Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq

Research shows 12% of the country’s women have been raped at least once, and the problem is not confined to conflict areas

KABUL – An international rights group has called on the Afghan government and its Western backers to ensure gains made by women in the country are not sacrificed in any peace talks with the Taliban.

A burqa-clad Afghan woman holds a child as she walks with other women in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 7. (File photo by: Shah Marai, AFP/Getty Images)

A week ahead of a major international conference in Kabul to discuss the future of Afghanistan, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called for current leaders to be made accountable for past crimes. 

In a report released Tuesday, the organization said moves towards talking peace with the Islamist Taliban to end the war have the potential to roll back rights hard-won by Afghan women.

It cites the way women and girls are treated in areas under Taliban control, denied constitutional rights to be educated and work outside their homes, under threat of violence or death.

The 70-page report, “The Ten-Dollar Talib and Women’s Rights,” warns that President Hamid Karzai’s government may be willing to compromise on these rights as part of any deal with the insurgents.

“Afghan women want an end to the conflict. But as the prospect of negotiations with the Taliban draws closer, many women fear that they may also pay a heavy price for peace,” the report says.

“Reconciliation with the Taliban, a group synonymous with misogynous policies and the violent repression of women, raises serious concerns about the possible erosion of recently gained rights and freedoms,” it says.

Rhetoric about embracing Taliban loyalists who fight from economic need rather than ideological sympathy “ignores the experiences of women living in Taliban-controlled areas”.

The Taliban’s five-year rule, which ended with a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, was marked by general repression that was particularly brutal towards women.

Girls were not permitted to go to school — and even now are sometimes attacked and their schools destroyed by extremists.

Women were not allowed out unless accompanied by a male relative and wearing a burqa. They were attacked in the street for such perceived crimes as wearing white shoes and rape victims were publicly executed as adulterers.

Even today, women who become politically active often face death threats and some have been murdered or forced into exile abroad.

After nine years of insurgency, the Taliban hold sway over large parts of the south, with a presence across most of Afghanistan.

Karzai has proposed negotiating with the Taliban leadership, based in Pakistan and supported by its military and intelligence organisations.

Pressure for solutions is building as the war is unpopular in the United States and NATO countries, which have 140,000 troops in Afghanistan, and another 10,000 on the way as part of a counter-insurgency “surge”.

The allies are funding a program of reintegration that aims to encourage low-level fighters — “10-dollar Talibs” — to go home and get jobs.

A much more complex reconciliation effort is aimed at the leadership and must address such issues as removing groups from terror lists, cutting ties to al-Qaida, exile in third countries, and possible inclusion in government.

The Taliban have said they will not start negotiations until all foreign forces have left Afghanistan.

HRW says Afghan women fear that if Taliban commanders are granted political power in a reconciliation process without restrictions or involvement of women, “the result is likely to be the denial of the rights of women and girls”.

Samira Hamidi, head of the Afghan Women’s Network, told HRW constitutional guarantees are not specific enough to ensure women are protected in the case of a Taliban role in government.

Bringing Taliban commanders into government also risked further alienating Afghans dismayed that parliament is stuffed with former warlords yet to be held to account for past misdeeds, including mass murder, HRW said.

Many are protected by an amnesty law granting immunity to anyone engaged in armed conflict before December 2001, and extending it to those engaged in current hostilities if they agree to reconciliation with the government.

What HRW called an “enduring climate of impunity” further undermined progress for women, underpinning violence, and limiting access to justice, political office and influence.

© 2010 AFP

“Using children in conflict is a heinous crime and destroys the very fabric of society,” the American actress Angelina Jolie declared in The Hague at the trial of Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga is a Congolese militia leader accused of using children, both boys and girls, during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

One of the tragic consequences of war is the forced participation of girls as soldiers. In Sudan, as well as in many other conflicts throughout the world, girls (sometimes as young as 13) are unwilling warriors or soldiers’ sexual partners. It has been estimated that between 1990 and 2003, girls have been part of military and paramilitary groups in 55 countries and have participated in armed conflict in 38 of those countries. Presently, more than 120,000 girls are participating in armed conflicts worldwide.

“In war, these little soldiers work by killing and above all by dying. They make up half the victims of recent African wars,” says Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan political writer talking about child soldiers. If the fate of both boys and girls is tragic, girl soldiers suffer additional indignities, an issue that remains to be solved.

Jasmine, a16 year-old young woman with a four month old baby explains the process of incorporating girls into armed groups in the DRC. In a testimony to Amnesty International she declared, “When the mayi-mayi (community-based militia groups in the DRC) attacked my village, we all ran away. In our flight, the soldiers captured all the girls, even the very young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to marry one of the soldiers. Whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept. If you refused, they would kill you. This happened to one of my friends. They would slaughter people like chickens. They wouldn’t even bury the bodies they slaughtered -they would even feed on their flesh. I even saw a girl who refused to be ‘married’ being tortured.”

