GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IS A WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON
Tania Darbouze
Political Science Program (B.A. Candidate)
Brooklyn College, CUNY
In the Spring 2020 semester, I had the opportunity to conduct research alongside Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome, who co-founded #BringBackOurGirlsNYC. This research focused on the abduction of the 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria. The goals for my research project include tracking any global response to the situation from NGOs, political figures, the media, governmental organizations, and global powers, identify factors in the political climate of Northern Nigeria that cause these types of attacks, and to educate myself, and others.
On April 14th-15th 2014, 276 schoolgirls were abducted from their school dormitory in the middle of the night by Boko Haram. The girls who were from local villages were attending the secondary government school and stayed in the dormitories in preparation for important school exams. Boko Haram raided Chibok village and set fire to the school, kidnapping the girls. Although some girls were able to escape that same night, the majority were held captive. Boko Haram targeted the girls’ dormitories in opposition to western education, and in retaliation towards the Nigerian government. These young women were taken from their school, families, and villages and abused, as well as tortured by the hands of Boko Haram. The girls were forcefully converted to Islam, compelled to become bush wives and used as unpaid servants. Boko Haram’s patriarchal ideology, warped interpretation of Islam, and rigid cultural beliefs led to their decision to remove these girls from the influence of western education. They also raped and forced them into motherhood and domestic servitude.
This abduction was only a part of the growing attacks by Boko Haram. Since the rise of Boko Haram, the Nigerian government has been in conflict with the insurgent group. This conflict has destroyed the peace and shaken the stability in Northeastern Nigeria. Most vulnerable to this conflict are the poor people, particularly the women and children of Northern Nigeria who have been abducted, brutally raped and/or mutilated, displaced, and victims to constant threats of violence. Women, and young girls especially, have been left at the mercy of brutal, exploitative insurgents and paradoxically, the members of the Nigerian armed forces who should protect them also prey on them.
As I delved deeper into my research, I discovered that violence against women and children in Nigeria wasn’t an isolated issue, but a common trend worldwide. The research into the plight of the Chibok girls served as a launchpad to expand my research into the subject of the relationship between girls in conflict and sexualized violence. All over the world, from the beginning of time, women and children have been used as tactical tools of war and abused sexually, physically, and psychologically in the most brutal ways. Similar to the situation in Northern Nigeria, women in other countries endured abuse either at the hands of insurgent groups or their own government in times of war. Some of the instances I followed include rape in Sierra Leone and The Democratic Republic of Congo and rape camps in Bosnia, and missing black girls in the U.S., as well as high murder rates of Native American women in the U.S., and Canada.
First, I turn to the rape of Bosnian women.
In the 1990s, Bosnia, which was part of the former Yugoslavia at the time, was embroiled in political tension, war, and frequent constitutional changes. Minority ethnic groups were subjected to totalitarian rule by the Bosnian Serbs and the Yugoslav People’s Army. The struggle for power and political dominance led to a large-scale massacre and rape of the opposing ethnic group of Bosnian Muslims. Bosnian Muslim women of all ages were the most targeted during these times. They had their husbands, brothers, and sons stripped from their homes, and they were abducted into rape camps by Bosnian Serb soldiers. These women were gang-raped repeatedly, held hostage, and forced to give birth to Serbian children as a means of ethnic cleansing and humiliation. They were also used as indentured servants. The Bosnian citizens were gaslighted for many years since the government claimed that the reports of these atrocities were propaganda and complete falsehoods. It wasn’t until years later the government finally admitted to the brutality these women endured and started reconciliation.
Other conflicts researched include rape in Sierra Leone and the DRC. Both Sierra Leone and the DRC have experienced long years of war, insurgent violence, and colonial dominance that shifted the stability of their countries. In Sierra Leone during the eleven-year civil war in the 1990s women were killed at staggering rates then men and children.
