Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, "Fleeing Boko Haram: The Trauma of Captivity and Challenge of
Freedom," 8
8
Helen Fein, "Genocide and Gender: The Uses of Women and Group Destiny," 48
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the genocide started by the killing of men in the conquered group as it destroyed whatever

socially and biologically remained of the conquered group. As a result, although the women in

ancient times had higher chances of survival during war, it only ensured the gradual genocide of

the conquered over several generations as the children of the enslaved women belonged to the

master class by virtue of identity being conferred by paternity.

Ultimately, in the ancient world, there was a differential treatment of slaves by gender;

with men most likely being killed off and the women kept alive. Additionally, although there

were cases where the slave status was inherited; with the children of women slaves inheriting

the status by birth, in most cases, children of female captives were constantly being assimilated

into the master class by inheriting the non-slave status of the father.9 Ironically, it is the

elimination of slavery in the modern world that eliminated the special incentives to keep

women alive in times of war.

On the other hand, genocides in the modern world are gender indiscriminate; however,

rape is still utilized as a tactic for eliminating the “other”. Furthermore, perpetrators of genocide

in the modern world do not have any incentives to protect and preserve women of the victim

group. Thus, women no longer have a high chance of surviving in times of war as the incentive

to keep them for their utility as slaves or the continuation and expansion of the master class has

been eliminated. Additionally, genocide perpetrators do not have an interest in appropriating the

reproduction of women, and rape is mostly used as a tactic to spoil the reproduction of the

victim class rather impregnating and assimilating children as a result of rape.

For instance, as pointed out by Fien,10 the primary goal of the gender-specific genociders

in Bosnia was to drive out the victim class and raping and impregnating the women of this class

9
Helen, "Genocide and Gender,” 49
10
Helen, "Genocide and Gender,” 54
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was only secondary to the key objective. Assimilation through forced impregnating and forced

maternity is less prevalent in modern conflicts as genocides are mainly driven by ideologies of

ethnic cleansing and ethnic purity, which negates the need to incorporate the victim class. As

such, organized and instrumentalized rape is just a tactic towards achieving the end goal. In

other instances, genocide was not based on ideologies but rather as a response to a threat.

Response to a threat genocides are mostly in patriarchal societies where a woman’s

purity is subject to her preservation of virginity before marriage and inviolability after marriage.

As a result, the perpetrators of genocide in these societies use sexual violence against women as

a means of destroying the enemy group. Raping women in these situations is tantamount to

attacking the self-esteem of fathers, husbands, and brothers by publicly demonstrating their

inability to protect their women. Strangely enough, the idea of basing a woman’s worth, honor,

and identity on the extent of her sexual relationships is the primary motivation of the enemy to

rape; thus, dishonor women. Without these perceptions, rape in modern wars and conflicts

would not be an effective tactic for genocide.

Ultimately, there is an undeniable relationship between sexual violence, genocide, and

the chances of survival for women during wars. Rape is typically used as a ritual of

degradations that leads to the genocide of a group over several generations; as in the ancient

world, and as a means of undermining reproduction and inflicting death. Furthermore, in

modern times, the chances of survival for women are lower, although in gender-specific

genocides, men are more likely to be killed directly and women being sexually tortured to

death. In the end, the primary goal of sexual violence in modern times is to destroy identity,

degrade personal dignity thus leading to disintegrating and eventually death of families. Rape

thus is an indirect means of genocide.

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How Politics of Identity Fuel Sexual Violence and Genocide, and the Disastrous After-Effects

Psychological Trauma Has On Victims

Communities have tended to be comprised of people that distinguish themselves on

various elements specific to certain people. The tendency of people to classify themselves based

on commonly shared characteristics has significantly influenced how people validate behavior

and perpetuate identity. Consequently, it is because of the resultant identities that conflict

between various social groups occurs and conversely leads to the development of national

identities. Furthermore, national identities have geographical implications as nation-states tend

to develop from national identities which are in turn grounded on specific geographical

territories. Consequently, the evolution of nation-states results in institutional structures and

complexities such as the development of governments and laws based on identities; for

instance, laws on nationality and citizenship.

