Human Rights Violation

          Rape- A tool for Suppressing Women     

     

     “You know, you don’t ask yourself any questions when you slit a goat’s neck or a chicken’s.  A woman is like that.  We did what we wanted to them”- These were the words of a former soldier in one of those ragtag armies that ran rough shed over war torn Congo.  He was a brutal serial rapist.  This was an answer to the question “Why you are so violent towards women asked by Nobel laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege.

     This was the attitude of most of the man towards the rape.  This man lack respect to woman. “He writes that he never worried about the pain he inflicted because it satisfied his own sexual and violent desires, like cooked chicken or goat satisfied his hunger.”  That he just considered women like animals. Hearing this Dr. became astonished. 

     Dr.Mukwege wrote this man’s story in his book “The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing”.  Dr. Mukwege lived in Congo which came to be known as the Rape Capital of the World.  In any part of the world where conflict occurs women are the one who face violence.  Women have no right to raise their voice against atrocities and human rights violation that they face.  For instance, during Japanese invasion, they captured Korean women as “Comfort women” for satisfying the sexual needs of their soldier during the World War II, when Japanese attacked Manjuria; Japanese soldiers severely raped all the women they saw in front of their eyes irrespective of their age.  During the Hitler’s reign, Jewish women were killed through Nuremberg Trials and through Concentration Camps.  Other instances of violence against women are during Hurricane Katrina in the US, in Nigeria by the notorious Boho Haram.  In this contemporary time there are rape incidents such as Yazidi and Rohingya women.  Not only these, when we examining India, we can understand that from children below age 8 to women above age 60 are sexually assaulted.  For instance Nirbhaya, Unnao Rape case etc.  These are the incidents that came to the limelight but there are more number of atrocities inflicted to women which are reported nowhere.  

     International Communities are giving trials or punishments to war crimes for men but not even a single nation acknowledge the violence that faced by women during the difficult times.  They never included Women’s rights under human rights.  It took years of struggle by human activists to include rape as a war crime.  The women during war times and peace times are raped by the convictions are lower.  Even the culprits are arrested by the police, they easily escape the punishment through money and muscle power.  On the other side, the so called “prey” (women) feels victimised, isolated.  Like Congo, in India too, families refuse to accept the women back, because they give more importance to prestige and honour of their family than their love towards their daughter or female kin.  “Forcing Women” to think first about their ‘honour’ not their right to live a life free of violence is the powerful tool used to keep women quiet across the world, when they are victims of sexual abuse.

     The rape victims sometimes need multiple surgeries to repair their ravaged bodies, they need counselling, support, vocational guidance and rehabilitation.  They need someone to listen and empathise.  Dr. Mukwege’s Panzi Hospital conducts a holistic approach in the treatment of survivors.

     

Dr.Mukwege writes:  “For my own part, whenever I have found myself questioned, at dinner parties or at UN offices, I return to my core convictions.  If defend women because they are my equals, because women’s right are human rights, and I am outraged by the violence inflicted on my fellow humans.  We must fight for women collectively”. 

     The rape against women is a social problem that should be treated at the family level itself.  The devaluing of females starts right from the family.  For instance, sons are preferred to daughters, boys are considered superior to girls.  Women are working like men, they work on farms, take care of home and family, do all household activities, these are considered by men as women’s work and called these as unpaid labour.  Girls are taught by mothers to protect themselves against rape, but none of the fathers teach their sons about consent.  No father teaches their sons how to respect and treat women. Every male child is observing how his father treat his mother and he simply imitate it to his wife when he get married. From prehistoric times, onwards, when sexual violence occurs, women tolerated it, and lamented their whole life.  They never fought against it, so rape became a part of human culture and what is humour in it is that it is one way traffic.  No one heard about the incidence of a woman raped a man. What women should do is to say publicly about the sexual violence they faced instantly when it occurs.  Remember, “The right decision is the wrong decision if it’s made too late”.