ipl-logo

Mental And Physical Impact Of Rwandan Genocide On Women

1617 Words7 Pages

What mental and physical impact did the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 have on women due to cruel treatment? While many others were affected by the genocide, including children and men being forced to turn on their families. The mental and physical impact was due to the cruel treatment women were put through during the Rwandan genocide because they had to experience being mistreated just because they were female. They also had to deal with the trauma of getting sexually assaulted, even in some instances giving birth during all of the chaos mothers wanted to protect their children however they could no matter what that meant, and those that experienced getting assaulted had to deal with the social stigma of speaking out about what happened to them. …show more content…

This was formally known as the Rwanda genocide, informally known as the Genocide of the Tutsi. Many people were affected during the genocide, especially families. The Rwanda genocide is essential to today’s history, and the women who speak out about what happened are important to history. The Tutsis had no one to turn to during the genocide because the government had already believed that the world would be a better place by exterminating the Tutsis. As stated that the higher power of the government was even killing Tutsis …show more content…

They avoid conflict and are typically reluctant to talk about the events of the genocide. When lawyers would talk to the witnesses at the tribunal, witnesses would use the phrase “we got married” to describe how they were raped. However, the lawyers had to persuade the witnesses to give more of a description, like using the unknown Kinyarwanda phrase “gufata ku ngufa” which means to take by force to rape. Another unknown phrase was “ gusambanya, " meaning to bring someone to commit adultery. Another unknown phrase was “kurungora,” a generic word for sex with women. (Koomen 265). The witnesses that are Rwandans have to deal with the social stigma of talking about rape and other types of sexual violence for the reason that they are shunned and made to feel as if they are disgusting. With the social stigma, many feel ashamed talking about the assault and sometimes even ashamed of

More about Mental And Physical Impact Of Rwandan Genocide On Women

Open Document