A doctor in Bangladesh said to me last year, “it is hard to be a woman in Bangladesh. But, I think the state of women is the same all over the world.” At the time, I just nodded in agreement; it was a simple but true statement in my mind.
After additional research, however, I found a wide spectrum of beliefs surrounding gender dynamics and sexual violence around the world. Former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma defended himself against charges of rape with the argument that the alleged victim had “provoked” the encounter by wearing a kanga, a wrap-around cloth, to his house that night. In Saudi Arabia last year, a court doubled the lashes a rape victim was to receive as punishment for speaking to the public about her case. The victim, referred to internationally as the “girl of Qatif,” had been sentenced to lashes for “illegal intermingling,” which prohibits any contact between individuals of the opposite sex. In the mid-1990s, a court in Italy created the “denim defense,” which is the principle that jeans are difficult to remove under normal circumstances and impossible when a victim is fighting an attacker. This defense led to the acquittal of an alleged rapist. While individual stories and cultural context in which they occurred vary, they speak to the ubiquitous nature of male violence against women.
Violence against women takes two main forms: physical abuse and sexual assault. In regions not experiencing war or ethnic conflict, the perpetrators are usually known to the victims — most often in the context of an intimate relationship. In a multi-country study conducted by the World Health Organization in 1997, the lowest estimates rates of women who had ever experienced sexual violence from an intimate partner were found in urban areas of Japan, Serbia and Montenegro, at 6%, and the highest rates in provincial settings of Ethiopia (59%), Bangladesh (50%) and Peru (47%). Physical abuse occurs even more frequently than sexual assault — these rates range from 13% of women as survivors in urban areas of Japan to 61% in the provinces of Peru. Even more sobering is the fact that both forms of violence are often committed concurrently.
The epidemic is truly global. Often ignored by men or in some cases, appropriated by women, it is important to realize that sexual violence is not exclusively a women’s issue to the same extent that racism is not an exclusively blacks’ issue. In virtually all cases of violence, men are the perpetrators, and in the context of partner and sexual violence, women are the victims. Men, however, are victims of this violence too, either directly as victims or witnesses of intimate partner violence or indirectly as fathers, brothers, husbands, boyfriends and friends of women who have experienced violence. Sexual violence affects all members of society — regardless of gender.
An initial step to catalyze a paradigm shift would be to consider sexual violence and particularly violence in the context of an intimate relationship as a violation of human rights. This view can be held and promoted by both genders. Furthermore, just as others argue that poverty is a fundamental cause of disease and that the right to health care requires comprehensive improvements in quality of life (e.g. clean water and sanitation, economic development, political stability), sexual violence is an indicator and consequence of entrenched gender inequalities that have wide and profound implications for both genders. Significant social, legislative and judiciary transformations are necessary to provide institutional support for violence prevention and justice for victims. Although important, providing education and counseling programs to women does not address gender inequalities and vulnerabilities. Recently quoted on the United Nations Africa Renewal Blog (“New hope for AIDS fight in Africa” by Michael Fleshman), Elizabeth Mataka, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, also both underlined the critical role that women empowerment can play in addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis: “this is the time to connect the dots between AIDS and gender equality.”
In 1998, the war crimes tribunal trying Jean-Paul Akayesu for crimes of genocide chose to include his promotion of the rape of Tutsi women in the charges against him. It went on to establish the first definition of rape under international law as ”a physical invasion of a sexual nature, committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive.” This definition is considered by some experts, including Catherine MacKinnon who helped write the legislative framework for sexual harassment in the United States and argued on behalf of Bosnian and Croatian women raped by soldiers during the Serbo-Croatian War, as much more progressive than the standard definitions used in most U.S. states, which require proof of both the absence of consent and presence of coercion. In the Human Rights’ Watch report, “Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath,” Binaifer Nowrojee writes,
Rape in conflict is also used as a weapon to terrorize and degrade a particular community and to achieve a specific political end. In these situations, gender intersects with other aspects of a woman’s identity such as ethnicity, religion, social class or political affiliation. The humiliation, pain and terror inflicted by the rapist is meant to degrade not just the individual woman but also to strip the humanity from the larger group of which she is a part. The rape of one person is translated into an assault upon the community through the emphasis placed in every culture on women’s sexual virtue: the shame of the rape humiliates the family and all those associated with the survivor. Combatants who rape in war often explicitly link their acts of sexual violence to this broader social degradation. In the aftermath of such abuse, the harm done to the individual woman is often obscured or even compounded by the perceived harm to the community.
As a witness to the grief that sexual violence can have on an individual and their loved ones, it is encouraging to see a groundswell of women and men who believe that sexual violence is wrong and are committed to preventing rape and abuse and to holding perpetrators accountable for their actions through legal reform. Brazil, for example, has established over 300 all-women police stations nationwide to provide a safe and inviting environment for women wishing to report sexual and physical violence. One of the earliest stations’ police chiefs recalls that when the station opened, “there was a line around the block…. Women were coming to us to tell us about incidents that took place 20 years earlier.”
Further proof of women rejecting any tacit tolerance of sexual violence can be found worldwide. Following the successful “denim defense” acquittal, a group of female Italian lawmakers chose to wear jeans to the Parliament until the courts ordered that the case be tried again. In South Africa, during the announcement of Mr. Zuma’s acquittal, many protested at the courthouse wearing kangas to show their outrage at his behavior and the court’s decision. International outcry following the rape case in Saudi Arabia last fall compelled King Abdullah to pardon the “girl of Qatif” and cancelled her sentence. In the U.S., counties such as San Diego have organized coordinated Sexual Assault Response Teams to coordinate the care that survivors receive when they seek medical or legal attention after an assault. And some states have now changed their laws to reduce the redundancy of required proof and better prosecute perpetrators.
Despite these efforts, the need to reduce sexual violence remains great. In the U.S. alone, approximately 18% of women will experience an attempted or completed rape, half of these women before they are 18 years old and almost a fifth of those raped as minors will be victims of sexual assault again as adults. Approximately 22% of women have been physically abused by a partner in their lives.
While global change is the goal, local action is needed. Below are a few events for those in the Boston area interested in getting involved in the fight against sexual violence. During the month of April, many cities across the U.S. will be holding events, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to join in these efforts. The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network as well as The National Sexual Violence Resource Center websites provide information on activities and resources all over the country.
Events and opportunities for action in Boston, MA:
Sunday, April 6 — The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center kicks off its month of events with a 5k walk along the Charles River.
Monday and Tuesday, April 7 and 8 — Rape as a Weapon of War: Sexual Violence in the Congo
Featuring: Dr. Denis Mukwege, Chief Surgeon and Director of the Panzi Hospital, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Panel Discussion with the HHI Gender-based Violence Research Team
Presentation of preliminary research findings moderated by Dr. Michael VanRooyen & Dr. Jennifer Leaning
April 7: 5 to 6 pm
Location: Bornstein Amphitheater,Brigham and Women’s HospitalFor contact information, go to Harvard University’s event page and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative website.
-AND-
April 8 5:30 to 7 pm
Location: Harvard University, Emerson 105
Global Online Resources
World Health Organization, Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability (VIP)
IRIN (Humanitarian and News Analysis – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs): Gender Issues section
World Economic Forum: The Global Gender Gap Report 2007
Save the Children: Gender-Based Sexual Violence Against Teenage Girls in the Middle East: A comparative situation analysis of honour violence, early marriages and sexual abuse in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Yemen
Regional Programme for the Middle East and North Africa: Publications
2007 Mothers’ Index: The Best and Worst Places to be a Mother
