Sexual Violence against Women
and Girls in Africa’s Armed
conflicts: An Overview
Muthoni Mathai
The 7th Annual PCAF Pan African Conference on
Psychotraum
21st to 23rd July 2014 Mbarara Uganda
University of Nairobi
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http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Introduction
 “Sexual violence in warfare
is among the darkest
legacies of the 20th century,
and it continues to ravage
societies in the new
millennium”. Leatherman
2012, pg 2
 It is estimated that more
than 150 million women
and girls and 73 million
boys experience sexual
violence every year (WHO
2002).
 Systematically organized
rape as a weapon of war is
as old as history
 “spoils of war” !!!
• The arc of instability
Sexual violence?
 Affects Women and girls
much more than boys and
men
 Affects- Civilians and
combatant women, boys
and marginalized males
 Perpetrators- Are
predominantly males
 State troops, rebel forces,
civilians, and even
peacekeepers
Gendered experience of sexual
violation
 War INJURES AND KILLS
 While more men are killed in war, women often
experience violence:
 Sexual Violence against women is characterized by
silence and shame, self and social stigma
 Under reporting and neglect
Atrocities against women’s bodies
The horror stories we would rather not hear and having
heard forget!
 Rape and gang rape
 Sexual humiliation and mutilation
 Forced Incest
 Forced prostitution and sexual enslavement
 Kidnap and Forced marriages
 Violent abortion of fetuses in pregnant victims
 Forced pregnancy.
 Deliberate infection with STIs and HIV
Public reaction to the horror of
atrocities
Incomprehension
Monstrous
Dissociation
Silence &
Reduced
Accountability
Conflicts and War
 War is about securing vital resources for the survival
of the individual and group in the absence of peaceful
conflict resolution
 Resources- can be physical or social capital necessary
to maintaining the coherence of a group as a group
‘Spoils of war’
 The phrase ‘spoils of war’ refers to self payment of a
conquering army through forceful capture and use of
enemy property
 Even today women are considered ‘spoils of war’implication that women are property belonging to the
males of the opponent
 The rape of women is not about sexual pleasure
 The rape of women is about the exercise of power and
control
 “Their bodies become a battleground over which opposing
forces struggle”
 Women are raped as part of destruction of the
property of the enemy
 Women are raped in order to unravel the fabric of the
opponent’s society
 Women are raped as punishment for ‘being’
 Women are raped as a way to humiliate the men they
are related to
SV and Patriarchy
 Patriarchic societies maintain and sustain a hierarchical
social order central to dominant forms of Masculinities
 In this structure of dominance the majority of women are
at the bottom
 These are the potential victims of sexual violence in
conflict situation
 Junior combatants and marginalized civilian men- violate
women to achieve and reestablish status in the hierarchy
of masculine dominance and power structures
Disempowerment
 The context in which SV in conflict occurs is broader than
the conflict and precedes conflicts
IT IS:
 A social environment in which an overall
disempowerment and socio-economic and cultural
marginalization of women in peace time exists
 A Social environment in which all forms of Gender Based
violence have been normalized
 And normalization reaches far into post conflict period
and even to the next generation
Runaway- norms






Norms that produce social harm
Operate through fear to undermine security
Promote propaganda hate
Justifies dominance over the ‘other’
Legitimize conflict process as “right thinking”
Internalized in group stereotyping and dehumanizing
labels
Health Impact on Girls and
Women






Physical harm and injuries
Infectious disease
Environmental harm
Mental health disorders- depression, Anxiety, PTSD, SUD
Malnutrition
Reproductive health Consequences- STIs, HIV, Risky
pregnancy, Unsafe abortions, infertility etc
 up to 80 per cent of displaced girls in Liberian conflict
estimated to have had an induced abortion by the age of 15
Social Impact
 Abandonment and
displacement
 Bearing children of rape
 Stigma
 Living in the streets
 Increased burden of care
Summary
 Disempowered Girls and Women in society who face
increased gender based discriminations violence and
inequality in peace times are at higher risk of
victimization at the beginning of a conflict, during
conflict and flight and re-victimization in the post
conflict aftermath
 “Sexual violence is the biggest fear for women in
Central African Republic”. 06 Mar 2014 International
Rescue Committee
Prevent SV in conflict
Governments
Civil society
Prevent
sexual
Violence
International
organizations
&
Multinationals
Local
organizations
and
communities
University of Nairobi
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Certified
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Conclusion
 Sexual violence in conflict situations can be predicted
long before the conflict occurs
 Measures can be taken to protect the women
 But long term prevention involves the dismantling of
social economic and cultural structures that
reproduces and maintains the gender inequality
 In Africa, this includes among others, doing away with
some of our traditions- dear to many hearts- that
symbolize male ownership of women’s bodies
University of Nairobi
ISO 9001:2008
21
Certified
http://www.uonbi.ac.ke