Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo Becomes Rape as a Cultural Norm by Aimee Sea
There’s been a lot written about the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has found a 17-fold increase in the number of civilian rapes. Rape as war has become rape as culture. Nicholas Kristoff has written about this in Liberia, and now it’s happening in the Congo.
Researchers surveyed over 4,000 women who sought treatment at one of the hospitals in the Eastern part of Congo, the ground zero of rape. They found that while war rapes were declining, civilian rapes had increased dramatically: 17-fold. Not doubled, nor tripled, nor even quadrupled, but increased 17-fold. We don’t even have a special word for that sharp an increase.
Is horrible I didn’t now about this until I saw a clip of Eve Ensler reading off from her latest book ” I am an Emotional Creature” and there was one about a girl from Congo who was kidnapped and constantly rape for like 2 or 4 years by some commander or solder. It was horrible I cried =[ Yet people don’t know or care what’s happening there =[
We have no real idea of how lucky we are to not have been born into a country like that. Fuck.
