A Dialogue with Elizabeth Heineman: The History of Sexual Violence in Conflict
Historically sexual violence in conflict zones was considered inevitable and therefore was not allotted a lot of attention and discussion for reform or ending violence against women in wartime. Feminists of the 1970s pressed the issue and wanted the dominant discourse to change so that rapists who committed sexual violent crimes in conflict zones would be held accountable. The beginning of awareness and widespread media coverage was with Yugoslavia and Rwanda when the gendered violence of rape became widely considered a crime of war and human rights violations.
Heineman's article focuses a lot on how other cases of systematic rape of women in wars should be explored and resurfaced to have a greater understanding of these types of atrocities. She states that most sexual violence is generalized by the widely publicized examples that have taken place in contemporary society, including Darfur. To get a good understanding of sexual violence in conflict zones one needs to explore histories of cases not documented. Exploring old histories of sexual violence is necessary to broaden the understanding of sexual violence in conflict zones as a point of discussion all by itself, separate from sexual violence in the private sphere and other locations. She expounds upon the origin of human rights that were established which was the onset of the European Enlightenment which we have all come to find out held highly gendered and racialized ideas. Many of them left out issues that face woman (exploitation in the private sphere and what possible ramifications would come from religious freedom). Within this framework of original human rights notions, rape was seen more as crime against honor than a crime against the body and the physical and psychological injuries that were inflicted. This can obviously be seen as the male's interpretation of rape and how they are affected by it as opposed to the women's personal experience being the important factor.
Heineman also points out the normative aim of rape in war times which are, "deracination in settings where racial or ethnic categories are critical, and demoralizing an enemy that places high value on woman's purity and men's ability to protect them" (11). These would absolutely apply to the raping of women in Darfur.
It was finally in the 70s and 80s that grassroots feminist organizations who included survivors of the "comfort women" in Japan and recent raped women of Bosnia pushed the agenda to establish sexual violence in conflict zones as a war crime.
Heineman also stresses the importance of civilian contexts by saying, "a historical approach contextualizing war deeply in the peacetime setting preceding it offers a more refined understanding of victims experiences and community responses" (14). To apply this framework to the Zaghawa women of Darfur one must consider the role they played in the villages. According to Halima Bashir's account of her Zaghawa village, women did all the work needing to be done. The more wives a man had, the lazier he was able to be. This role that they played in society has extended to endanger the internally displaced women in Darfur because of the long distances they have to travel in order to gather food, water, and firewood. They often go off sometimes alone and sometimes in groups of other women but without any other sort of protection where they becomes victims of rape by the government and Janjaweed.
Heineman also discusses the Thirty Years' War in Europe in the 17th century and how their cultural values shaped the way the victims of rape discussed and responded to it. Women would often keep quiet about the rape in order to maintain honor. And when accounts of traumatized communities arose, it was the in depth stories of men who gave their names and described in detail their own horrific experiences, while the female victims remained nameless. This is also similar to Darfur's situation due to the cultural significance of purity for women and remaining a virgin until marriage. As discussed earlier when I reviewed the documentary Darfur Diaries, I spoke of the lack of women but abundance of male testimonies, who also gave in depth stories and were all named individuals. She also refers to German women who were raped by Soviets in World War II and the detached and "rational calculation" attitude they had toward the crime committed against them. Due to sexual purity not being of such great importance in the context of their society, they did not consider themselves ruined by rape. Again, women in Darfur are alienated from the men in their culture due to rape, and with the consequence of being robbed of their purity, death is often seen as a release from the "soul hell" as Halima Bashir referred to it in Tears of the Desert, of rape. The physical consequence of rape for Sudanese woman should not be left out either. In Bashir's memoir when she discovered the group of school girls that were raped by the Janjaweed she had to stitch the girls back together because of the female circumcision practice of her culture. Compared to western women's understanding of rape it would seem that Sudanese women would suffer more psychologically and physically.
Heineman discusses how important it is to dismantle the taboos linked to sexual violence so that the victims can be accepted back into their communities and also still feel a sense of their own identity. She discusses the importance of women telling their stories because if they do not this will have an affect on the aftermath of the violation as well as the victim rediscovering their own person hood. This can also apply to the perpetrator's view of the victim and the possibility that the stories would allow them to see the victim as a human being. She expounds upon this by saying, "Crucial here was not simply a psychological notion of humanness but a philosophical and sociopolitical approach that rejects nationalism and other ideologies gives smaller units of identification priority over a common humanity. Perpetrators' understanding of their victims as others had enabled them to rape." (18).
