I just read over an article from last year about women fighting in Iraq and the trauma associated with it. The article mentions a report from the Department of Defense that says that one-third of female veterans experienced rape or attempted rape while in service, with 37% of those being raped multiple times and 14% being gang raped. I have always assumed that this occurred in our military, with women only making up 15% of the armed forces but the numbers to me were pretty astonishing. These women are fighting for our country and putting their lives on the line, and all the while they are getting raped by the men fighting beside them. Its sad that only one-tenth of the rapists in these cases are court-martialed, causing most female soldiers to not even bother reporting it and just put up with it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18cover.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1
This blog is created by students from Clemson University's summer II online course: ws103 -- Women in Global Perspectives. This class serves as a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary introduction to issues facing women globally. Issues will include women and work, violence against women, reproduction and women's health, sexuality and rites of passage, women and the weight of tradition, and movements for women's empowerment.
About Us
Links
from the mouths of others...
"Well-behaved women seldom make history."
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
-Madeleine K. Albright
"It is not possible to address society's needs at any level while ignoring the perspectives, priorities, and knowledge of more than half of the world's population."
-Rosina Wilshire of UNDP
"Women give life. We have the capacity to give life and light. We can take up our brooms and sweep the earth."
-Isabelle Letelier
"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
-Alice Walker
"Violence against women will end when legal, philanthropic, governmental and non-governmental organizations and impassioned individuals unite and stand up to say it is a priority, to say that the time for ending violence is now."
-Eve Ensler
"And ain't I a woman?"
-Sojourner Truth
"Considering how dangerous everything is nothing is frightening."
-Gertrude Stein
"Also we've found that when we discuss women's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do about the problem. And so that they can learn as well. If they don't learn, they don't progress."
-Rigoberta Menchu (222)
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
-Madeleine K. Albright
"It is not possible to address society's needs at any level while ignoring the perspectives, priorities, and knowledge of more than half of the world's population."
-Rosina Wilshire of UNDP
"Women give life. We have the capacity to give life and light. We can take up our brooms and sweep the earth."
-Isabelle Letelier
"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
-Alice Walker
"Violence against women will end when legal, philanthropic, governmental and non-governmental organizations and impassioned individuals unite and stand up to say it is a priority, to say that the time for ending violence is now."
-Eve Ensler
"And ain't I a woman?"
-Sojourner Truth
"Considering how dangerous everything is nothing is frightening."
-Gertrude Stein
"Also we've found that when we discuss women's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do about the problem. And so that they can learn as well. If they don't learn, they don't progress."
-Rigoberta Menchu (222)
for reading
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, _Infidel_ (Free Press, 2007)
- Fadela Amara, _Breaking the Silence: French Women's Voices from the Ghetto_ (U of Cal Press, 2006)
- Lijia Zhang, _"Socialism Is Great!": A Worker's Memoir of the New China_ (Atlas & Co., 2008)
- Marjane Satrapi, _Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood_ (Knopf, 2004)
- Rigoberta Menchu, _I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatamala_ (Verso, 1987)
- Susan Estrich, _Sex & Power_ (Riverhead Books, 2000)
- Wangari Maathai, _Unbowed: A Memoir_ (Vintage, 2007)
Posts
4 comments:
This really sad to know that the women putting their lives in danger for their country are being taken sexually taken advantage of. What makes this even worse is that many of the people doing the abuse are not being punished for it. I hope this article helps more of these women to come forward because if not nothing will ever change.
I don’t know where to start on this one. I can go on for hours ranting about how horrible this is. It's very very sickening. I never knew that there were such a high percentage of soldiers who are raped. Who knows how many goes unreported! What’s even worse, they don’t even try to go after the guys who have done it. Maybe, it’s a prejudice in the higher ranks of the military on how women shouldn’t be allowed in the military, the, “well, she took that risk by joining the military” argument. Maybe, it is because the military doesn’t want to pursue the numerous cases and take soldiers off the field in court-marshals. There are probably a number of reasons, it could be anything and it will probably never change. All I know is that the whole situation is very sad and pretty damn depressing.
My first reaction was that all the women should pull out of the military, but then I started thinking about what impact that would have. For starters it clearly wouldn't be feasible, because if women are refusing to report their rape then would they participate in such a demonstration? probably not. However, if all the military women were to pull out of the army then the US Government would have no choice but to respond under the national and global spotlight.
I wonder what self defense classes are being taught to these women going into combat. Maybe it needs to be a dual attack: give the women more means to protect themselves while at the same time making reforms to the system such that men are brought to justice.
I don't really want to know the truth, but I wonder how much "prison behavior" goes on in these military camps with so many men being together?
This is truly sad. I find those numbers very alarming. The thought of women keeping all of this inside and not reporting it is really heart breaking. I commend the women who are able to stand strong and fight for our country despite being put through trials such as these.
Post a Comment