Weapon of Choice

The world of weaponry is constantly expanding with the innovation of nuclear weapons and such. However, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo murderers are finding a way to end more lives than Suddam Hussein and Hitler combined. Ironically, it has been a human bodily function since our creation: sex. Rape is today’s most effective weapon of war and it is constantly destroying the lives of women but by destroying the women of a community the entire structure crumbles. This is the logic behind systematic gang rapes and mutilations performed by the teams fighting this war, including the Congolese army. The extreme violence against specifically women has grave implications for the whole society, making it swifter than an AK-47.

"Today in the Congo it is much more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier." Rape is more effective than a bomb because of the implications it leaves for the entire community. It is not just about soldiers who want to be with a woman, sensual arousal is the last thing on their minds.

“Often male relatives are often forced at gunpoint to rape their own daughters, mothers, or sisters; and that frequently, women are shot or stabbed in their genital organs after they are raped. Sometimes broken bottles or corn cobs are shoved into the women's genitalia after the rape.”

The estimate number of women raped is 400,000 a year, a rate equal to 48 women an hour.

These women are considered lucky if they are only gang raped and mutilated. Other than the physical and psychological damage (and the fact that the majority of these women will not receive basic medical attention) these women are left with shame and it is not uncommon for their spouses or parents to reject them after they are attacked. Villages are losing entire female populations along with their sense of worth as a whole.

“Rape tends to undermine the victim group’s tribal structures, because leaders lose authority when they can’t protect the women.” When word of the shaming spreads villages are vulnerable to more attacks.

Congolese are growing up in a world where rape is common. The acceptance of such brutal crimes is becoming a social phenomenon.

“‘It’s gone beyond the conflict,’ said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become ‘almost normal.’” The increase in violence against women as a normal part of society is proving these rapists right.

All video credits go to CBS news. The following content may be disturbing.

Photo Credits go to Getty Images / Uriel Sinai. The image is of women at a hospital in the Kivu region all of which had been gang raped.

When "Cures" Become Deadly

South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world. To make matters worse, knowledge of HIV treatment and management is particularly poor and in some cases, completely erroneous. In fact, a myth is circulating in South Africa that is putting even more individuals at risk for contracting the virus:

Sex with a virgin will cure HIV/AIDS and the younger the virgin, the more potent the cure.

This myth has stolen the innocence many young girls. South Africa also has one of the highest rates of rape in the world and studies show that 15% of these girls are under the age of 11; 26% of these girls were between the ages of 12-17. This means that around 41% of the rapes committed in South Africa were against minors. It is key to remember that these statistics only show the rapes that were reported, and there are potentially thousands of other rape victims who did not report the crime.

False knowledge on HIV/AIDS treatment and management is not new in South Africa. Former health minister of South Africa, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was known for advocating what was known as the beetroot-garlic-lemon diet as a cure for AIDS. Furthermore, she also suggested that AIDS was not caused by HIV. As Westerners, we know that sex with virgins will not cure AIDS, however, in South Africa, proper HIV/AIDS education is seriously lacking, and in desperation people tend to believe whatever they are told. While no research points to a concrete industry that traffics children purely for the cure of AIDS, South African witch-doctors and traditional healers are known for telling men to have sex with young virgins to cure their illness.

South Africa has taken the initiative to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, however most of their campaigning focuses on prevention, as opposed to treatment and management. It is common to see anti-HIV/AIDS placards and signs; however most signs generally only advertise condom usage. Of course, it is important to advertise to condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, but it is also equally important to debunk the myths surrounding a false and dangerous “cure”.