2008 Woodie Awards
Women: Constant Targets in a Man's War?
Eryn O'Neal
Issue date: 1/19/05 Section: Opinons
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During war women's rights are frequently the first casualty.
War seems to give soldiers license to rape, sexually assault, mutilate and kill women, not because they are combatants but merely because they were born female.
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, reports stated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped. Likewise, the United Nations reported that thousands of women and girls were sexually assaulted during fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003.
These war crimes are usually overlooked, as if wrongs against women don't matter.
According to the report "Lives Blown Apart," released on Dec. 8, 2004, by Amnesty International and researched by research consultant Tracy Ulltveit-Moe, there are currently 36 conflicts ongoing around the world in which women are being sexually and emotionally abused.
In recent years women targeting has taken place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, Nepal and Sudan. Women are the "creators of the enemy," so opposing soldiers often take it upon themselves to eliminate the source.
In Gujarat, India for example, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims has lead to women being severely tortured. There have even been cases when soldiers have cut an unborn fetus from the mother's womb.
In today's warfare, soldiers target those people most important to their foes, usually family. This tactic leads to precision bombing and land mines that are often placed to kill the enemies' wives and children.
The women who are tortured and humiliated are usually not soldiers; they are civilians.
Assaulting women during warfare is nothing new, however. In an attempt to protect the innocent as well as prisoners of war, the Geneva Conventions were written in 1949, but some nations act as if they had never been drafted at all.
During the Geneva Convention, diplomats adopted rules regarding the establishment of international rules for the protection of victims of war.
Article 3 of the document states that no person based on sex, color, race, religion, or wealth shall be held prisoner of war, have violent acts pushed upon them, or be mutilated or assaulted in any way.
It is quite sad that nations continue today to use such barbaric techniques during war or any other time. Torturing and sexually assaulting women is both cowardly and criminal.
Targeting civilian women during wartime needs to stop. Governments should make the protection of non-combatant women a priority and put an end to this spineless technique of fighting.
War seems to give soldiers license to rape, sexually assault, mutilate and kill women, not because they are combatants but merely because they were born female.
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, reports stated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped. Likewise, the United Nations reported that thousands of women and girls were sexually assaulted during fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003.
These war crimes are usually overlooked, as if wrongs against women don't matter.
According to the report "Lives Blown Apart," released on Dec. 8, 2004, by Amnesty International and researched by research consultant Tracy Ulltveit-Moe, there are currently 36 conflicts ongoing around the world in which women are being sexually and emotionally abused.
In recent years women targeting has taken place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, Nepal and Sudan. Women are the "creators of the enemy," so opposing soldiers often take it upon themselves to eliminate the source.
In Gujarat, India for example, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims has lead to women being severely tortured. There have even been cases when soldiers have cut an unborn fetus from the mother's womb.
In today's warfare, soldiers target those people most important to their foes, usually family. This tactic leads to precision bombing and land mines that are often placed to kill the enemies' wives and children.
The women who are tortured and humiliated are usually not soldiers; they are civilians.
Assaulting women during warfare is nothing new, however. In an attempt to protect the innocent as well as prisoners of war, the Geneva Conventions were written in 1949, but some nations act as if they had never been drafted at all.
During the Geneva Convention, diplomats adopted rules regarding the establishment of international rules for the protection of victims of war.
Article 3 of the document states that no person based on sex, color, race, religion, or wealth shall be held prisoner of war, have violent acts pushed upon them, or be mutilated or assaulted in any way.
It is quite sad that nations continue today to use such barbaric techniques during war or any other time. Torturing and sexually assaulting women is both cowardly and criminal.
Targeting civilian women during wartime needs to stop. Governments should make the protection of non-combatant women a priority and put an end to this spineless technique of fighting.