One year ago, writer and blogger Susannah Breslin pointed us to a shocking, sad story by Jeffrey Gettlemen in the New York Times about widespread rape in the African nation of Congo. Rape is used as a tool of war and civil destabilization, and the sheer scope and violence of the epidemic here is unprecedented. Here is that BB post, and here is an update posted a a few weeks later.
Today, a year later, there is a powerful followup story by Gettlemen in the Times. You really must read it. Susannah has a post up about this, and reactions, and how you can help, on Slate's new femblog, XX Factor.
[T]he UN has [since] declared such grand scale acts of sexual violence "a tactic of war." Now, Gettleman returns with another report from the frontlines. "Congo, it seems, is finally facing its horrific rape problem," he writes, "which United Nations officials have called the worst sexual violence in the world." Today, due to international attention, outside aid, and local efforts, a "culture of impunity" is breaking down, ending the silence when it comes to rape. More arrests of perpetrators are taking place than ever before, but, Gettleman is quick to point out, the number of those charged remains relatively small, particularly in a culture "where women tend to be beaten down anyway."
In makeshift forums, women are telling their stories. "'There was no dinner,'" one woman's tale begins. "It was me who was dinner." In the audience, several women wore T-shirts that read in Kiswahili: "I refuse to be raped. What about you?" Eve Ensler, best known for having written "The Vagina Monolgues," is seeking to put an end to the worst rape problem in the world. Ensler deems the phenomenon "femicide": "'I have spent the past 10 years of my life in the rape mines of the world,' she said. 'But I have never seen anything like this.'"
Rape In Congo, A Year Later: Change? (Slate XX Factor)
Photo: Honorata Barinjibanwa, a child rape victim in Bukavu, Congo, who became pregnant as a result of her attack. (Hazel Thompson for The New York Times / Thanks, Susannah Breslin)
