I recently read a few articles about the violence against women in Congo that caught my attention. Since March is Women's History Month, I thought this blog might be worth writing.
The Democratic Republic of Congo shares a border with west Uganda and is familiar with the Lord's Resistance Army's brutality. In the Congo, sexual violence is so common that it is often called the "ground zero of rape". In Congo and Uganda, it is often said that rape is a weapon of war.
Women were and are continuously raped by armies to annihilate a community, a tribe, a country. They are raped to displace countless lives, tear apart families, and make it impossible to continue blood lines.
In parts of Africa, women who are raped are not "fit" to be married or live in the communities they came from. It is these countless women that are left behind after the violent crimes committed against them. They are left, often by their own family and husbands, to find food, work, and a place in society that fails to openly discuss the violence. It is a societal stigma to acknowledge the rapes, thus leaving the victims embarrassed, ashamed, and lost in hopelessness to figure out their futures.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0308/On-International-Women-s-Day-honoring-a-woman-who-told-the-world-about-rape-in-Congo
These women who have endured the sexual violence thrust upon them by combatants are now falling victim to the civilians in their local communities as rape becomes less of a war reality and more of a societal acceptance. Especially among civilians who have taken off their war clothes but still live in the mindsets taught to them by armies.
Before the war conflicts, when rape occurred, community leadership would stand up to the perpetrator and enforce punishment. Wars have displaced such "paternal" leadership in most communities, leaving women with no advocate. Leaving civilians with no consequence to their violence against their women. Law enforcement of punishment in cases of rape is rarely enforced.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0630/Congo-war-leaves-legacy-of-sexual-violence-against-women
Not to mention the emotional, painful and financial hardships that come hand in hand with pregnancies as a result of rape.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0509/Mothers-in-Congo-get-help-in-raising-children-of-rape
I am again overwhelmed with the vastness of human rights violations in Africa. How could I possibly do anything to change a culture? A mindset? An opinion? Is that reason enough not to try?
Marie Curie changed a culture when she discovered radium and furthered x-ray technology. My 1st grade teacher changed my mind when she taught me that the smaller brown one was a "penny", not a "quarter". And Rosa Parks changed the opinion of millions of Americans when she refused to sit in the back of that bus, insisting that blacks should have the same rights as whites, and thus igniting a spark in the USA Civil Rights Movement.
Don't know about you, but I'm with these women. I'm not giving up on the abused and neglected women of Africa. There IS something we can do. Write to your House Representative. Read actor Don Cheadle's (Hotel Rwanda ring a bell?) book called "The Enough Moment" - written to instruct and inspire people like you and me to help. Learn more and take a stand publicly.
http://www.enoughproject.org/enough-moment
Are we really gonna just let these women go on living under the oppression we shamefully experienced in the USA during our slavery decades? Please tell me "no", and then hop on your computer to do something about it.
Here's a start:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Jillian