Although in some cases girls voluntarily become soldiers, in most cases they are abducted and obliged to participate in combat operations, forced into sexual relations with commanders or fellow soldiers or required to perform other duties off the front lines, but equally as abusive, such as planting landmines, acting as spies or carrying heavy loads.. As a result of rape and other forms of sexual abuse, they may acquire sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, which are particularly frequent among men from both government forces and rebel groups.

A study by the Canadian human rights organization Rights and Democracy found that 30 percent of the girls in three countries studied (Mozambique, Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone) became pregnant during their stay in the armed forces. Many among them were stigmatized because they had been raped and later had serious difficulties in trying to reintegrate into their communities and care for their babies – often unwanted – born of rape.

Why do some girls voluntarily become soldiers in spite of the obvious dangers involved? They may do it because of lack of other options for survival or for the perceived benefit it might provide to them – protection from ill treatment, to escape situations of domestic abuse or in search of food and clothing. Former girl soldiers who have escaped or been released have explained that the lack of opportunities in their future, such as access to education or means of earning a livelihood led them to join without knowing the harsh consequences it would entail. Other girls may do it to seek revenge against armed forces or groups which have attacked their families and communities or to gain a sense of power. In some cases, girls who became “wives” of commanders are sometimes in charge of organizing raids or spying missions on enemy forces.

Sexual violence is a major concern in Darfur, where children as young as six-years-old are raped by soldiers which witnesses identify as belonging to government forces, according to the United Nations. In addition, high incidence of rapes and sexual violence against children continues in Burundi, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire, DRC, Haiti, Chad, Darfur, Uganda and other situations of concern.

Forced recruitment of children and sexual violence against them is not limited to Africa. Children have suffered similar fates in armed conflicts in Nepal, Burma, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. For example, in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) recruited thousands of boys and girls into their ranks during the course of past two decades.

Beginning in the mid 2000′s the TMVP, a breakaway faction of the LTTE, also increased its recruitment of children with the alleged complicity of certain elements of the Government Security Forces. Although the LTTE reduced its recruitment of children in 2008, according to UNICEF, during the hostilities in northern Sri Lanka in the first part of 2009, reports of LTTE recruitment of boys and girls resurfaced. Today, top UN officials are calling for an inquiry into atrocities committed by both sides during the 2009 fighting; this must include the use and recruitment of children.

Girls don’t have the choice of freely leaving the groups with whom they are associated. Those who try to leave may be recaptured and punished. They thus have to deal with a double threat: recrimination and punishment from the armed group or discrimination and ostracism from the community if they do manage to return home. Some girls who return home pregnant or with a child are made to feel that they bring “dishonor” to the family.

Reintegration into society can be more difficult for girls than for boys, as they generally carry the stigma of having been sexually abused. In addition, girls may be left with some other consequences aside from sexually transmitted infections, such as chronic physical and mental disabilities or the need to look after babies conceived during forced service. The stigma is not limited to the child mothers but also extends to their children who frequently experience the same kind of rejection as their young mothers.

Because the participation of girls in conflict has been largely ignored, there are few programs that address their unique needs related to their demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration back into society. In many cases, shunned by their families and communities, they end up working as prostitutes or doing menial work when conflicts end. Girl soldiers, despite the disadvantages of having participated in war, in many cases are extremely resilient and have develop special skills that could be used in post-conflict settings for their re-integration into society. When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.

The practice of using girls as soldiers continues unabated. Because of women’s perceived role in society, after their participation in armed conflicts they have more limited options than boys, both in terms of marriage and work prospects. Frequently, former girl soldiers state that they want to receive education once they return home so they can become productive members of society. As Julia Freedson, Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, an organization working to end violations against children told me in New York, “When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.”

It is important to strengthen monitoring and reporting of forced participation of girls as soldiers, as well as other violations against them. This is needed in order to hold perpetrators accountable and to work towards release of children from fighting forces. Preventive measures are also important to eliminate abuse of girls, such as massive education campaigns calling attention to the phenomenon and its serious consequences. In addition, it is necessary to increase the number of and quality of rehabilitation and reintegration programs that specifically respond to former girl soldiers’ needs. These are costly enterprises, but ones that will allow girls to become the framers of their own future.

César Chelala, an international public health consultant, is the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication “Adolescents’ health in the Americas.”

GOMA, DR Congo – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered US help to punish perpetrators of soaring sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as she paid a lightning visit to its war-weary east.

