Post by calmheart222 on Jan 31, 2009 5:00:11 GMT -5
After a third night of sleeplessness, I decided to release this commentary on the situation in the Congo (Africa), realizing that what I want to discuss, in so many ways is not isolated to that region alone .but seems to flourish every where we look and in all areas of of the world Specifically, I am talking about the epidemic of brutal rapes being commited by soldiers in the Congos of Africa as well as other atrocities commited against women by men.The following information is very disturbing. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!
Sexual violence against women is widespread. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, this region has witnessed an increased use of rape as a weapon of war by soldiers and other combatants. In eastern Congo those unable to escape the fighting, face high risk of sexual abuse. Mass displacement of the civilian population adds to the vulnerability of women and girls. Without the protection of their husbands and fathers, they are easy targets for the military and other combatants' sexual assault. Many women have been gang-raped or raped in front of their children. Additionally, some husbands have been forced to have sexual relations with their wives in front of their children, and and even greater number of girls and women had been abducted by soldiers or insurgents to their camps where they have been forced to provide "sexual services".
Tens of thousands of women have been raped in eastern Congo since 1998. Many girls and women will never recover from the psychological, physical, and social impacts of theses crimes, and victims are fearing the stigma associated with their rape. They are unwilling to talk to their families and neighbours about these sexual assaults for fear of being rejected by their husbands and families.
One africian woman spoke to British reporters from inside of a hospital where she and thousands of other victims were located. She reported that after her parents were killed in the war she was left to care for her twelve year old brother. When Congolese soldiers kidnapped her from her home and for months, repeatedly took turns raping and sodomizing her, she expressed, "they would just wash me off and pass me around each one after the other. Then one day when they were drunk they told my twelve year old brother to have sex with me". When her brother refused, the soldiers killed him shooting him in the head. She was later released and managed to find her way to the villiage hospital where she found out she was pregnant. She said she intends to keep her baby and when her daughter is born will name her "Hope".
The village doctor reports, that he is probably one of very few men that the woman will ever trust. A common practice of the soldiers after the rape, the doctor said, is to plunge the bayonnet sword of their rifle into the gentials of the woman. The villiage doctor also explained how difficult it is to explain to a fourteen year old girl when she awakes from being in a coma that she will have to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life, because of the horrendous acts of rape and violence that were committed against her.
The following is account from similar mistreatment of women in Iraq.
Z KHURMATU, Iraq
Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.
There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of God".
As the midwife sliced off parts of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride.
"This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember," said the mother, Aisha Hameed, 30, a housewife in this ethnically mixed town about 100 miles north of Baghdad. "We don't know why we do it, but we will never stop because our elders require it."
Kurdistan is the only known part of Iraq --and one of the few places in the world--where female circumcision is widespread. More than 60 percent of women in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq have been circumcised, according to a study conducted this year. In at least one Kurdish territory, 95 percent of women have undergone the practice, which human rights groups call female genital mutilation.
The practice, and the Kurdish parliament's refusal to outlaw it, highlight the plight of women in a region with a reputation for having a more progressive society than the rest of Iraq. Advocates for women point to the increasing frequency of honor killings against women this year as further evidence that women in the area still face significant obstacles, despite efforts to raise public awareness of circumcision and violence against women.
The Kurdish region's minister of human rights, Yousif Mohammad Aziz, said he didn't think the issue required action by parliament. "Not every small problem in the community has to have a law dealing with it." From this account, it is pretty obvious that the Kurdish region's minister views genital female genital mutilation as a "small" and unimportant issue. I wonder how he would feel about having his own genitals cut off?
China
The next event I am going to share with you, used to take place in China. While this conduct was outlawed during the twentieth century, it is still a good example of how women have been misused and violated throughout history.
Although it is no longer done to young girls, the practice of footbinding is still alive in China. There are thousands of mature women who had their feet bound since childhood, and many others who chose to discontinue binding and let their feet assume a more natural, though stunted, appearance. Contrary to common belief, these women run the gamut of class and family background, ethnic heritage and geographical location. Their experiences and feelings, as well, range from pride to resentment and anger. These women are the last generation to live out one of China's most ancient and widely practiced customs. While much has been written about the custom, virtually all of this custom, was invented by men.
According to an old saying, "There are a thousand buckets of tears for one who binds her feet", yet for nearly ten centuries in China the focus of a young girl's life was fixed upon this ritual. The responsibility of initiating and monitoring the binding rested with the mother or elder village women. The binding of the feet, was usually initiated between the ages of five and twelve. It was a slow, agonizing process of crushing the bones and flesh into the narrow, pointed shape of a crescent moon, the so-called "Golden Lotus". A long strip of cloth was wrapped over the four smaller toes, under the instep and around the heel. By tightening the cloth daily the heel became slender and the toes eventually broken under, flattened against the underside of the sole. Greater tension was slowly applied, sometimes coupled with the strength of a rope, to bring the heel forward to the ball of the foot, breaking the arch and forcing it upward. Once the binding process had begun, regular rebinding became an integral part of personal hygiene for the rest of the girl's life. In the early stages the foot easily became swollen and filled with pus, and would frequently break open. Some women applied alum or washed in their feet in scented water to prevent strong odor and infection; others made it a practice to soak the feet in urine to make the skin more supple, relieve swelling, and prevent expansion of the compressed areas. Even for women advanced in age the binding cloth was removed only for bathing and to rebind. Once the heel has been forced forward and the arch broken, the foot had to be immediately rebound; otherwise it would begin to lose its shape, causing excruciating pain. The kind of pain that would equal that of the original binding.
I could continue my account of this kind of cruel, egotistical, and sadistic male behavior committed against women in most parts of the world, but I wouldn't do this story justice, if I didn't include our own country into the equation. Some people may refuse to hear this, but the fact of the matter is that every single day, women are being mistreated not only in other countries, but also in the United States. I will consider the next part of this story in my next paper (part 2). Reader discretion advised! I am going to try and get some sleep.