After the war, the post-war instability resulted in 215-270,000 women having experienced sexualized violence. Rebels and soldiers went into neighborhoods and villages and terrorized the locals, making it a point to rape every woman and child in sight. Women were raped and mutilated in front of their families, in marketplaces, in the middle of the road, and even in their own homes. Many young girls were abducted and forced into becoming bush wives by commanding officers.
In the DRC, there was a similar situation.
Political tension, colonial dominance, war, and poverty played a huge factor in the sexualized violence women face. The DRC is nicknamed the “Rape Capital of the World” where four women are raped every five minutes. Women in the DRC are being raped by soldiers and rebels. They are subjected to public humiliation and shunning of having a rape child or a child out of wedlock. Women in both the DRC and Sierra Leone have also been victims of sexual exploitation, where they have transactional sex with men in power for the basic resources they need such as food, medicine, security, or a place to stay in order to not be targeted by other groups of men.
The conflict that directly affects the United States and was the main area of focus for this research project, concerns the thousands of missing Black women and girls that flew under the radar. There are currently over seventy-five thousand missing black women, and children in America, and not even a fraction of these missing people get media coverage. Many of these women and girls are missing, runaways, homeless, or abducted. Black women have a complex standing in a racist-patriarchal system, where they belong to minority/oppressed groups; and they face both sexism and racism. So, it is completely unsurprising that society ignores missing and potentially trafficked Black women and girls. The majority of these missing girls and women are also in poverty, and as such, finding them is not treated as a priority. Their families also face barriers of mistrust and lack of communication with the police force. This limits the efforts to locate their missing loved ones. Police just automatically categorize these women as runaways or drifters. They are most likely to fall into the web of human trafficking. Black women make up 40% of women victims of sex trafficking. Black women and girls who are in better economic standing and social classes do not escape sexualized violence that black women in poverty face. Research shows that sixty percent of black women will experience sexual assault before they turn eighteen.
Native American women in both the United States and Canada share the same fate as Black women. Like Black women, Native American women are largely marginalized and affected by sexism, racism, and poverty. Native women are the most numerous victims of sexual assault, physical abuse, and homicide in the U.S. and Canada. 4 in 5 American/Alaskan Indian girls and women have experienced sexualized violence in their lifetime. Native women who live in urban settings are more likely to experience sexual assault than those on reservations. In a 2010 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 94 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Indian women have experienced sexual assault. Native women are targeted by intimate partners, family, and non-natives alike.
Marginalized women all over the world who are victims of sexualized violence and patriarchal aggression often experience erasure, and the invisibility, because their attacks are treated as though they didn’t happen. This invisibility is dangerous for these women because their attackers and predators who prey on their vulnerability and face no consequences, leaving these women without resources. They are also unable to leave their circumstances, and there is no accountability from the government, which allows them to be targeted. These women are also left without the resources they need, and treatment to help them recover after these traumatic events. They’re not given psychological treatment, therapy, medical care, or access to education or better job opportunities to help them escape their environments. My research shows that these different cases are very similar. Structural violence produces sexualized violence, negative gender stereotypes, and gender constructs about women's role in society, as well as the use of women’s bodies as weapons of war and intimidation. These events happen all over the world to women who fit into these categories: poor, women of color, or from marginalized ethnic groups. Such women receive little to no media attention.
The world must pay attention to how women across the world are being abused and left behind. There must be real solutions. In cases like Bosnia, Sierra Leone, and DRC we need the United Nations to hold predatory regimes and governments that play a part in the destruction of these women’s lives, accountable. Sexualized violence during war should be treated as a war crime, and there should be punishment for perpetrators. The United Nations should also push for all member states to sign a treaty against the use of sexualized violence and genocide. The media should also do its part to expose what is happening to women across the world not only when it is trending, but because light needs to be shone one of the gravest atrocities. There also should be long-term psychosocial assistance for the recovery of women, and their children, including the provision of housing, therapy, medical care, education, and employment.
