New research also reveals three-quarters of DRC men believe women who do not dress decently are asking to be raped ©Guardian2012
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| A new report into rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo is striking for the number of men self-reporting acts of sexual violence towards women. Photograph: Jose Cendon/AFP/Getty Images |
More than one in three men surveyed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's
war-torn east admits committing sexual assault, and three in four
believe that a woman who "does not dress decently is asking to be
raped", researchers have found.
Some
61.4% of men interviewed said women sometimes deserve to be beaten;
42.7% think that "if a woman doesn't show physical resistance when
forced to have sex, it's not rape"; and 27.9% believe that sometimes women want to be raped.
Well over 40% of the men polled asserted that a man should reject his wife when she has been raped.
The
findings show that sexual violence is much more than a weapon of war,
activists said, and reflect widespread acceptance of patriarchal norms
and rape myths. They also pointed to Congo's incendiary mix of conflict,
poverty and weak law enforcement as causal factors in need of urgent
redress.
The study was carried out by the South African-based Sonke Gender Justice Network and the Brazilian non-government organisation Promundo
in and near Goma in Congo's North Kivu province. A total of 708 men and
754 women aged between 18 and 59 took part in individual interviews and
focus group discussions in June this year.
The self-reporting of
men is particularly unusual and striking. Some 34% admit having carried
out some form of sexual violence in conflict, homes or other settings.
Almost
two-thirds agree with the statement that "women should accept partner
violence to keep the family together", and almost a third endorse the
view that "a woman who is raped has provoked this by her attitude". More
than a quarter believe that "a man can force a woman to have sex and
she may enjoy it".
The preliminary report notes: "In qualitative
interviews, men openly shared their opinions about the 'right to have
sex' with their female partner even if she refuses; most men did not
consider it to be rape to force their wives to have sex with them. Other
men took any 'provocation' by a woman to mean that she wanted sex."
As
an example, it quotes a 48-year-old man who said a girl entered his
shop and asked for water: "When a girl is asking for water in such a
way, she wants sex. So I took her in the middle of my shop. I think she
liked it because her body accepted me to enter."
The study, part of the International Men and Gender Equality
Survey, also suggests that many men are themselves victims of violence,
including sexual violence, and shows a clear association between
exposure to violence and increased likelihood of subsequent
perpetration.
It makes recommendations including far greater
promotion of gender equality in schools and public policy and a massive
campaign of psycho-social care for boys and girls exposed to multiple
forms of violence at young ages.
It is estimated that at least half a million women have been raped in eastern Congo since 1998, prompting the UN to brand it "the rape capital of the world".
Henny
Slegh, Promundo's regional coordinator in the Great Lakes region and
principal investigator for the new study, said: "The whole world knows
there is a lot of sexual violence here.
We want to know why. The main thing we found is there are conditions of
extreme poverty and conflict and an inadequate response by the national
and especially international community contributing to the cycle of
violence.
"Gender inequalities exist everywhere but many parts of
the world live under better conditions. In this environment it is
clearly worse. There are not educational opportunities to change these
attitudes. That's what responses and interventions must focus on."
But
there are grounds for optimism, Slegh added, in the honesty and
engagement of respondents. "Men and women said: 'This is the first time I
got asked questions where I can tell my story.' One man said he'd raped
a girl a week before because he felt it was normal. He was exchanging
opinions and it helped him see it another way. The men were very open
and said they would like groups discussions more often."
This was
also welcomed by Micheline Muzaneza, a former Congolese child refugee
who now works with victims at the Sonke network in Cape Town, South Africa. "Men accepting and saying, 'Yes, I did this,' is a big step," she said. "We need to work on that."
Gender
inequality is handed down through the generations, she continued. "They
think a woman must be in the kitchen, that a woman is like a child. The
cultural attitude is that a man can beat a woman. They grew up like
that, seeing their father beat their mother. To punish a rival armed
movement, they say: 'Let's go and rape their women and show we are
stronger than them.' The woman becomes an object."
Heal Africa runs a hospital for rape victims in Goma and recently reported a sharp increase in cases because of rising militia fighting.
Emmanuel Baabo, leader of its projects dealing with sexual violence,
said: "The attitude of the men who have been asked in this study is not
acceptable. How can one think that a woman wants to be raped?
"But
I am not surprised at the outcome of this survey. It shows the
ignorance of many Congolese men and that in the Congolese culture women
are still today often seen as inferior to men. This attitude is also a
question of education. The more men are educated, the more they respect
generally women."
He added: "The armed groups consider violence as
a weapon of war. And [seeing] that the system of justice is not working
correctly, the impunity makes the situation even worse."
War in
eastern Congo has killed and displaced millions over nearly two decades.
At least half of those surveyed live below the absolute poverty line
and hunger is a daily reality, with 40% of men and 43% of women having
only one meal a day.
Sonke is calling for for more engagement with
men and women and a transformation of gender relations and social
justice. Dean Peacock, its co-founder and executive director, said: "On
the question of whether men can change, the answer is certainly yes,
including in Congo.
"There's also evidence that a range of
interventions can speed that up: group education, mass media efforts,
policy change, including the development and implementation of laws that
sanction and deter violence, and disrupt the toxic combination of men's
sense of entitlement to women's bodies and their sense of impunity for
using violence against women.
"All of those interventions are
needed desperately in Congo. There are fledgling efforts to engage men:
the Congolese Men's Network, for instance, is working in Kivu to
challenge men to speak out against men's violence. These must be
supported and strengthened."
©Guardian 2012
Zed will be publishing a book relating to this topic in 2012 entitled "Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?" written by Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern
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