According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugee (UNHCR)
in North Kivu (Congo, Africa), 7,075 women were raped in 2012. This
figure does not calculate all those woman who suffered this act of
violence. Only those, who reported it. Most of these have already been
raped again or will be raped again. The UNHCR believes that this number
will increase. Why did I not hear about this alarming news in the
mainstream media? Perhaps, because we do not care much those people. It
is their war. Furthermore, there is an absence of a chemical weapon used
on them by a dictator who has fallen from grace in the eyes of US and
Saudi Arabia.
This news reminds me of Rachel Weisz role as Tessa Quayle in ‘The constant gardener’. As an Amnesty activist Tessa gets killed for her investigation of an illegal drug testing on Kenyan public. Weisz played a similar, more recent role, in ‘The whistleblower’ (2011). The story is based on true events in post-war Bosnia. A UN employee (Weisz) posted in Bosnia finds out that women are being trafficked into Bosnia by the help of UN employees. These woman were being abused by international workers who have immunity and cannot be charged for their crimes. The cop, due to her repetitive efforts to help the girls, gets kicked out of her job, and goes public with the information and evidence. The UN never accepted the charges. Those people were never penalized for their actions. The contracts they covered and the companies they worked for were too lucrative to be punished for crimes against ‘war-whores’.
During the Bosnian war an estimate of 50000 women were raped (Stiglmayer et al. 1994). This calculation includes the mass-rapes which led to systematic and sexual enslavement. There is another movie about this the topic called ‘In the land of blood and honey. It is a haunting reflection of what happened and why. End of war should have bought relief for women but instead, it made it worse for many of them. It is a dramatic thing to say but the protectors became hunters. I wonder what kind of punishment can actually amount to the crimes they made. Wesiz's was a brave role. It is unfortunate how celebrities whose sole purpose is to use expensive products and show off will get so much coverage, but such a role wont. Such terrible occurrences won’t. Just as the alarming increase in the rape at Congo, which is twice than what it was in 2011 won’t. These news are not important. Until, you can convert it into a blue film. People will happily watch it then.
It was also stated towards the end that the contractors involved in this situation are the same ones who were involved in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have yet to find out in detail about rape victims in these countries. I do not know if we can ever find out the number of woman trafficked as sex slaves. There are several reasons why I am against the US attack on Syria. Killing of innocent civilians, use of chemical weapons like phosphorus and destruction of the country being a few of them. This movie added another one to this list. Trafficking of Syrian woman. I have no doubts that woman in Syria are facing violent actions even now, as we speak. However, they will have a larger crowd to struggle against if the international forces enter.
I have no problem with someone trying to sell their body. I do, however, condemn the use of a woman’s body without their consent. (I would condemn a man’s body as well but it is hardly as common commodity as a woman’s, right?) Be it for sexual pleasures (commercial or domestic), advertising, or pornographic images. Condemn is a mild word. I am outraged. However, I have a short term memory. I am a woman who gets annoyed by the idea that my future husband would expect me to cook food for him every day. Right now I feel small for my fears compared to the atrocities faced by woman around the world. Very soon, this feeling will hide in one of the corners of my brain, only to come out again for a small time. Most of these poor women would happily exchange their lives for doing what I dread to do. I speak of those who suffer from the brutalities of war. Rape being the worst of them.
Although, I must admit that war and post-war are not the only times woman and minors face this horrible crime. Rape occurs in developing countries, peaceful areas that are considered as safe. According to the US department of justice, around 300,000 rape cases are reported every year (Chemaly 2012). India is slowly losing its image of a spiritual land after an increase in reports about rape crimes in the international media. According to National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2013, 24,923 rapes were reported. This is nowhere near the actual number. This is rather ironic because international media has been quite ignorant in reporting rape of Kashmiri woman by Indian soldiers. Perhaps, the people who control the world decided it was a good time give India a jolt and affect its tourism industry? I won’t even go into the domestic/ marital rape affair.
