The Neglected Cases of Sexual Abuse of Women and Girls

By Ewelina U. Ochab
Forbes
June 7, 2018

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2018/06/07/the-neglected-cases-of-sexual-abuse/#3f54412133cb

In October 2017, the #MeToo movement went viral. It’s aim was to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault, and to provide a platform for discussion about increasingly widespread reports of sexual harassment and assault, especially those perpetrated in the workplace. The movement received the support of several celebrities, including Alyssa Milano, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd and Jennifer Lawrence. It was followed by another movement, Time's Up, which was established in January 2018. With similar aims to the #MeToo movement, it aimed to raise awareness on the issue of ' sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace.’ It established a Legal Defence Fund to help combat the issues. The Time's Up initiative was originally supported by hundreds of women from the entertainment industry and the DMK cosmetic foundation. It quickly took over the Grammys in 2018 and the 2018 BAFTA Film Awards in London. Despite drawing some criticism, the initiatives are positive and helped to shed light on the disgraceful scandal of sexual abuse suffered by women in the entertainment world and beyond. They should be praised for providing a platform for survivors of sexual harassment and assault, and for making a clear statement that such treatment of women is not acceptable.

There is no doubt that the #MeToo and Time's Up movements have been the most successful such campaigns in years and have gained overwhelming public support. Despite this, there are still aspects of sexual abuse perpetrated against women that even the #MeToo or Time's Up movements have not been able to adequately address. Indeed, neither movements have sought to actively encourage debate on the ever-growing issue of sexual abuse used as a method of religious persecution.

In response, on June 6th, 2018, Aid to the Church in Need, a Pontifical Foundation which provides humanitarian assistance to persecuted Christian minorities worldwide, published a letter in Vanity Fair aimed to raise awareness of this neglected issue. The Vanity Fair open letter is addressed to four famous actresses: Asia Argento, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman and others who have publicly supported the #MeToo movement. The Aid to the Church open letter and its associated campaign are accompanied by photographs of three brave women who suffered such sexual abuse because of their religion; Rebecca, Sister Meena and Dalal.

A displaced Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community poses for a picture in the northern Iraqi town of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (Photo credit: SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)

Rebecca, a 28-year-old Nigerian Christian woman, was kept enslaved for two years and raped by Boko Haram members, one of the most violent terror groups operating in northern Nigeria.

Sister Meena, a 40-year-old Indian Christian nun was raped by several violent extremists in India who then forced her to walk home naked.

Dalal, a 21-year-old Yazidi woman was only 17 when she was enslaved and sexually abused by nine different Daesh fighters, members of an international terror group that constituted one of the worst threat to international peace and security in recent years.

The atrocities perpetrated against these three brave women are the tip of the iceberg. Similar crimes are regularly perpetrated as a result of the fact that women's religious identity or association with particular religious groups. These crimes are both targeted at gender and religion.

For example, Boko Haram chooses its targets for a variety of reasons, including on the basis of their religion but also, for tactical reasons, to gain control of land. However, they frequently target schools, especially those which are attended by girls and women. Once abducted, these girls and women are subjected to gender-based violence, including rape and sexual abuse, but also forced marriage and associated forced conversion.

Atrocities committed by Daesh against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq are recognised by several parliaments, governments and international institutions, to constitute genocide. Daesh targeted those religious groups to eliminate their presence in the region and to establish a purely Islamic state. Women and girls belonging to religious minorities who ended up in the hands of Daesh faced a gruesome fate. Many were enslaved for years, subjected to rape and suffered horrendous sexual abuse.

In the case of the Daesh atrocities, it is very clear that the rape, sexual abuse and even forced marriage were employed as methods of religious persecution, and ultimately as methods of bringing about the genocidal campaign against religious minorities in the region. It was clearly explained in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda case of Prosecutor v Akayesu:

In patriarchal societies, where membership of a group is determined by the identity of the father, an example of a measure intended to prevent births within a group is the case where, during rape, a woman of the said group is deliberately impregnated by a man of another group, with the intent to have her give birth to a child who will consequently not belong to its mother’s group … rape can be a measure intended to prevent births when the person raped refuses subsequently to procreate, in the same way, that members of a group can be led, through threats of trauma, not to procreate.

This is why the use of sexual harassment and assault as a method of religious persecution requires urgent attention. Women and girls, around the world, deserve better. Sexual harassment and assault, in all its forms, need to be combated. Whether perpetrated as a gendered crime or a crime of religious character, or both, it affects all women, one way or another.