WEEK 8 Case study.

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Question #1: What was the role of the “public woman discourse" in the targeting of Tutsi

women before and during the Rwandan genocide?

The role of public woman discourse was to evaluate mass killing of women and girls

because of their gender identity. It aimed to portray how women who moved from private to

public sphere were bad and the only thing they could offer was sex. Such women looked

attractive, beautiful, and had started coping other cultural activities like dressing code. This

angered Hutu leader who directed their arm to punish those women by slaughtering them and

making sure their dead bodies lay in a place where the public could see them. Therefore, ideally

the Hutu leaders thought that public women disclosure would clean the culture of the Tutsi

ethnic group which they believe was tarnished by those women for leaving their culture.

Therefore, women can be said to have played to main roles, first, they were used as sex

objects. Tutsi women are said to have been more attractive and beautiful then Hutu women to the

extent that Tutsi women were called whores. Second, their body was used to take revenge

whereby they were assaulted, attacked and killed like animals. Arora-Jonsson (2011) suggests

that women are more vulnerable of climate change compared to men. This was also the case

whereby Tutsi men were killed but Tutsi women were more vulnerable because other than being

slaughtered, they could be taken away as slaves and for the purpose of fulfilling sexual desires of

a group of men.

What was the role of the “public woman discourse" in the targeting of Tutsi women before and

during the Rwandan genocide? Your answer must address the following: the role of women in
the nation; Rwandan women’s status before the genocide; gendered propaganda; define public

and private spheres; the role of women in the public vs. private spheres and the public manner

women were killed during the genocide.

Question #2.

How does intersectionality impact climate change? In answering the question, you must use

Nagel’s article to address the following: gender sexuality and nation; race, gender, class and

moral economy, using Hurricane Katrina as an example; nation, class and the global system; and

masculinity, militarism and science

 References

Arora-Jonsson, S. (2011). Virtue and vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate

change. Global environmental change, 21(2), 744-751.