I know a few people who work for woman who are rape victims and have suffered from sexual abuse. These have been labelled as ‘feminists’, a word which either strongly respected or completely mocked. I used to think it was a chauvinist attitude of Pakistani men in general. Women, who are also affected by the attitude of men tend to have a negative attitude towards other women who discuss feminism. A women rights activist is not someone highly respected, since she keeps on fighting against the men. Of course, the fact that we Pakistanis have examples like Asma Jehangir, who are corrupt, rude, loud, arrogant, and traditionally unhinged. It is no surprise that woman suffer more because many ignorant people consider the likes of her as the symbol of feminism. Recently, I have had more posts dealing with feminism on Facebook wall and I am a little concerned that very soon I will be called a feminist and my rationale-thinking will become emotional tantrums, typical for my gender.
However, the anti-feminist attitude is deeply rooted with in the western culture as well. Bigotry has nothing to do with Pakistani men. It seems like the norm for men of the world. There is an event called ‘Slut-walk’ which was initiated back in 2011, after a Canadian constable advised women not to dress up as sluts, if they want to avoid being raped. Several woman were outraged and the protested against this action of victim blaming by reclaiming the word slut. Slut walk started all around the world. Some woman dressed up in skimpy clothes, other dressed up in their routine attire. The main purpose was to explain a simple fact. If a consent is not given, nothing should happen. Several decent men support slut walk. The suggestion that a man is unable to control himself is equally offensive to men. However, several men did not. Several woman did not either. We come from societies that are tuned to victim blaming. A women too bold is a woman ‘out there’. The point about moral rape, when men discuss woman behind them is not even being mentioned here.
Neither morality, not any religion permits or allows rape. Yet, again and again women and minors go through this humiliating, soul-damaging trauma. The United Nations made rape a crime against humanity in 2008. Yet, the number of criminals punished for their crimes can be counted. These won’t even go into hundreds. Similarly, most of the rapists are not charged, or released on parole. Their crimes unaccounted for.
The reason why I have been able to do what I want to do with my life is because of my father. A man, who knew how to love and support his daughter. Most of the men I know are like him, decent human beings. They condemn rape and have similar sentiments for rape victims as I. Most of the men in the world are like that. Yet, the fact that rape has increased instead of decreasing is a scary idea. We humans might have come a long way from using fire for communication to satellite phones, yet from humanity’s point of view, we still have a long journey to cover.
This news reminds me of Rachel Weisz role as Tessa Quayle in ‘The constant gardener’. As an Amnesty activist Tessa gets killed for her investigation of an illegal drug testing on Kenyan public. Weisz played a similar, more recent role, in ‘The whistleblower’ (2011). The story is based on true events in post-war Bosnia. A UN employee (Weisz) posted in Bosnia finds out that women are being trafficked into Bosnia by the help of UN employees. These woman were being abused by international workers who have immunity and cannot be charged for their crimes. The cop, due to her repetitive efforts to help the girls, gets kicked out of her job, and goes public with the information and evidence. The UN never accepted the charges. Those people were never penalized for their actions. The contracts they covered and the companies they worked for were too lucrative to be punished for crimes against ‘war-whores’.
During the Bosnian war an estimate of 50000 women were raped (Stiglmayer et al. 1994). This calculation includes the mass-rapes which led to systematic and sexual enslavement. There is another movie about this the topic called ‘In the land of blood and honey. It is a haunting reflection of what happened and why. End of war should have bought relief for women but instead, it made it worse for many of them. It is a dramatic thing to say but the protectors became hunters. I wonder what kind of punishment can actually amount to the crimes they made. Wesiz's was a brave role. It is unfortunate how celebrities whose sole purpose is to use expensive products and show off will get so much coverage, but such a role wont. Such terrible occurrences won’t. Just as the alarming increase in the rape at Congo, which is twice than what it was in 2011 won’t. These news are not important. Until, you can convert it into a blue film. People will happily watch it then.
