Sexual Assault as a Weapon of War: History, Effect and Prevention

by Anita Graham

The men pulling out the slips of paper were fighters from the Islamic State, and each would take a girl as a slave. Naima stared at her hands, blood pounding in her ears… By then she had been nine months in ISIS captivity. She knew none of them were kind, but she prayed that one didn’t pick her name… Minutes later, the fat man was shoving her into his black Land Cruiser…

‘He did everything to me,’ she later recounted. ‘Hitting, sex, pulling my hair, sex, everything.’ In the end she was sold to twelve different men.

War, and sexual assault, are occurrences as old as time itself. The Bible records in Genesis Chapter 34 the tale of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob who was raped by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. In retaliation, two of Dinah’s brothers (Simeon and Levi) launched an attack on the tribe, looted their city, and captured their wives and children. It is also recorded in Deuteronomy Chapter 21 verse 11 that soldiers who go to war against their enemies can take beautiful women captive and make them wives. The book of Judges Chapter 19 verses 22 — 25 also tells the horrific tale of a slave woman who was raped to death by the men of Gibeah when they laid siege against a Levite visitor in their city.

The trail of sexually assaulting women in war has also bloodied the African continent — from the 305 cases of rape and sexual slavery experienced by 296 women and girls between early 2013 and mid-2017 at the hands of armed groups in the Central African Republic as documented by Human Rights Watch to the thousands of women who have been raped and sexually assaulted by Boko Haram members, soldiers, and Civilian Joint Task Force members in satellite and internally displaced person camps in North-East Nigeria as exemplified in the report by Amnesty International.

Sexual assault as a weapon of war is rooted in patriarchal notions of power, domination, and control men have been conditioned to believe they have over women and girls. Females are seen as “lesser beings” and properties that can be owned and subjected to use, just like animals and inanimate subjects. As such, men righteously believe they are within their rights to exert their dominance over women and girls through violence. Women and girls are also considered collateral damage; spoils of war to sate the loins of the thirsty officer. Surely, sex is the least they can offer to a man putting his life on the line to save her and restore peace to her city. The very least that can be given to the man who ensures that she and her loved ones are fed and safe in their temporary residences.

The unfortunate reality is a trail of broken women. Angry at themselves. Angry at the world. Frustrated with their realities but having no way out. Women who choose to commit suicide instead of dealing with the rape stigma. Women who are considered outcasts. Women, such as Angele (name changed) who became a mother after she was captured by Seleka fighters in the Central African Republic and made a sexual slave for nine months. Women, such as Nalia (name changed) who tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) one year and three months after she was raped by four fighters in the Central African Republic. Women such as Josephine (name changed) whose husband separated from her because three anti-balaka soldiers raped her with a broken beer bottle.

Beyond the individual effects of sexual assault as a weapon of war, there are also effects on social structures. More often than not, family structures are broken by these violent acts. In most cases, the men and boys in the family are either murdered before the women and girls are raped or are forced to watch these acts and then murdered. Such a family is wiped out by that singular decision. There are also instances of men who divorce their wives because they now view them as defiled beings and/or cannot reconcile the psychological trauma of witnessing such an incident.

In the larger societal context, sexual assault disintegrates communal cohesion. Most of these sexual assault incidents occur in public spaces. The whole community knows who was raped and how many perpetrators were involved. It eventually translates to blaming and shaming the survivors, public denouncements of the survivors and their offspring because of rape, and honour killings to restore the communal name. Sexual assault also breeds high risks of the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI). Access to medical support services is sketchy at best during wartime. Women who are raped are more likely to not receive comprehensive STI prevention and control. They are also more likely to pass on their infections to their sexual partners and/or children before, during, or after birth. Its ripple effect is an STI epidemic that can take years to address, possibly even after the war is over.

Having established all these, how can we best prevent the use of sexual assault as weapons of war? The basic solution is to prevent wars from happening in the first place. It goes without saying that if wars did not exist, women would not be sexually assaulted in that context. It is of the utmost importance to involve women in war and conflict prevention processes. Women are key members of the populace who play important roles in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding, and should equally be involved in all decision making and efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security as stated in the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 (2000).

It is also important to advance gender equality and smash the patriarchy in the process. Gender inequalities and the patriarchal systems currently in place continues to give leeway for the oppression of women and girls. Certain targets of the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender equality) focus on eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, as well as ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life. Meeting these targets would also translate to ensuring that women are safe in all circumstances.

At the individual, communal, and societal levels, we must implement coordinated social and behavioural change communication strategies that seek to destigmatize sexual assault and dismantle rape culture. It will never be the survivors’ fault for being raped and it will never be okay to shame them for their experiences. Men, and women alike, need to become aware of the prevalence of rape in our society and its damaging effects on survivors. They also need to be enlightened on their internal biases and how they can be better allies to survivors. For sexual assault during wartime, community members need to understand that no one, except the abuser, is responsible for “allowing” rape to happen and they need to be supportive to build back better.

Perhaps of the utmost importance is holding abusers accountable for their actions. Sexual assault during wartime should be treated with priority and be regarded as deadly and important as all other weapons of warfare. As such, laws and policies which ensure punishments that align with the severity of the actions perpetrated should be implemented and enforced across all abusers, irrespective of rank, economic status, connections, family ties, amongst others. Humanitarian officials who engage in sexual assault should face even stricter punishments as they not only violate the ethics of humanitarian service but also break the trust of those they are supposed to help and cause undue suffering.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that no one should be tortured or be treated as less than human. Sexual assault is a dehumanizing form of torture that no person should ever have to experience. It is up to us all to ensure a safer world for women, even in the most unbalanced situations.