Marilynn Larew's Blog - Posts Tagged "women"
Rape, Women, and War
This week I read in an Associated Press story that the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has overrun much of Syria and Iraq, is holding over 500 Yazedi women under the age of 35. It is not clear what the terrorists intend to do with these women – use them as sex slaves or sell them on the open market. Probably both. There is a lively market for women, and the IS would not be the first terrorist group to raise funds by trafficking in women. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group I described in The Spider Catchers, not only traffics in women, it traffics in drugs as well.
Although their situation might be described as “a fate worse than death,” the Yazedi women are at least alive, The terrorists beheaded their children and buried their husbands alive.
In in Africa, in Darfur in the Sudan and particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is not just armies that have got out of control that rape. Gang rape has come to be a tactic of war, a form of psychological warfare that humiliates as well as destroys. Worse, the woman who has been raped is often disowned by her family because she has brought dishonor to it.
On April 17, 2013, Reuters quoted a UN report on rape in African wars. In the Congo they reported the rape of a four-year-old girl. In Somalia eleven babies from six to twelve months old were raped as well as girls four and six years old.
These are not the crimes of soldiers gone berserk. These are crimes of soldiers who know they will not be punished.
We’re speaking here of rapes committed in Muslim lands. Does the Quran permit the rape of war captives? My research into this question cannot be described as in-depth, but what I have discovered so far is difficult to interpret. For one thing the Quran does not have a specific word for rape, a fact interesting in itself. In Mohammed’s day, the most common form of warfare was raiding for women and camels. Perhaps victims of a raid could be described as being raped, but you’d think sexually attacking a woman of your own tribe would have a legal definition.
In the Pickthall translation of Chapter 24 verse 33, the most commonly quoted section of the Quran in the matter of rape: “Forbidden are women already married except those your right hand possesses.” “Those your right hand possesses” is in all translations I have read interpreted as sex slaves. Further the marriage of captive women is immediately abrogated by the fact of capture, so that would seem to take care of that category of captives. There seems to be no differentiation in the text between women who are believers and women who are infidels, but the members of ISIL regard the Yazedis as heretics, which probably means they’re more enthusiastic about raping them.
The solution to this problem suggested flippantly by a male acquaintance was to arm all the women, impractical I would think. My own solution, mass amputation, is equally impractical. But these men are not going to stop raping and murdering just because we tell them it’s not nice.
Although their situation might be described as “a fate worse than death,” the Yazedi women are at least alive, The terrorists beheaded their children and buried their husbands alive.
In in Africa, in Darfur in the Sudan and particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is not just armies that have got out of control that rape. Gang rape has come to be a tactic of war, a form of psychological warfare that humiliates as well as destroys. Worse, the woman who has been raped is often disowned by her family because she has brought dishonor to it.
On April 17, 2013, Reuters quoted a UN report on rape in African wars. In the Congo they reported the rape of a four-year-old girl. In Somalia eleven babies from six to twelve months old were raped as well as girls four and six years old.
These are not the crimes of soldiers gone berserk. These are crimes of soldiers who know they will not be punished.
We’re speaking here of rapes committed in Muslim lands. Does the Quran permit the rape of war captives? My research into this question cannot be described as in-depth, but what I have discovered so far is difficult to interpret. For one thing the Quran does not have a specific word for rape, a fact interesting in itself. In Mohammed’s day, the most common form of warfare was raiding for women and camels. Perhaps victims of a raid could be described as being raped, but you’d think sexually attacking a woman of your own tribe would have a legal definition.
In the Pickthall translation of Chapter 24 verse 33, the most commonly quoted section of the Quran in the matter of rape: “Forbidden are women already married except those your right hand possesses.” “Those your right hand possesses” is in all translations I have read interpreted as sex slaves. Further the marriage of captive women is immediately abrogated by the fact of capture, so that would seem to take care of that category of captives. There seems to be no differentiation in the text between women who are believers and women who are infidels, but the members of ISIL regard the Yazedis as heretics, which probably means they’re more enthusiastic about raping them.
The solution to this problem suggested flippantly by a male acquaintance was to arm all the women, impractical I would think. My own solution, mass amputation, is equally impractical. But these men are not going to stop raping and murdering just because we tell them it’s not nice.
