wonderfulslumber

iamthecrime:

[Trigger Warning: Rape]

thepoliticalnotebook:

Raising Awareness about Rape and Sexual Assault in Wartime: An Interview with Lauren Wolfe, Journalist and Director of Women Under Siege. Today, the Women Under Siege project’s website officially launches. Women Under Siege is an initiative by Gloria Steinem and the Women’s Media Center to draw attention to the use of rape and sexualized violence as a tool of war. The director of this project, Lauren Wolfe, is also a journalist and former senior editor for the Committee to Protect Journalists. I was fortunate to have the chance to ask her a few questions about the critical issue of sexualized violence against women in wartime, her work with the Women Under Siege initiative and the threats faced by female journalists. 

TRD: You’re doing an incredible amount of work raising awareness and working against sexual violence as a tool of war — what have been the major boosts and setbacks for your work and your fight recently?

LW: Thank you. I’ve perceived a groundswell of interest this year in the issue of sexualized violence overall. From women in the Peace Corps to the military to the media to civilians in war—I’ve sensed an unwillingness to take it anymore. That’s a fantastic first step toward ending sexualized violence around the world.

One major asset to the fight against rape in war was the publication in May of a study by three researchers, including SUNY’s Tia Palermo, that said that approximately four women are raped every five minutes in Congo. Having a solid number—and one so shocking—has incredible value. People start to pay attention to the depth and breadth of the suffering.

Part of the problem we face in trying to end rape in conflict is that each war’s complexity prohibits a one-size-fits-all answer. There exists a lack of analysis of the situation overall—which Women Under Siege is trying to fill. Beyond that, groups that study and work toward prevention and/or healing, especially the UN, need to coordinate efforts. The UN is making strides with its work against sexual violence, but UN Women is suffering financial troubles and internal turf battles.

An ongoing thorn in the side of this work is the global silence of women too frightened to speak about the sexualized violence they’ve suffered. From Guatemala to Darfur to Egypt, women are rejected by their husbands if they speak out, or even raped again at the hands of the authorities they tell. Silence is pervasive and, unfortunately, it is partnered with rape in destroying women’s lives. Imagine never telling a single person about your violent rape. Living with that pain in secret takes a terrible toll on a woman’s body and mind.

I’m not suggesting that women must go public about their ordeals. It is a very personal decision to speak about rape. We do, however, need to do more to make it possible—and safe—for women to get the medical, psychological, and legal help they need. 

TRD: What kinds of legal and international approaches do you think would be or have been effective against the use of rape as a tool of war? What kinds of things do you want organizations like the UN to be doing?

LW: I can’t yet say overall that I have an answer to fix whatever has happened in the past. I do, however, believe that there are global legal hurdles preventing healing and justice from taking place. Some countries, like Burma, remain outside the reach of the International Criminal Court, which can prosecute rape as a war crime. Interestingly, the U.S. does not consider itself subject to the ICC either, although it supported the prosecution by the court of rape as a war crime in Libya.

Also, while President Obama has lifted the “global gag rule” that prevented the use of federal funding to assist family planning groups that perform abortions abroad, he left in place a very problematic aspect of the rule: Federal foreign aid is still forbidden for use in abortions, even in cases of rape in war or those that would save a woman’s life. Even speech about these cases is restricted when this money is involved. It’s important to remember that foreign aid is crucial to the survival of women in war zones like DRC. Such restrictions are costing us civilians’ lives.

TRD: How did this Women Under Siege project come to be and what are you planning for it? How long has this been in the works? What kinds of ways can people be involved in this?

LW: Gloria Steinem initiated Women Under Siege after reading a galley copy of a book called Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust. She was moved by the fact that she hadn’t known the extent to which women had suffered rape in the Holocaust and felt that sharing this knowledge could only help toward the prevention of mass rape in future conflicts. The idea is to dissect how rape has been used as a weapon of war so we can understand, and, hopefully, stop its deployment. We got the project really going in September, when I came on as its first director.

In terms of what people can do to be involved—read and share what you learn. We have to educate ourselves about the problem before we can fix it. From there, Women Under Siege will be posting actions to take as we move forward.

TRD: What kinds of factors impact the level/likelihood of rape/sexual assault being used as a widespread weapon in violent conflict?

LW: Poverty seems to be a risk factor—where soldiers feel disrespected or at a loss for daily needs, they talk about conquering, which includes women’s bodies—but so does a lack of central authority. When there is no one to report sexualized violence to and be taken seriously, how does a woman or community find justice? Places of lawlessness predict rape, as does what Gloria calls the “cult of masculinity”:

“You have to convince them they’re not “real men” unless they kill and conquer—and at its most basic, “masculine” means not being “feminine.” On a continuum, it means controlling women, conquering women, raping women—even with objects: bottles and broom handles in “peacetime” here, and gun barrels and knives in Bosnia or Congo. There’s a reason why it’s a truism that rape is not sex, it’s violence.” [Gloria Steinem]

While documentation is scarce, sometimes mass rape is ordered by the state. In recent sexual attacks against ethnic groups in Burma, soldiers have reportedly said—during the rapes—that they had been told to employ rape as a weapon of war. I’m currently investigating the possibility that the state ordered mass rape of indigenous women in the Guatemalan genocide.

TRD: What sorts of reading material do you recommend for readers to get to know the issues of gender and conflict, or gender and press freedom, better?

LW: Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust by Sonja Hedgepeth and Rochelle Saidel, and At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Daniella McGuire.

In terms of sexualized violence and press freedom, I wrote an extensive report for the Committee to Protect Journalists in June called “The Silencing Crime.” More than 50 journalists around the world shared their stories of sexual assault and harassment.

TRD: The issue of sexual assault on female journalists, either in retaliation for or during the course of their work, has been brought to greater light in 2011 because of journalists like Lara Logan, Lynsey Addario and Jineth Bedoya speaking out. I’ve frequently heard the response that women therefore don’t belong in foreign/war correspondence positions. What’s your response to this argument?

LW: This is a patently sexist argument that I reject outright. Some of the strongest war correspondents in history have been women. Just look at Martha Gellhorn and Christiane Amanpour. Nobody is telling male reporters to stay home despite the fact that they have been beaten, kidnapped, and killed globally.

—

Check out the new Women Under Siege website and learn more about Lauren Wolfe at her official website. You can follow both Lauren and Women Under Siege on Twitter.