A Congolese rape victim (L) crosses her arms while sitting next to an infant in front of the transit house they stay in, at the Heal Africa clinic in Goma. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered US help to punish perpetrators of soaring sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as she paid a lightning visit to its war-weary east.(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)

Leaving aside her government jet for a small UN plane, Clinton became the highest ranking US official to tour the desolate lakeside town of Goma to highlight a rape epidemic afflicting tens of thousands of women. 

Clinton offered personal comfort to two rape survivors, one of whom was violated when she was eight months pregnant with the fetus ripped out.

Speaking later to reporters as she flew on to Nigeria, Clinton said she felt “overwhelmed” by what she saw.

“It is almost impossible to describe the level of suffering and despair,” Clinton said of the region torn by conflict with Hutu militants, some tied to the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

Clinton met with President Joseph Kabila in a tent outside the governor’s mansion in Goma for what she described as “a very frank discussion” on sexual violence — including calling on him to arrest key officers accused of rape.

“We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many, and that there must be arrests, prosecutions and punishments.”

Clinton pledged 17 million dollars in new US funding for victims of sexual violence. She said the money would go to hire female police officers sensitive to victims’ needs and to provide medical and psychological care for some 10,000 survivors.

“In the face of such evil, people of goodwill everywhere must respond,” Clinton said in Goma. “This problem is too big for one country to solve alone.”

Clinton also offered the help of the US military’s Africa command to advise on how to stop sexual assaults, as well as US legal experts to draw up laws to prevent exploitation of minerals — a key source of funding for the violence.

Congolese forces, backed by Rwanda, launched an offensive in January to flush out the Hutu militant Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Despite her concern about sexual violence, Clinton voiced support for the campaign and called for a regional solution to stabilise the former Zaire, where some 2.5 million people died between 1998 and 2001 in what has been called Africa’s first continental war.

“We believe there can be more done to protect civilians while you are trying to kill and capture insurgents,” she told reporters after meeting Kabila.

Her motorcade then whisked along one of the town’s only paved roads as she headed to a camp for some of the nearly two million people displaced by more than a decade of conflict in the region.

Visiting the Mugunga camp, home to some 20,000 displaced people, the top US diplomat spoke with a 32-year-old mother of six, Chantal Mapemdo, who told her that she and other women were too scared of violence by men to return to lives in the fields.

Staying in the crammed camp with such poor hygiene that diarrhoea is a key threat, Mapemdo has begun an alternative livelihood for women weaving baskets, an initiative Clinton saluted.

Clinton looked at her firmly and said: “I just came back from meeting President Kabila and I told him we want to stop the violence so you can go home.”

According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 women have been raped in eastern DR Congo since 1996.

The United Nations says that both militia fighters and troops are responsible for the sexual crimes.

Victoria Akyeampong, the acting representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in DR Congo, said that many fighters operated with virtually no higher command to keep them in line.

“It is not an excuse, but there are unruly troops who have not been paid for months. They decide to pillage what they find and they pillage women and girls as well,” Akyeampong said.

Clinton flew back to Kinshasa late Tuesday and later flew to Nigeria, where she will hold broad discussions on building a closer US relationship with the regional power.

© 2009 Agence France-Press

`There’s not enough outrage,” lamented one women’s rights activist at a candlelight vigil for the three women cut down last Tuesday night in a Pittsburgh-area aerobics class.

As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted, only 75 people showed up to mourn Heidi Overmier, 46, Elizabeth Gannon, 49, and Jody Billingsley, 38, massacred by a man, who didn’t know them, simply because they were women.

That’s unusual as the vast majority of femicide victims are killed by their intimate partners or male relatives.

But, as Toronto author Brian Vallee points out in his 2007 book The War on Women, nobody counts the dead, nobody connects the dots, nobody calls out the problem.

“Compare the raw numbers,” he writes of the period 2000-06. “In the same seven-year period when 4,588 U.S. soldiers and police officers were killed by hostiles or by accident, more than 8,000 women – nearly twice as many – were shot, stabbed, strangled, or beaten to death by the intimate males in their lives. In Canada, compared to the 101 Canadian soldiers and police officers killed, more than 500 women – nearly five times as many – met the same fate.”

There’s not enough outrage.

As we all know now, George Sodini, 48 – whose racist and misogynist online diary reads like a terrorist manifesto – couldn’t get a date, couldn’t get sex, couldn’t lure any women to his modest side-split furnished with, as he points out in a spooky video, “Couch and chair; they match. The women will really be impressed.”

Well, they weren’t.

And so Sodini’s “exit plan” was to go down in history in a blaze of gunfire, taking as many women with him as he could.