Heineman's article focuses a lot on how other cases of systematic rape of women in wars should be explored and resurfaced to have a greater understanding of these types of atrocities. She states that most sexual violence is generalized by the widely publicized examples that have taken place in contemporary society, including Darfur. To get a good understanding of sexual violence in conflict zones one needs to explore histories of cases not documented. Exploring old histories of sexual violence is necessary to broaden the understanding of sexual violence in conflict zones as a point of discussion all by itself, separate from sexual violence in the private sphere and other locations. She expounds upon the origin of human rights that were established which was the onset of the European Enlightenment which we have all come to find out held highly gendered and racialized ideas. Many of them left out issues that face woman (exploitation in the private sphere and what possible ramifications would come from religious freedom). Within this framework of original human rights notions, rape was seen more as crime against honor than a crime against the body and the physical and psychological injuries that were inflicted. This can obviously be seen as the male's interpretation of rape and how they are affected by it as opposed to the women's personal experience being the important factor.
Heineman also points out the normative aim of rape in war times which are, "deracination in settings where racial or ethnic categories are critical, and demoralizing an enemy that places high value on woman's purity and men's ability to protect them" (11). These would absolutely apply to the raping of women in Darfur.
It was finally in the 70s and 80s that grassroots feminist organizations who included survivors of the "comfort women" in Japan and recent raped women of Bosnia pushed the agenda to establish sexual violence in conflict zones as a war crime.
Heineman also stresses the importance of civilian contexts by saying, "a historical approach contextualizing war deeply in the peacetime setting preceding it offers a more refined understanding of victims experiences and community responses" (14). To apply this framework to the Zaghawa women of Darfur one must consider the role they played in the villages. According to Halima Bashir's account of her Zaghawa village, women did all the work needing to be done. The more wives a man had, the lazier he was able to be. This role that they played in society has extended to endanger the internally displaced women in Darfur because of the long distances they have to travel in order to gather food, water, and firewood. They often go off sometimes alone and sometimes in groups of other women but without any other sort of protection where they becomes victims of rape by the government and Janjaweed.
Heineman also discusses the Thirty Years' War in Europe in the 17th century and how their cultural values shaped the way the victims of rape discussed and responded to it. Women would often keep quiet about the rape in order to maintain honor. And when accounts of traumatized communities arose, it was the in depth stories of men who gave their names and described in detail their own horrific experiences, while the female victims remained nameless. This is also similar to Darfur's situation due to the cultural significance of purity for women and remaining a virgin until marriage. As discussed earlier when I reviewed the documentary Darfur Diaries, I spoke of the lack of women but abundance of male testimonies, who also gave in depth stories and were all named individuals. She also refers to German women who were raped by Soviets in World War II and the detached and "rational calculation" attitude they had toward the crime committed against them. Due to sexual purity not being of such great importance in the context of their society, they did not consider themselves ruined by rape. Again, women in Darfur are alienated from the men in their culture due to rape, and with the consequence of being robbed of their purity, death is often seen as a release from the "soul hell" as Halima Bashir referred to it in Tears of the Desert, of rape. The physical consequence of rape for Sudanese woman should not be left out either. In Bashir's memoir when she discovered the group of school girls that were raped by the Janjaweed she had to stitch the girls back together because of the female circumcision practice of her culture. Compared to western women's understanding of rape it would seem that Sudanese women would suffer more psychologically and physically.
Heineman discusses how important it is to dismantle the taboos linked to sexual violence so that the victims can be accepted back into their communities and also still feel a sense of their own identity. She discusses the importance of women telling their stories because if they do not this will have an affect on the aftermath of the violation as well as the victim rediscovering their own person hood. This can also apply to the perpetrator's view of the victim and the possibility that the stories would allow them to see the victim as a human being. She expounds upon this by saying, "Crucial here was not simply a psychological notion of humanness but a philosophical and sociopolitical approach that rejects nationalism and other ideologies gives smaller units of identification priority over a common humanity. Perpetrators' understanding of their victims as others had enabled them to rape." (18).
posted by Meredith at
4:34 PM
2 Comments:
Fantastic entry--in working on my research project, I found I was often disgusted at how much the idea of rape during conflict is dismissed as "something that just happens during war." I am curious to see whether or not rape in the crisis of Darfur will be pursued as genocidal rape or as a crime against humanity. I sincerely hope that it will be the former.
I was very pleased because I did come across different sources of info. that referred to the rape as genocidal rape. I had never heard this term up until these readings, and was happy to find out that their were mainstream media sources addressing the horrors of the sexual violence against the women in Darfur honestly and not just referring to it as another crime of war.
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