Women Under Siege Project

Last updated
Women Under Siege Project
Formation2012
Founder Gloria Steinem
Type Non-governmental organization
Purposehumanitarian
ServicesProviding a voice to those who have experienced sexual violence during conflict or war zones; raising awareness about gender-based violence in conflict areas.
LeaderLauren Wolfe
Parent organization
 Women's Media Center
Website www.womenundersiegeproject.org

The Women Under Siege Project is an independent initiative of the Women's Media Center (WMC). The project documents online and through social media how rape and gender-based violence are used as tools in warfare and genocide. The project uses journalism to investigate and bring to light these issues which impact women throughout the world, but especially in areas of conflict. The director of Women Under Siege, Lauren Wolfe, has said that the first step to challenging rape is to stop victim blaming and to focus on the perpetrators and the cultures that produce them. [1]

Contents

The Women Under Siege Project was founded by Gloria Steinem. The director is Lauren Wolfe and the associate editor for Women Under Siege is Shazdeh Omari. [2] The project is organized under the WMC, but operates independently, with contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations.[ citation needed ]

Background

Women, and sometimes men, who are in areas of combat are at risk of being used as a tool of warfare. Rape and sexual violence are used in order to humiliate and intimidate individuals, families, and groups of people. [3] Sometimes commanders and leaders of troops consider women to be "a spoil of war". [4]

The issue of stopping rape and sexual violence during wartime is problematic because it has remained "profoundly invisible". [5] Even in countries with support systems to help victims, rape and sexual violence are under-reported. [6] Additionally, many women decide against accusing their attackers because of the legal process, shame, fear, stigma, or worry they will be disbelieved. [7] [8] It is even worse for women in war zones and refugee camps. [6] Many women in areas of conflict are terrified of talking about sexual assault. [7] Because these crimes are unreported or are effectively invisible, they are not addressed. [9]

History

The Women Under Siege Project was started by Gloria Steinem in 2012 in order to document violence against women taking place during violent conflicts. [10] The idea was inspired by two books: Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust by Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle Saidel [11] and At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance - a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to Black Power by Danielle McGuire. [10] After reading these two books which address sexual violence, Steinem wondered if there were lessons to be learned from both history and current affairs; and also, if information were more widely available and people were aware of the issues, if rape and gender-based violence could be prevented in the future. [10] Steinem has said that "suffering has to be visible and not called inevitable or blamed on the victim before we can stop it." [12]

Steinem decided to start a website to increase awareness about the issue. In creating the website, Steinem hopes to create connections between outbreaks of violence against women and that hopefully society will stand against rape and sexual violence and not see it as "inevitably part of war". [5] She says that "by making clear that gender-based violence is political and public, it admits that sexualized violence can be changed." [13] Rape and gender-based violence being used as tools of conflict and war can't be addressed if the issues are not documented or discussed. [14]

Website

Women Under Siege's website includes blogs about current violent activity and also first-person accounts from those who have experienced violence. [5] Lauren Wolfe has interviewed women from around the world about their experiences. [7] Entries are not always about current events; Jamia Wilson wrote an article for the website about women and sexual violence during civil rights protests. [15] Steinem emphasized that the website can also help women realize that they are not alone and give them a voice. [12]

The original content created for the site was praised for its blunt and honest reporting on the issues by The New York Times . [16]

In 2014, Wolfe reported that many people found her website while conducting "troubling" web searches. [17] Some of the searches included phrases like "how to rape a woman" and "are women to blame for rape?". [17] Wolfe said that these types of searches show how important education is to combating sexual violence. [17]

Research

Women Under Siege conducts detailed research and presents case studies on their website. [18] They are currently attempting to quantify the number of sexual assaults that occurred during the Ukrainian conflict, but numbers are difficult to record because the police in the region "strongly discourage women reporting rapes". [6] Other projects include using data from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) to address the issue of rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). [19]

Crowd-sourcing and social media

The project has used crowd-sourcing to create maps which show where sexual assault has taken place. In 2012, Women Under Siege put out a call to people from Syria and those working with Syrian refugees to provide information about rape and sexual assault. [20] The entries were created by collecting information from journalists, human rights activists and individual citizens. [21] Some the reports came via email or by Twitter with the hashtag #RapeinSyria. [22] Women Under Siege mapped these incidents, [23] providing over 117 pieces of data for each entry. [21] The data was documented in real time, using a software developed by Ushahidi. [24] The data was analyzed and put together in a comprehensive report that details a huge amount of human suffering. [25] Not only did the information shine a light on the problem, it also uncovered unexpected findings. For example, the data revealed that Syrian government forces were also largely responsible for much of the sexual violence. [26]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

Some victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are male. It is estimated that approximately one in six men were sexually abused as children. Historically, rape was thought to be, and defined as, a crime committed solely against females. This belief is still held in some parts of the world, but rape of males is now commonly criminalized and has been subject to more discussion than in the past.

Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, regardless of the relationship to the victim. It occurs in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread, and is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations.

Rape by gender classifies types of rape by the sex and/or gender of both the rapist and the victim. This scope includes both rape and sexual assault more generally. Most research indicates that rape affects women disproportionately, with the majority of people convicted being men; however, since the broadening of the definition of rape in 2012 by the FBI, more attention is being given to male rape, including females raping males.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wartime sexual violence</span> Acts of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war or military occupation

Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader sociological motives. Wartime sexual violence may also include gang rape and rape with objects. A war crime, it is distinguished from sexual harassment, sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Mukwege</span> Congolese gynecologist and Nobel laureate (born 1955)

Denis Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist and Pentecostal pastor. He founded and works in Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been raped by armed rebels. In 2018, Mukwege and Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</span>

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the east of the country in particular, has been described as the "Rape Capital of the World," and the prevalence and intensity of all forms of sexual violence has been described as the worst in the world. Human Rights Watch defines sexual violence as "an act of a sexual nature by force, or by threat of force or coercion," and rape as "a form of sexual violence during which the body of a person is invaded, resulting in penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the victim, with a sexual organ, or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or other part of the body."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Media Center</span> American nonprofit womens organization

Women's Media Center (WMC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit women's organization in the United States founded in 2005 by writers and activists Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem. Led by President Julie Burton, WMC's work includes advocacy campaigns, giving out awards, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution. The majority of this trafficking is internal, and much of it is perpetrated by armed groups and government forces outside government control within the DRC's unstable eastern provinces.

Violence against men is a term for violent acts that are disproportionately or exclusively committed against men or boys. Men are over-represented as both victims and perpetrators of violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocidal rape</span> Mass sexual assault during wartime as part of a genocidal campaign

Genocidal rape, a form of wartime sexual violence, is the action of a group which has carried out acts of mass rape and gang rapes, against its enemy during wartime as part of a genocidal campaign. During the Armenian Genocide, the second Sino-Japanese war, the Holocaust, the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Bosnian War, the Rwandan genocide, the Congolese conflicts, the Iraqi Civil War, the South Sudanese Civil War, and the Rohingya genocide, the mass rapes that had been an integral part of those conflicts brought the concept of genocidal rape to international prominence. Although war rape has been a recurrent feature in conflicts throughout human history, it has usually been looked upon as a by-product of conflict and not an integral part of military policy.

The term international framework of sexual violence refers to the collection of international legal instruments – such as treaties, conventions, protocols, case law, declarations, resolutions and recommendations – developed in the 20th and 21st century to address the problem of sexual violence. The framework seeks to establish and recognise the right all human beings to not experience sexual violence, to prevent sexual violence from being committed wherever possible, to punish perpetrators of sexual violence, and to provide care for victims of sexual violence. The standards set by this framework are intended to be adopted and implemented by governments around the world in order to protect their citizens against sexual violence.

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, over the course of 100 days, up to half a million women and children were raped, sexually mutilated, or murdered. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down the first conviction for the use of rape as a weapon of war during the civil conflict, and, because the intent of the mass violence against Rwandan women and children was to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular ethnic group, it was the first time that mass rape during wartime was found to be an act of genocidal rape.

During the first and second conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), all armed parties to the conflict carried out a policy of genocidal rape, with the primary purpose being the total destruction of communities and families. Such was the violence directed at and carried out towards women that Human Rights Watch (HRW) described it as "a war within a war". HRW has reported that as of March 2013, civil conflict had reignited when the militia, March 23 Movement (M23), resumed hostilities following a ceasefire.

During the Sierra Leone Civil War gender specific violence was widespread. Rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages were commonplace during the conflict. It has been estimated by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) that up to 257,000 women were victims of gender related violence during the war. The majority of assaults were carried out by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), The Civil Defence Forces (CDF), and the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) have also been implicated in sexual violence.

The Kashmir conflict has been beset by large scale usage of sexual violence by multiple belligerents since its inception.

Rape during the Syrian Civil War was used as a strategy throughout the Syrian conflict by pro government supporters, members of the Free Syrian Army, and militants fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) rape has been a "significant and disturbing feature" during the conflict, and the primary reason given for 600,000 women fleeing the war zone is fear of sexual assault. For the background and legal content use the prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. Human Rights Watch have requested that the United Nations Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict</span>

The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) is an office of the United Nations Secretariat tasked with serving the United Nations' spokesperson and political advocate on conflict-related sexual violence, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC). The Special Representative holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and chairs the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. The mandate of the SRSG-SVC was established by Security Council Resolution 1888, introduced by Hillary Clinton, and the first Special Representative, Margot Wallström, took office in 2010. The current Special Representative is Pramila Patten of Mauritius, who was appointed by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in April 2017. The work of the SRSG-SVC is supported by the United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPO), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also established under Security Council Resolution 1888.