Just like Marc Lépine, who hated “the feminists” so much he slaughtered 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in 1989, just like Charles Carl Roberts who executed Amish school girls three years ago, and, arguably, even like Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, a reported stalker of female students who took up-the-skirt photos, yet another violent act of misogyny takes place.

No, no, we say. They were just loners, losers, crazies with guns.

There’s not enough outrage.

That only feminist bloggers and a very few mainstream pundits called last week’s fitness club massacre the hate crime it was should jolt us out of our sexist complacency.

“We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment,” The New York Times‘s Bob Herbert noted on Friday.

“The mainstream culture is filled with the most gruesome forms of misogyny, and pornography is now a multi-billion-dollar industry – much of it controlled by mainstream U.S. corporations.”

When I blogged about the massacre last week, my “men’s rights activist” regulars – whose comments did not get past the goderators – expressed little or no sympathy.

Instead, they complained that “feminists” demand special treatment for female victims of crime.

Two blog readers even pointed to the recent Wisconsin episode of the philandering husband – who has since been charged with child and sexual abuse – whose penis was glued to his abdomen by a trio of vengeful women as somehow having equivalence to the Pittsburgh massacre.

Cruise the men’s rights forums and you’ll be shocked by the sickening posts calling for the legal and sexual subservience of women and praising Sodini as a “hero” and “for being a symbol for the consequences of denying men sex … But something like this has to happen, perhaps hundreds of times over again, before feminists get the message.”

There’s not enough outrage.

© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2009

A white sheet covers another victim of Guatemala City’s violence in District 16.

Gang-related violence has increased in recent years alongside a rise in drug-trafficking activity (Al-Jazeera file)

Jocelyn was shot dead while walking home. She was only 17-years-old. 

Her family has no idea why she was killed. Her murder, like so many others in this country, will probably remain unpunished.

Situations like this one have become regular in Guatemala as violence against women – termed “femicide” – continues to increase.The savage methods being used by street gangs in their fight against each other are now being used against women.

Gang-related violence has increased sharply here in recent years, amid an increase in drug-trafficking activity.

But while the murder rate cuts evenly across both sexes, women’s groups point out that females are often killed simply because of their gender.

In 2007, more than 700 women and girls were murdered.

Assault and torture

The pattern of violence includes sexual assault and physical torture before the women are killed and their bodies dumped in public places.

Odilia Sanchez’s niece was raped and killed by three men hoping to rise through the ranks of their gang. She was only three-years-old.

Her father found her dead, naked and badly beaten after searching for hours.

Two of her killers were stoned to death by the community and then set on fire.

This is a common practice in poor communities where the justice imposed by the state is non-existent. Afraid of revenge, the little girl’s family fled town.

We found them hiding in a small house in the capital.

“I am afraid for my family so I brought them all here” Odilia Sanchez told Al Jazeera.

Those who dare challenge the power of men in Guatemalan society often pay with their lives and only two per cent of crimes against women are solved.

Adela Chacon Tax was tortured and stabbed to death by a man whom she refused to date.

Her body was thrown in a ditch in Escuintla, in the southern part of the country.

She left behind three children, who continue to visit the humble tomb where she is buried.

Catalina Fajarto Perez, her sister, told Al Jazeera: “There are other cases like her. After my sister was killed the bodies of two other women appeared. There is impunity and nobody really cares.”

Fighting for justice

We went along with her family to see her accused killer face trial.Her two young children could not stop crying.

The trial was being pushed by Norma Cruz, a lawyer who has become a champion for abused women across the country.

She leads the non-governmental organisation Survivors and helps abused women and the family members of those who were killed fight for justice.

“We are a society that has gotten used to death,” she said. 

“We had the longest civil war in Latin America with thousands of people dead, so people here take it as something normal.

“Women are not seen as great contributors to the country, so violence against them seems to be acceptable.”

Others also blame much of the violence against women on the country’s 30-year civil war.

In a country ensnared by residual violence from Central America’s longest-running internal conflict, where many of the crimes committed by the state and anti-government fighters remain unpunished, murders are not front-page stories – especially when those killed are women in what is a predominantly paternalistic Guatemalan society, critics say.

No state protection

According to a Guatemalan Human Rights Commission report, femicide is often carried out with “shocking brutality”.

A contributing factor to the continued crime is the absence of state guarantees to protect the rights of women, the report says.

But the hard work of women’s rights groups has seemingly paid off.

In April 2008, Guatemala passed a law against femicide, which officially recognised it as a punishable crime.

However, much more is needed to fight this battle as the crimes against women continue and perpetrators remain unpunished.

© 2009 Al-Jazeera.net/English