Marita Seara, blogging for Voces Visibles, invites us to reflect on the suffering of women sexually subdued during armed conflicts. The author recommends us to watch the documentary The war against women, where director Hernán Zin describes rape as real “weapons of war” and confronts us with the reality of victims of these atrocities. Thus, the documentary shows us some figures regarding sexual violence during the most heinous armed conflicts of the last decades:

Bosnia, 1992 a 1995: 40 mil mujeres violadas
Uganda, 1985 a 2006: 4000 niñas secuestradas y violadas
Ruanda, 1994 entre 250 mil y 500 mil mujeres violadas.
República Democrática del Congo, 2008-2013: 200 mil mujeres violadas.

Bosnia, 1992 – 1995: 40,000 women raped
Uganda, 1985 – 2006: 4000 girls abducted and raped
Rwanda, 1994 between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped
Democratic Republic of Congo, 2008 – 2013: 200,000 women raped

Image from blog Voces Visibles, used with permission

Among the most disturbing data, soldiers from Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda confess been militarly trained from very young age to rape women. Just in one of the hospitals in Democratic Republic of Congo, a third of 300 monthly female patients must undergo major genitalia surgery.

As former UN representative in sexual violence Margot Wallstrom points out, raping women during armed conflicts destroy not only personal lives, but also the society, and instills fear within communities victims of genocide for generations.

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