Weaponization of rape in mindless wars
A nation or organization may turn to war to reach its goals, but what is the actual cost of progress? Countless lives have been lost to war and continue to be lost. It costs a lot of money and resources as well. Wars have always been brutal, deadly, and tragic, from the American Revolution to World Wars I and II to the Crusades and the ancient Hundred Years’ War.
However, when we talk about war atrocities these are not all. There is a war within the ongoing war that is almost hidden from the eyes of the rest of the world – Sexual violence as a weapon of wars. In a world where gender equality is the talk of the day do you think it is achievable when sexual violence is still a weapon?
How many of us have given it a thought? Do we even know what’s going on and stop to ponder and raise a voice?
In every armed conflict, women and girls face the greatest vulnerability. The collapse of institutions and social support networks places them at an exceedingly high risk of sexual violence and exploitation. Throughout history, sexual violence has been deployed as a tool in wars to degrade, control, and intimidate populations.
Major General Patrick Cammaert, the former Commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo said, ‘It is perhaps more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in an armed conflict.
A woman was raped repeatedly by a Russian soldier after her husband was killed outside Kyiv. A mother of four was gang raped by Russian soldiers in Kherson. The body of a Ukrainian woman was found dead — naked and branded with a swastika. A woman was raped by a Russian commander on the day tanks entered the village of Kalyta.
And if you think that these heinous crimes are just a one-sided affair, I beg to correct you – these hazards that women confront are not limited to one side of the conflict; they persist on all fronts of the war, making gender-based violence a global concern.
As an example, in the Hamas War, Palestinian women endured immense hardship, facing limited access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. They often find themselves as the primary caregivers for their families, coping with the loss of loved ones and struggling to make ends meet in a war-ravaged environment.
On the Israeli side, particularly in areas frequently targeted by Hamas rocket attacks, women also experience the grim realities of conflict. The constant threat of rocket strikes places severe psychological strain on families, with women often shouldering the responsibility of keeping their households safe. The fear, trauma, and disruptions to daily life take a heavy toll on their well-being.
The suffering of women on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict is a poignant reminder of the devastating human cost of this enduring conflict and chaos of war.
It is way past time that we stop acting blind and stop brushing it under the carpet.
Efforts to alleviate the plight of women in conflict-affected areas are ongoing. However, unless those responsible for commanding and committing rape are held fully accountable for their actions, the scourge of wartime sexual violence may persist, terrorizing generations of women and communities, and perpetuating the notion that it’s an intractable byproduct of conflict. However, things are not going to change if we as women, as humans don’t stand tall, come together, and protest. Let us raise our voices together to put pressure on the authorities to stop using sexual violence as a weapon of crime.
–Anamika Chakravorty, Social media Influencer, Entrepreneur, and content writer with She Sight magazine.
