1st Edition

Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide

By Samuel Totten Copyright 2009
    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    The plight and fate of female victims during the course of genocide is radically and profoundly different from their male counterparts. Like males, female victims suffer demonization, ostracism, discrimination, and deprivation of their basic human rights. They are often rounded up, deported, and killed. But, unlike most men, women are subjected to rape, gang rape, and mass rape. Such assaults and degradation can, and often do, result in horrible injuries to their reproductive systems and unwanted pregnancies. This volume takes one stride towards assessing these grievances, and argues against policies calculated to continue such indifference to great human suffering.

    The horror and pain suffered by females does not end with the act of rape. There is always the fear, and reality, of being infected with HIV/AIDS. Concomitantly, there is the possibility of becoming pregnant.Then, there is the birth of the babies. For some, the very sight of the babies and children reminds mothers of the horrific violations they suffered. When mothers harbor deep-seated hatred or distain for such children, it results in more misery. The hatred may be so great that children born of rape leave home early in order to fend for themselves on the street.

    This seventh volume in the Genocide series will provoke debate, discussion, reflection and, ultimately, action. The issues presented include ongoing mass rape of girls and women during periods of war and genocide, ostracism of female victims, terrible psychological and physical wounds, the plight of offspring resulting from rapes, and the critical need for medical and psychological services.

    Introduction - Samuel Totten

    1. Women and the Armenian Genocide: The Victim, the Living Martyr - Rubina Peroomian

    2. Women and the Holocaust - Helene J. Sinnreich

    3. The Bangladesh Genocide: The Plight of Women - Angela Debnath

    4. Death, Shattered Families, and Living as Widows in Cambodia - Judy Ledgerwood

    5. The Plight and Fate of Women During the Crisis in the Former Yugoslavia - Ivana Macek

    6. The Plight and Fate of Females During and Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide - Samuel Totten

    7. The Darfur Genocide: The Mass Rape of Black African Girls and Women - Samuel Totten

    8. Rape as Genocide - Frances T. Pilch

    9. The Evolution of Gender Crimes in International Law - Nicole Hallett

    10. Prosecution of Gender-Based Acts of Genocide under International Law - Valerie Oosterveld

    11. The Post-Genocidal Period and Its Impact on Women - Tazreena Sajjad

    Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    Samuel Totten