WMC Women Under Siege
10 ways women are criminalized for being brutalized—as seen in a single story
On December 30, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about Lalasa Devi, a woman in her mid-30s who is part of India’s “untouchable” cast. Devi says a man raped her one night nine months ago and that she has seen no justice since. I’ve rarely read a case that speaks as clearly as this one does to why women don’t report rape.
WMC Women Under Siege
Silent slaves: Stories of human trafficking in India
In a women’s ward in a New Delhi hospital lies a frail 15-year-old girl. Her face and head are bandaged, leaving visible only a bruised blue-black eye and swollen lips. Burn marks and scabs extend down her neck to her whole body, and a strange stench surrounds her.
WMC Women Under Siege
December 23, 2013 International,
Violence against women
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...
WMC Women Under Siege
December 18, 2013 | Reem Abdel-Razek |
Disability,
International,
Violence against women,
WMC Loreen Arbus Journalism Program
Did not wearing a veil lead to an acid attack in Egypt?
A few weeks ago I received a message from a friend in Cairo about a horrible attack on her sister, Esraa Mohamed. Esraa was walking in her own neighborhood at 3 p.m. when she realized she was being followed by a well-dressed, respectable looking stranger. He said, “I am not harassing you but don’t forget to wipe off your pants.”
WMC Women Under Siege
What does it mean when women perpetrate gang rapes?
When I research rape in war, particularly gang rape, three thoughts prevail: First, the repeated illustration that rape is the expression of dominance, a vicious and complex way of ensuring that certain people and institutions function and thrive; second, that sexualized violence is not inevitable; and third, that women in the world experience life the way that imprisoned men do.
WMC Women Under Siege
Global study of survivors of gender-based violence confirms our worst fears
In the aftermath of the widely publicized sexual assaults in India, local and international experts have focused on the environment in which impunity, victim-blaming, and under-reporting have allowed these crimes to persist. The attention has forced Indians to examine how police, medical examiners, and members of the public treat sexual assault survivors.
WMC Women Under Siege
In CAR, ‘If they saw a woman they wanted, they just took her’
Natacha Indzabingui is one of thousands of women hiding in the bush in the Central African Republic. The 32-year-old told me that when armed men attacked her village, “everyone tried to escape. Those who couldn’t were attacked. If they saw a woman they wanted, they just took her. If she had a child, it was just thrown to the side.” Thirty people were abducted that day, Indzabingui said, including 12 women and girls, some as young as 7.
WMC Women Under Siege
The Index: Sexualized Violence at Home
Percent of women worldwide who have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexualized violence in their lifetime: 35. Perpetrators of rape of women since age 18 that are men (as a percent): 100
WMC Women Under Siege
When conflict came to Burma’s Rohingya, women were forced to do something unexpected
The roles of family and society, dictated by culture and history, often disintegrate in the presence of conflict. And the Rohingya people, already one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world, were no exception after last year’s violence in Burma.
WMC Women Under Siege
When we focus on rape, what do we miss?
It’s been 20 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Despite this, it doesn’t seem like the Western mainstream media have figured out how to represent more than a narrow definition of the types of violence women experience during conflict. Too often the focus is only on rape and other forms of sexualized violence.
WMC Women Under Siege
Taking away their guns: A move toward protecting women and girls?
Rape turns bodies into weapons. But in many cases, literal weapons facilitate the act itself. As one Congolese woman told Amnesty International in 2011: “A guy with a machete in a village can rape one woman. Two guys with a machine gun can rape the whole village.” Guns not only facilitate rape but also heighten its danger. With guns, women are shot in the vaginas, leading to death or debilitating injuries such as fistula. With guns, and other weapons, rape “is often used as a predecessor to murder.”
