Sexual Violence Against Women in Sudan

This semester, I am taking a class called Social Justice in a Global Society. For this class we had to research a global topic as part of our praxis project. The topic that I picked was Sexual Violence against women in Sudan. We (the students) had to come up with a creative way to 'solve' the world issue that we picked out. Blogging seemed like an interesting idea and I have never blogged about such a serious topic before.
Before I talk about sexual violence of women I first want to talk about Sudan. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, and has  41,087,825 people in Sudan. It is extremely important to know about Sudan's history. According to the CIA World fact book, 

  Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in northern economic, political, and social domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in 1972 but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects resulted in more than four million people displaced and, according to rebel estimates, more than two million deaths over a period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with the signing of several accords. The final North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005, granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years. After which, a referendum for independence is scheduled to be held. A separate conflict, which broke out in the western region of Darfur in 2003, has displaced nearly two million people and caused an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 deaths. The UN took command of the Darfur peacekeeping operation from the African Union on 31 December 2007. As of early 2009, peacekeeping troops were struggling to stabilize the situation, which has become increasingly regional in scope and has brought instability to eastern Chad. Sudan also has faced large refugee influxes from neighboring countries primarily Ethiopia and Chad. Armed conflict, poor transport infrastructure, and lack of government support have chronically obstructed the provision of humanitarian assistance to affected populations.

So now that you know more about Sudan and their long and violent history, It is time to talk about sexual violence. This is something that many people feel very uncomfortable talking about but many of the world's problems can be difficult to talk about. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services,  Sexual violence in Sudan is used for several different reasons by one main group of people. From what research that has been done the Janjaweed have committed the most crimes against women and girls. Unfortunately, there are no numbers on how many women have been effected by sexual violence. There are somethings that we do know about sexual violence of women in Sudan. One thing that we do know is that the majority of violence is related to ethnic and racial problems within the country. There are two main ethnic groups that fight the most.

"Sexual violence is divided into three categories: 1) use of physical force to compel a person to engage in a sexual act against his or her will, whether or not the act is completed; 2) attempted or completed sex act involving a person who is unable to understand the nature or condition of the act, to decline participation, or to communicate unwillingness to engage in the sexual act, e.g., because of illness, disability, or the influence of alcohol or other drugs, or because of intimidation or pressure; and 3) abusive sexual contact” (CDC, 2007).

The Nubas are a Sudanese ethnic group from the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, who were virtually cut off from the rest of the country during the conflict between north and south Sudan. They have been victims of grave human rights violations by Sudanese government troops and allied militias. This reference to the Nubas is apparently used as a racial insult.

"The term Arabs is used here to indicate people predominantly from nomadic groups, who identify themselves as Arabs and speak Arabic as first language. The term Africans is used here to indicate people from sedentary, mainly agricultural groups,  such as the Fur, the Masalit and to some extent the Zaghawa. The distinction between Arabs and Africans is not always as clear cut. Moreover the conflict cannot be characterised simply in terms of Arabs against Africans."

Another thing that Amnesty International learned was that the majority of attacks against women were committed by the government or that the government stood by and watch as these brutal attacks took place. It is important to know that the majority of people who work in the government are of Arab descent. The Arabs and Africans have been the two major fighters of Sudan's civil wars. This means that the Janjaweeds are more likely to commit sexual violence against Africans because of their anger towards them.

There are hundreds of stories available on the Internet of what the women of Sudan have gone through. The majority of the stories that I have read have a couple of things in common. The first thing in common is that most of the women and girls who were raped were either captured by the soldiers or they were raped for not running away from the villages fast enough. The second thing that these stories have in common is that the women and girls are usually raped by more than one man and sometimes they were raped in front others, sometimes total strangers. A third thing in common was that several women became pregnant after their rapes, which is extremely difficult for the women because they often do not know who the father is and some cultures believe that you can't get pregnant by unwanted sex. Pregnant women were also rapped and sometimes the women and her child would be killed.

I hope that you have learned some information about sexual violence against Sudanese women. Although their past is an extremely difficult subject to talk about, sexual violence still occurs today in Sudan. Below is a list of links if you would like to learn more information about this topic and what you can do to help.


http://www.amnestyusa.org

http://www.ansa-africa.net

Sudan, Darfur Rape as a Weapon of War