Chickens and Cows Don’t Solve Rape
She has been squatting for some time. The position is still not as comfortable as it used to be. She sweeps her sari out of the way as she starts to cook the day’s rice ration. This, she says. This is what they have given me, shaking her head in the direction of the dusty open space. The children were playing with her recent gift. Two chickens ran between their legs, inducing squeals from both sides.
She had been raped, though the medical evidence didn’t exist to prove it (reproductive health has been outlawed). She is a widow, but the death certificate doesn’t exist to prove it. Maybe she is not. Maybe he is detained or disappeared instead of dead. She has stopped trying to know. The two worst experiences of her adult life have pushed her into the “beneficiary” category. They all watched with confusion as a Large Charity Group (they-who-shall-not-be-named) gave each woman three chickens. They said they’d be back with cages and feed.
The next day, one chicken died. It is hard to keep chickens alive in the jungle, she says. A preliminary survey of responses to rape victims by ten major international organizations reveals that the dominant programming approach is “livelihoods”. Women, who have been raped, are given bakeries, soap-making courses, chickens, cows, sewing machines. The development theory around this approach spans from centering the “independence” of women in contexts of domestic abuse, to the psychiatric benefits of active engagement, and (the most tenuous), that these activities, that may allow socio-economic empowerment, will translate into broadening the political space for women.
While some of the other justifications may be true (when projects are executed in a flawless fashion unhampered by ongoing challenges in difficult countries), the last remains unproven. The status quo persists for good reason. On the ground, in the “post” period of a conflict that trampled on any semblance of cultural life — there is a natural longing for occupations that represented a traditional gendered “normal”, in pre-conflict times. On the outside, donors like “clean” programs with clear results. The socio-economic impact of rape has a viable solution: socio-economic programming. But how do these programs stop rape from happening?
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Beyond the misguided interventions that all aid workers have witnessed everywhere, the (real and metaphorical) dead chickens seem to have far-reaching implications for these women, their communities, and the political landscape that surrounds them.
One young woman I interviewed before the handouts started coming was waiting in a safe space to give birth, so that her father didn’t know she had been raped. Pushing women in conflict zones outside the lines starts in the most intimate spaces. If she is raped, she is often first pushed outside the family. Then she is not allowed to attend happy occasions, pushed to the outskirts of her community. If she is raped AND an ex-combatant, she is pushed outside of her village. She is already of an ethnicity that has been pushed outside of the state. She doesn’t live in this space of extreme marginalization, she simply exists. It will take far more than a shiny new sewing machine to draw her back in.
In the lead up to the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence, it is important to examine the efficacy of current interventions. Rape has been acknowledged to be a “tool” of war – a political act. Yet, we have a harder time seeing it as having a political impact. My research, along with others, shows that for women who join rebel movements rape, or the fear of rape, is a key factor in pushing them to join. In the moment that a woman is raped, anywhere in the world, it will fundamentally affect her notions of justice and equality. She will re-think the terms of her existence, violence will shape her political self. Further ostracization in the aftermath of rape will leave her missing a sense of belonging, open to “radical” approaches to resistance.
While immediate emergency interventions, economic “empowerment”, and celebrity awareness-activism each plays a role in addressing rape in warzones, they cannot stop rape. Recognizing that each woman has a distinct (not necessarily more peaceful) political identity, creates avenues for mobilizing and political action. Where nonviolent forces overlook this, violent forces will not.
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She gets up suddenly, moving towards the children. She walks slowly, lifting one foot higher than the other–the folds of fabric lifting ever so slightly to reveal the plastic appliance struggling to mimic an appendage. She surveys the two remaining chickens. I cannot even run after these things, she says, before she pulls the children away. I think it is only because I am handicapped now, it may not happen again. That is my protection.
For more on the impact of rape on women’s political identities, see my recent article in Oxford’s STAIR Review (Gowrinathan) and watch this site for more information on a new Sexual Violence in War Initiative I am working on at the Center for Conflict, Negotiation, and Recovery at Central European University.