2013 #MustReads on WMC’s Women Under Siege

We started off the year with a call to end the “culture of rape in 2013,” leading to a widely used hashtag offering ideas as to how at #2013EndRape.

From there, we looked at the big picture of violence—why it’s so widespread and continues unabated, who it affects and how it is measured—in a number of pieces including:

“The devil’s in the data: How rape culture shapes rape stats,” by Amelia Hoover Green

“The legacy of silence: Why we ignore the rape of women from Guatemala to Syria,” by Lauren Wolfe

“Why treating rape survivors is so complicated,” by Coleen Kivlahan

“Where is ‘red line’ on rape in war?” by Lauren Wolfe

We heard terrible stories about women suffering in specific parts of the world:

“Women in South Africa are living in a war zone,” by Shazdeh Omari

“From Morocco to Denmark: Rape survivors around the world are forced to marry attackers,” by Morgan McDaniel

And took a look at the gender wars and what it actually means for literal war and sexualized violence:

“What does it mean when women perpetrate gang rapes?” by Soraya L. Chemaly

“A competition of suffering: Male vs. female rape,” by Kerry Paterson

“Why I’m breaking the cycle of violence in Afghanistan,” by Ali Shahidy

We asked how the media impacts—or even perpetuates—violence against women:

“Covering rape responsibly,” by Helen Benedict

“Creating heaven ‘in a place called hell’: DRC activist responds to US tabloid,” by Lauren Wolfe

“10 wars to watch (and that the media ignore),” by WMC’s Women Under Siege

“Salacious, voyeuristic, insensitive: How the media harms one survivor of rape,” by Lauren Wolfe

Some writers took an in-depth look at how policies and systems are entrenching sexualized violence globally:

“How US policy denies life-saving care to women raped in war,” by Akila Radhakrishnan

“‘Survival sex’: How NGOs and peacekeepers exploit women in war,” by Vibeke Brask Thomsen

“The topsy-turvy world of men who oppose anti-violence campaigns,” by Josh Shahryar

And, in one of our most popular stories of the year, “Why Steubenville is not Delhi: How we are failing in this country,” Lauren Wolfe asked, “What sort of justice do we, as a society, want?”

We even took a look at the misconception that rape always accompanies war in two pieces by Michele Lent Hirsch:

“No, war doesn’t have to mean rape” and “Placing blame: Report debunks misconceptions about wartime rape”

We created a handy stat sheet on the numbers on rape in war around the world called “The Index: Rape in War, October 2013.”

And when it came to Syria, where we are tracking sexualized violence against women, men, and children on our live, crowd-sourced map, we published a number of hard-hitting stories by Lauren Wolfe about the ongoing atrocities including:

“Syria has a massive rape crisis”

“‘Take your portion’: A victim speaks out about rape in Syria”

 “Sick, injured, untreated: Syrians suffer fallout of assault on medical care”

Please let us know in the comments section what you found most helpful and interesting in our reading this year, and what you’d like to see more of next. And thank you, from the team here at WMC’s Women Under Siege, for caring enough to read and share these important dispatches from the under-reported world of women in war. May the coming year be more peaceful for all.