As a result, the institutional structures and laws perpetuate and support socially

constructed concepts of identity as well as the deep-rooted assumptions on race, ethnicity, and

gender. Thus the discourse surrounding the issues of rape during times of war and conflicts;

such as racial hygiene and ethnic cleansing only perpetuates the myths of how identity is

established. As a result, the various ways in which identity is established; for instance, it is

genetic, or it is derived from the mother or the father, often lead to conflict and the

discrimination of certain groups, resulting in atrocities such as the mass rape of women and

young girls during war times.

Rape in most conflicts is used as a means to intimidate humiliate, dehumanize and

torture the enemy. When genocide is concerned; that is, the motivation behind the conflict is the

complete elimination of an ethnic group, rape is used as a way to kill the enemy.11 However,
11
Patricia, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence”, 563
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there are various motivations for rape during war. As a way of humiliating, degrading, and

undermining the enemy’s morale, rape can be motivated by the desire to drive out a certain

ethnic group from a specific territory and consequently assert political and ethnic dominance.

This tactic is generally referred to as ethnic cleansing and incidentally, rape is only one of the

strategies employed to achieve the end goal.

Subsequently, in a patricidal society, raping women and young girls is a particularly

effective torture device as in such societies; the identities of women are founded on their

relationships with the men in their lives and the society at large. In most case, the women in

such societies are defined by their marital status, and if unwed, her worth is defined by whether

or not she is a virgin. As a result, once a woman in such a society is raped, she loses her worth

and is considered socially unviable.12 Consequently, victims of rape are cast out of such

societies. As such, when conflicts arise, an enemy of such a patriarchal society is more likely to

result to rape as a tactic as not only is the identity of a woman based on her relationship with the

men in her life, but the fear and shame of victimizations is far worse than the perpetrations of

rape. Such a situation thus has far-reaching implications on identity, the politics of gender, and

the prevalence of rape as a tactic in times of war.

The idea of shaming women victims of rape more than the perpetrators of crime further

reinforces the notion that a woman’s value is derived from her purity. As such, her identity is

significantly reliant on the extent of her sexual relationships. Thus, in a situation where her

purity is violated, whether willingly or otherwise as in the context of conflict and war, her value

is still indistinguishably linked to a man and a woman’s identity is stands on its own.

Accordingly, the assumption that a woman’s identity is always juxtaposed by her sexual

relationships with men whether consensual or coercive supports the policies of mass rape
12
Patricia, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence”, 565
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during war. However, if such assumptions do not exist in a society, the policy of mass rape

losses its coercive power and thus proves ineffective for the enemy of such as ethnic group and

cannot be used to successfully drive out people from a particular territory and secure ethnic

cleansing.

Conversely, mass rape campaigns are also undertaken by the invading group to

perpetuate their ethnic group. In such a situation, identity is biological and is derived from the

father. Thus the express purpose of mass rape policy in this situation is not humiliation,

dehumanization, and torture of the enemy, but rather to impregnate and force maternity of the

women. Mass rape policies based on forced impregnation and forced maternity are carried out

with the primary aim of ensuring the women of the adversarial group give birth to children of

their enemies. Thus, women are merely vessels to impart paternal identity. In this case, the

intent of rape is not ethnic cleansing or genocide but to subjugate women to rape, impregnation,

and bringing the pregnancy to term.

Bibliography

Fein, Helen. "Genocide and Gender: The Uses of Women and Group Destiny." Journal of

Genocide Research 1, no. 1 (1999): 43-63.

Okome, Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké. "Fleeing Boko Haram: The Trauma of Captivity and Challenge

of Freedom." Social Science Research Council-Working Papers, African Peacebuilding

Network apn working papers 11 (2017): 1-42

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Weitsman, Patricia A. "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and

Rwanda." Human rights quarterly (2008): 561-578.