Darfur Rape

A scar of war; a painful reminder, which will never go away. A bullet wound, lose of hearing in an ear, or loose of a family member. In Darfur today people are wounded in all sorts of ways. For tribal Darfurian women, they now have one of the worst scars of all. In the last five years thousands of girls and women have become a victims of rape. Girls as young as 11 will never sleep well again. A scar that the women will never forget. A painful story that will probably never be heard. A horror, that in the tribal religion can force the victim to live alone. There are many ways to commit murder, and for these African victims, they may as well be dead.

For the past five years the janjaweed have done everything to try to annihilate the African tribal community in Darfur. They have killed the people, destroyed their homes, and do everything to demolish the tribal culture. Rape has been a very successful weapon for the janjaweed to abolish the African culture. Giving birth to a janjaweed child is immoral in the eyes of the Darfurians. Children of rape victims are looked very down upon in Darfur communities, in fear that the children will become janjaweed. Light skin and soft hair give away the father’s ethnicity. Due to the fact that rape is very common, victims have a very high chance of having AIDS.

Along with health and tribal ramifications, there are also governmental consequences for the victims. Most victims are too afraid to report attacks because it is very hard for the government to hear a rape case. For a woman to prove rape under Sudanese law, she needs four male witnesses; a task which is essentially impossible. If a single were women is found to be a victim of rape, (or have had sex in the eyes of the government,) she would be sentenced to 100 lashes. If the same were found out about for a married women she would sentenced to be stoned to death. The government has imprisoned pregnant rape victims for adultery.

Rape