Times are changing but femicide remains the same

Women are always the biggest victims of wars and conflicts. Nation-statist, fascist male governments have taken femicide one step further in every field. Although the times are changing, femicide remains the same.

News Center-During wars and conflicts that broke out in many parts around the world, the bodies of women were considered as a field of conquest along with lands. During the wars and conflicts, more specific tactics were carried out against women. Women were subjected to gang rapes; they were held in harems as slaves; they were sold in slave markets, they faced a practice that would be considered the biggest shame of humanity. These methods of attack were carried out against women before nations and peoples primarily by the colonial and imperialist states. Today, these methods have been carried out by paramilitary forces such as ISIS having a conquest mindset of the nation-state.

This truth has flowed in time like a tradition. The World War II took its place in the recent history of humanity as the most concrete form of the extermination of women. The Japanese took Chinese women from their countries and forced them into prostitution. Between 1932 and 1945, nearly 300,000 women were forcibly kept in brothels in Korea. In the 2000s, Taiwanese women also said that Japanese soldiers forced them into prostitution. During the US invasion of Korea, four million people were killed, according to reports. The number of women who were raped during this invasion was expressed in hundreds.

In Korea, Taiwan, and China, women formed self-defense units during the Japanese occupation. Particularly in China, women formed their self-defense units in more than a hundred villages.

Rape became a weapon of occupation in Vietnam

What happened in Vietnam causes an ongoing trauma. During the US invasion of Korea between 1965 and 1970, US soldiers raped thousands of women, according to reports. My Lai village is one of the unforgotten villages. 450 Vietnamese children and women were raped and killed there. The number of women who were raped during the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam is estimated to be at least 30,000. During the Vietnam invasion, two women's associations, WILPF and WSP, led a serious peace movement. Women's organizations organized mass anti-war demonstrations and protests, launched petitions, put pressure on Congress. The traces of the war have remained the same even though years have passed. No effective investigation was carried out regarding the war crimes in Vietnam.

Bangladesh: 200,000 women were raped

About 200,000 Bangladeshi women were raped by Pakistani soldiers in the war broke out between Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1970. According to the reports, 25,000 women became pregnant as a result of rape.

Bosnia / Kosovo: 50,000 women raped and tortured

Women suffered the most from the war between Bosniaks and Serbs. After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, the clashes broke out between Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims lasted three years. 50,000 Bosnian Muslim women were raped and severely tortured by the Serbian army in the camps for ethnic cleansing. International organizations cannot estimate how many women in Bosnia became pregnant as a result of rape, but the numbers are stated as “hundreds.”

Although 29 years have passed, women victims of this war are waiting for those responsible to be punished. Women founded Women's Courts to share their experiences while following international courts.

Somalia: women were raped in the camps

Thousands of people lost their lives in the civil war that lasted in Somalia between 1991 and 1992. 300,000 people left the country due to the civil war and the poverty it caused. Hundreds of Somali women were raped in refugee camps in Kenya, according to reports.

Rwanda: 5,000 children born as a result of rape

Rwanda is one of the places where women faced atrocity. Around 800,000 people lost their lives in the civil war that took place in the country between 1994 and 1995. An estimated, 250,000 to 500,000 Tutsi women were raped by Hutus. 5,000 children were born as a result of rape. Women have overcome this trauma in Rwanda. Women rebuilt Rwanda. 54 of the 80 members of the Assembly are women. After the massacre, many laws on gender equality were passed in the parliament. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has recognized rape as a crime against humanity thanks to women’s struggle.

They were sold to other countries

The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred in 2001. The occupying forces raped hundreds of women wherever they went, forced women to act in pornographic movies, and sold women to sex traffickers in other countries, according to international reports. Women founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in 1977 against invasion and patriarchal religious violence.

Numbers are unknown in Iraq

Studies carried out after the US invasion of Iraq revealed that more than a hundred thousand civilians lost their lives. 44 percent of those who lost their lives were women. The number of widows, abducted and murdered women, women captured by traffickers in Iraq is unknown. However, there was a rising women's resistance in the country. Women led the anti-regime protests in Iraq. Studies were carried out by women on the prohibition of female circumcision, child marriage, women's participation in workplaces, the safety of women staying in the camps, and many more.