Women and War
See also: Sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the CongoThe war situation has made the life of women more precarious. Violence against women seems to be perceived by large sectors of society to be normal. In July 2007, the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed concern about the situation in eastern DRC. A phenomenon of 'pendulum displacement' has developed, where people hasten at night to safety. According to Yakin Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women who toured eastern Congo in July 2007, violence against women in North and South Kivu included “unimaginable brutality”. "Armed groups attack local communities, loot, rape, kidnap women and children and make them work as sexual slaves," Ertürk said. A local initiative by women in Bukavu aims for recovery from violence based on women's own empowerment.
In December 2008 GuardianFilms posted a film on the Guardian newspaper website profiling a project to record the testimony of over 400 women and girls who had been abused by marauding militia.
Read more about this topic: Women In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo
Famous quotes containing the words women and/or war:
“Realistic about how much one person can accomplish in a given day, women expect to have to make some trade-offs between work and family. Families, however, have absorbed all the stress and strain they possibly can. The entire responsibility for accommodation is taking place on the home side of the equation.”
—Deborah J. Swiss (20th century)
“We make war that we may live in peace.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)