WMC Women Under Siege
November 14, 2013 | Kishalay Bhattacharjee |
Disability,
International,
Violence against women,
WMC Loreen Arbus Journalism Program
Of the thousands of unreported, ignored stories in India, here’s one
Despite the outrage at violence against women that spread through India this past year, thousands of women and children continue to be victims of rape, trafficking, and other forms of sexualized violence. The stories of these women and children go unreported and are largely ignored by global campaigns against violence. But one of the worst and most brutal cases has been that of Soni Sori.
WMC Women Under Siege
10 wars to watch (and that the media ignore)
Bloodshed, famine, rape, internal displacement. There are truly few things as awful as the reality of living through modern warfare. The horror, suffering, and pain caused by war are acutely felt on an individual level. Often though, that pain is endured quietly, out of view, while the media focuses on bombs falling and guns firing.
WMC Women Under Siege
November 08, 2013 International,
Violence against women
Women under siege (and on the Web) this week
Our roundup of what's happening around the world and around the Web when it comes to women, war, and sexualized violence this week.
WMC Women Under Siege
U.S. steps up protection of women in war
One of the first things that happens when war breaks out is that the rule of law crumbles. Women become targets of violence—whether through rape or sexual exploitation as food and other resources quickly become scarce. This can have critical consequences not only for the women themselves, but for the escalation of the war.
WMC Women Under Siege
November 01, 2013 International,
Violence against women
Women under siege (and on the Web) this week
Our roundup of what's happening around the world and around the Web when it comes to women, war, and sexualized violence this week.
WMC Women Under Siege
Women in South Africa are living in a war zone
This year has been especially horrific for the women of South Africa. On October 15, two little girls, aged 2 and 3, were found in a public toilet in Diepsloot, a settlement in the north of Johannesburg, according to news reports. The girls, both cousins, who had been abducted in broad daylight, had been raped and strangled.
WMC Women Under Siege
What's going on in Syria is about a lot more than chemical weapons
We're off talk of "intervention" in Syria, and on to trying to get everyone to the negotiating table. It's not going very well.
WMC Women Under Siege
October 25, 2013 International,
Violence against women
Women under siege (and on the Web) this week
Our roundup of what's happening around the world and around the Web when it comes to women, war, and sexualized violence this week.
WMC Women Under Siege
Shutting us down: How online misogyny prevents women from fully participating in democracy
There are two major barriers to women’s full participation in the democratic process in the UK at the moment—the first relates to their taking part in the vital and shaping process of grassroots activism, and the second to their participation in more traditional political careers.
WMC Women Under Siege
The Index: Rape in War
Number of countries that signed the UK and UN’s Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict: 128. Countries that refused to sign the declaration at the UNGA on September 24: 80...
WMC Women Under Siege
'Their untold stories eat away at them': Rape and the women of Mali
In late September, a Malian woman told UN workers that she had been raped, and identified four Chadian soldiers—UN peacekeepers—as her rapists, according to a BBC report. A UN spokesman issued a statement a few days later, reaffirming the organization’s zero commitment policy against sexual abuse and calling on the Chadian government to fully investigate the matter.
WMC Women Under Siege
October 11, 2013 | Fariba Nawa |
International
Afghanistan’s widows of the disappeared
Sabah Mohammed sat at the dining table where she worked in Fremont, Calif., her gaze distant and lost. She wondered if her husband was out there somewhere with another wife and family. Or maybe he was dead. Or maybe he was in a prison camp in Siberia.
WMC Women Under Siege
10 must-read books on sexualized violence in war
Our mission here at WMC’s Women Under Siege is to add to the public record on sexualized violence in conflict. But if you’re just setting out to learn more about a topic as complicated as this, figuring out where to begin might seem a bit daunting.
WMC Women Under Siege
Burma refuses to relinquish rape as weapon of war
On September 24, British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s initiative to end sexualized violence in conflict zones took the 2013 UN General Assembly by storm. The event was hosted by Secretary Hague and Zainab Hawa Bangura, special representative of the Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, and included speakers from 27 member countries.