International law encompasses the protection of human rights, in both conflict situations and post-conflict reconstruction. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and has the goal of promoting women's rights. Women have contributed to work on the ground in post-conflict reconstruction, aid and ceasefire negotiations. They have also contributed to the Geneva II peace talks regarding Syria, and were involved in the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar as 'front-line responders'. ]

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</span> Illegal activity in the African country.

Crime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is investigated by the DRC's police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Wolfe</span> American journalist

Lauren Wolfe is an American journalist known for her coverage of wartime sexual violence.

References

  1. ↑ Chemaly, Soraya (5 January 2013). "Rape Has a Purpose". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "About". Women Under Siege. Women's Media Center. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Eriksson Baaz, Maria (2010). The Complexity of Violence: A Critical Analysis of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. pp. 16, 41–43. ISBN   9789158641358 . Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Kelly, Jocelyn (June 2010). "Rape in War: Motives of Militia in DRC" (PDF). United States Institute of Peace Special Report. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Black, Debra (11 February 2012). "Steinem Website Fights Rape in War Zones". Toronto Star. Retrieved 19 August 2015– via Newspaper Source - EBSCOhost.
  6. 1 2 3 Renzetti, Elizabeth (16 February 2015). "Rape: A Shameful Weapon of War". The Globe and Mail– via Lexis Nexus.
  7. 1 2 3 Renzetti, Elizabeth (1 November 2014). "Why Don't You Speak Up?". The Globe and Mail– via Lexis Nexus.
  8. ↑ Ward, Olivia (7 March 2015). "Seizing Women as the Spoils of War: In Conflict Zones Throughout the World, Women are Abducted, Tortured, Raped and Murdered as Part of a Reign of Terror". The Toronto Star– via Lexis Nexus.
  9. ↑ "Women Under Siege Tracks Sexual Violations in Syria". World Pulse. 30 April 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Black, Debra (10 February 2012). "Fighting Rape with Words: Gloria Steinem Launches Website to Combat Sexual Violence in War". The Star. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  11. ↑ Fox-Bevilacqua, Marisa (16 June 2014). "Silence Surrounding Sexual Violence During Holocaust". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  12. 1 2 Martinson, Jane (9 February 2012). "Why Has It Taken 65 Years To Recognise That Rape Is a Weapon of War?". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  13. ↑ Mack, Jessica (8 February 2012). "The Launch of 'Women Under Siege:' A Journalistic Megaphone for Victims of Sexual Violence". RH Reality Check. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  14. ↑ Barmania, Sima (19 June 2012). "Women Under Siege: The Use of Rape as a Weapon of War in Syria". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  15. ↑ Watson, Bernadine (27 August 2013). "Honor the Dream by Honoring the Women of the Movement". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  16. ↑ Chivers, C.J. (9 February 2012). "What We Are Reading: Women Under Siege". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  17. 1 2 3 Schroeder, Audra (8 January 2014). "The Terms That Lead People to This Anti-Sexual Violence Site Are Horrifying". Daily Dot. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  18. ↑ Amos, Deborah (5 February 2013). "Tracking Rape in Syria Through Social Media". NPR (National Public Radio). Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "'Women Under Siege' Features IMAGES in the DRC". Promundo. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  20. ↑ Whitaker, Brian (30 March 2012). "Syria and Middle East Live". The Guardian– via Lexis Nexis.
  21. 1 2 Eglash, Ruth (15 July 2012). "Crowd-sourced Map Highlights Rape as Gov't Weapon in Syrian Conflict. Nearly Half of the Over 80 Reported Cases Involved More Than One Rapist". Jerusalem Post – via Lexis Nexus.
  22. ↑ Flock, Elizabeth (28 March 2012). "Syrian Uprising: Imam Tells Rape Victims They Deserve to Be Honored". The Washington Post . Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  23. ↑ "Documenting Sexualized Violence in Syria". Women Under Siege. Women's Media Center. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  24. ↑ Paul, Sonia (30 March 2012). "Crowd-Mapping Sexual Violence in Syria in Real Time". Mashable . Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  25. ↑ Wolfe, Lauren (3 April 2013). "Syria Has a Massive Rape Crisis". The Atlantic . Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  26. ↑ Hannun, Marya (3 April 2013). "Study: Government Forces Responsible for Majority of Rapes in Syria". Foreign Policy . Retrieved 19 August 2015.
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