Introduction to Permanent Exhibition
Chapter 3. Empowering the present, advancing toward the future
As long as wars persist on this planet, violence against women will not disappear.
Expanding our view to a global scale, we look upon the pain endured by women in other parts of the world today.
Conflicts in the World and Violence Against Women
Violence against women during wartime is nothing new. In unceasing wars, women’s bodies have been violated often becomein the battlegroundbattlefields, and rape is often used as a a “weapon.\ of war.” In modern conflicts, acts such as mass rape, rape camps, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and forced pregnancies or sterilization are carried out in more organized and strategic ways. Armed forces, military units, and militia groups at all levels have committed these acts of violence against women.
An Unfinished War
: the war of the 2000s
After the dawn of the new millennium2000, the sounds of wars have echoedcontinued across Afghanistan and Iraq area. During these wars, and even after the United States declared that the war’ was over, women’s suffering have continued. The world was shocked by crimes of sexual torture in prisoner camps and by reports of local women being raped by occupying armed forces, including American troops. Police and military forces also committed acts of sexual violence against them women involved in human rights and social activism. Even now, women live under the constant threats to their lives and safety.
Africa
: Endless Conflict and Sexual Violence
Over the past 30 years, Africa has experienced more conflicts than any other regionparts of the world. C, and correspondingly, it has seen the most widespread incidents of sexual violence in warfieldswar fields tied to these conflicts. In Rwanda, countless women who suffered rape during the civil war were left with unwanted pregnancies and AIDS, a tragedy that waswhich is highly likely to bealso passed on to their children. Sexual violence as a strategy of war has been used not only in Rwanda but also in Darfur, Congo, and other areas. In countries like Burundi, Chad, Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Sudan, women have suffered byfrom traumatic injuries to their bodies, including traumatic fistulas caused by rape. In the Eeastern region of Congo, where rape continues at alarming rates, women are even raped publicly in front of their family and community members. Statistics show that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 48 women are raped every hour, amounting to over 1,100 daily. The UN has tragically labeled the Democratic Republic of Congocountry as the “rape capital of the world.”