It was also stated towards the end that the contractors involved in this situation are the same ones who were involved in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have yet to find out in detail about rape victims in these countries. I do not know if we can ever find out the number of woman trafficked as sex slaves. There are several reasons why I am against the US attack on Syria. Killing of innocent civilians, use of chemical weapons like phosphorus and destruction of the country being a few of them. This movie added another one to this list. Trafficking of Syrian woman. I have no doubts that woman in Syria are facing violent actions even now, as we speak. However, they will have a larger crowd to struggle against if the international forces enter.
I have no problem with someone trying to sell their body. I do, however, condemn the use of a woman’s body without their consent. (I would condemn a man’s body as well but it is hardly as common commodity as a woman’s, right?) Be it for sexual pleasures (commercial or domestic), advertising, or pornographic images. Condemn is a mild word. I am outraged. However, I have a short term memory. I am a woman who gets annoyed by the idea that my future husband would expect me to cook food for him every day. Right now I feel small for my fears compared to the atrocities faced by woman around the world. Very soon, this feeling will hide in one of the corners of my brain, only to come out again for a small time. Most of these poor women would happily exchange their lives for doing what I dread to do. I speak of those who suffer from the brutalities of war. Rape being the worst of them.
Although, I must admit that war and post-war are not the only times woman and minors face this horrible crime. Rape occurs in developing countries, peaceful areas that are considered as safe. According to the US department of justice, around 300,000 rape cases are reported every year (Chemaly 2012). India is slowly losing its image of a spiritual land after an increase in reports about rape crimes in the international media. According to National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2013, 24,923 rapes were reported. This is nowhere near the actual number. This is rather ironic because international media has been quite ignorant in reporting rape of Kashmiri woman by Indian soldiers. Perhaps, the people who control the world decided it was a good time give India a jolt and affect its tourism industry? I won’t even go into the domestic/ marital rape affair.
I know a few people who work for woman who are rape victims and have suffered from sexual abuse. These have been labelled as ‘feminists’, a word which either strongly respected or completely mocked. I used to think it was a chauvinist attitude of Pakistani men in general. Women, who are also affected by the attitude of men tend to have a negative attitude towards other women who discuss feminism. A women rights activist is not someone highly respected, since she keeps on fighting against the men. Of course, the fact that we Pakistanis have examples like Asma Jehangir, who are corrupt, rude, loud, arrogant, and traditionally unhinged. It is no surprise that woman suffer more because many ignorant people consider the likes of her as the symbol of feminism. Recently, I have had more posts dealing with feminism on Facebook wall and I am a little concerned that very soon I will be called a feminist and my rationale-thinking will become emotional tantrums, typical for my gender.
However, the anti-feminist attitude is deeply rooted with in the western culture as well. Bigotry has nothing to do with Pakistani men. It seems like the norm for men of the world. There is an event called ‘Slut-walk’ which was initiated back in 2011, after a Canadian constable advised women not to dress up as sluts, if they want to avoid being raped. Several woman were outraged and the protested against this action of victim blaming by reclaiming the word slut. Slut walk started all around the world. Some woman dressed up in skimpy clothes, other dressed up in their routine attire. The main purpose was to explain a simple fact. If a consent is not given, nothing should happen. Several decent men support slut walk. The suggestion that a man is unable to control himself is equally offensive to men. However, several men did not. Several woman did not either. We come from societies that are tuned to victim blaming. A women too bold is a woman ‘out there’. The point about moral rape, when men discuss woman behind them is not even being mentioned here.
Neither morality, not any religion permits or allows rape. Yet, again and again women and minors go through this humiliating, soul-damaging trauma. The United Nations made rape a crime against humanity in 2008. Yet, the number of criminals punished for their crimes can be counted. These won’t even go into hundreds. Similarly, most of the rapists are not charged, or released on parole. Their crimes unaccounted for.
The reason why I have been able to do what I want to do with my life is because of my father. A man, who knew how to love and support his daughter. Most of the men I know are like him, decent human beings. They condemn rape and have similar sentiments for rape victims as I. Most of the men in the world are like that. Yet, the fact that rape has increased instead of decreasing is a scary idea. We humans might have come a long way from using fire for communication to satellite phones, yet from humanity’s point of view, we still have a long journey to cover.
