Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina

by Roy Gutman (Foreword), Cynthia Enloe (Afterword), Marion Faber (Translator)

Alexandra Stiglmayer interviewed survivors of the continuing war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to reveal, to a seemingly deaf world, the horrors of the ongoing war in the former Yugoslavia. The women—primarily of Muslim but also of Croatian and Serbian origin—have endured the atrocities of rape and the loss of loved ones. Their testimony, published in the 1993 German edition, is bare, direct, and its cumulative effect overwhelming. The first English edition contains Stiglmayer's updates to her own two essays, one detailing the historical context of the current conflict and the other presenting the core of the book, interviews with some twenty victims of rape as well as interviews with three Serbian perpetrators. Essays investi-gating mass rape and war from ethnopsychological, sociological, cultural, and medical perspectives are included. New essays by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Rhonda Copelon, and Susan Brownmiller address the crucial issues of recognizing the human rights of women and children. A foreword by Roy Gutman describes war crimes within the context of the UN Tribunal, and an afterword by Cynthia Enloe relates the mass rapes of this war to developments and reactions in the international women's movement. Accounts of torture, murder, mutilation, abduction, sexual enslavement, and systematic attempts to impregnate—all in the name of "ethnic cleansing"—make for the grimmest of reading. However brutal and appalling the information conveyed here, this book cannot and should not be ignored.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War, Feminism, Politics

234 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Journalist and author. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting, and a special Human Rights in Media Award from the International League for Human Rights.

Reviews

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-read.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edited volume was (and remains) an important contribution to the literature on sexual violence in conflict. Written in the mid-90s at a time where mass atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda demonstrated a need for better understanding of war crimes and the wave of rights advocacy, this volume helped to call on scholars to take seriously the severe gender-based sexual violence that was taking place and had been largely ignored in the mainstream media and scholarly narratives. That there is a far more established literature on wartime sexual violence owes to the work of Stiglmayer and the contributers of this volume, among other important voices at the time. It is, understandably, a tough read and as others have rightly pointed out, the descriptions of wartime rape during the Bosnian war are extremely raw. Such testimonies are, however, extremely important to read.

It is important to note that this book is on the one hand a contemporary discussion of wartime sexual violence in B-H and on the other a series of powerful feminist arguments made during a revival of feminism during the 1990s. One criticism (coming from a scholar of mass atrocities in Bosnia) is where the analysis is at times unduly shaped by a strongly politicised approach. But the intention of the book is to address the phenomenon head on, and with not a small hint of the anger that such atrocities understandably evoke. Another issue is that the framing of the book as a 'war against women' continues the unfortunate silencing of male victims of sexual violence in war who often go even more unseen than their more numerous female counterparts. These are nevertheless minor critiques of what is overall an impressive and bold contribution.

Students/scholars are likely to dip into Mass Rape: The War Against Women in B-H for specific essays. The largest, and arguably most penetrating and useful, chapter is Alexandra Stiglmayer's chapter entitled "The Rapes in Bosnia-Herzegovina". There are also several shorter, though highly thought-provoking essays by some major figures in the literature on sexual and gender-based violence.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit that it was one of the most difficult books to read ... it literally took me a few months to finish it. I had to put it down and get back to it a little later in order to give myself enough time to numb my feelings and go through emotional detox. The atrocities committed by men, friends, neighbors on women of all ethnic groups during the conflict in former Yugoslavia are unthinkable and mortifying...

The most disturbing element in this book is the fact that those situations were a common practice before the conflict in former Yugoslavia and they are still taking place as we speak: ethnic cleansing in Syria...

Sadly, for as long as international conflicts will resort to making female bodies a battlefield there is no hope for change: The Rape of the Hun - German in Belgium WWI, The Rape of Nanking - Japanese in China 1937, Pakistani in newly formed Bangladesh, Japanese in Korea, Russians in Poland WWII, Americans in Vietnam, U.N. Troops in Yugoslavia etc.

The list is much longer and as I have said, we can keep on adding to it each day, but if we can not learn from the history and, if we cannot enforce change ... the book becomes just another sad story ...

[Eve Henley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end of the first chapter in my passionate love affair with anthropology.

Read for an essay that was incredibly difficult but eventually very fulfilling. Hard and emotionally taxing to comprehend that violence against women in wartime is ultimately an extension of that which already exists in peacetime.

[Mollie Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stiglmayer's chapters were excellent and well-researched, but it felt like the collection as a whole was lacking. So much more work to be done here, this is a promising start.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for those who study CRSV or gender in conflict.

[Scott Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harrowing, horrifying account of modern large.scale inhumanity.

[Elizabeth Kiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an extremely difficult book to read, even if one has studied the impact of sexual assault and rape in conflict zones. While it was extremely helpful for academic purposes, there were many times I had to set the book down and walk away from it because I was physically disgusted by what I was reading. I would suggest this to academics that are studying the rape and conflict, or this specific Bosnian conflict.

[Allison]

read for dissertation research. a difficult but phenomenal read for anyone looking to understand better the bosnian genocide and the use of r*pe as a weapon of genocide.