Sexual Violence In The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver shows the women of the Congo as being the workers of the family. They take care of the children, going so far as to carry them around constantly once they reach a certain age, and they are responsible for all the housework. The females are seen as capable and have many responsibilities. In spite of this, the reality for the real women of the Congo is that they are in constant fear of being a victim of sexual violence. Sexual violence can happen anywhere, but in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) it occurs on a daily basis (Ganzamungu and Maharaj 737).
Sexual violence means, “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic women sexuality,

There needs to be more of an understanding from the communities, friends, and family, of the effects of sexual violence. The victims need understanding and not ridicule. Rejection can lead to many other problems. Some of the community believes the women now have a sickness which is a fear that lingers inside the victim. Many husbands do not want to be intimate or even touch their wives after a rape occurs. The victims become isolated. Many men run the female victims off from their homes; others choose to divorce them. Some men turn their back even on their children after their wife is attacked and search for a new wife. The women become wary of trusting anyone. Many women end up having to live on their own without shelter, protection or money, and many have children to tend to. One person even stated she “prefer that [they] kill the person who [was] raped because a rape was worse than a killing” (Kohli

Besides having, bruising, bleeding and soreness, rape victims are likely to have, anxiety, uncontrollable thoughts of the tragic events, and reoccurring nightmares. Most of these women are already malnourished before an attack takes place, and the effects of the rape takes a major toll on the body. This has a tremendous impact for all victims, but especially for virgins. Virgins are women who have never had sexual relations prior to the rape. They feel they have lost all sense of identity and no one will ever take them as a wife. When virgins end up pregnant after an attack, they have the fear of being ridiculed for having a baby and no husband. One of the woman interviewed states, “In the communities we are being called wives of Interahamwe or rebels” (Zihindula and Maharaj 740). They are given names for something violent that has happened and was out of their control. With so much stigmatisms from the community, the woman has lost hope of ever having a normal place in the