Law - The Truth about the Lies: Women, violence and the AU Commission of Inquiry Report

By Anyieth D’Awol

‘Women are the pride of our families and societies,’ we were told. ‘Many cows will be paid for you’. It is said with pride – the way it has always been and the way it must be.

The intention is for the cultural systems to link families and communities together and ensure a girl is married into a family that will value her as much hers. It is said that the culture is unchangeable and where it has been transformed, it is blamed on war but still, it must be respected.

Rape, sexual harassment, forced and early marriage and exploitation have become so common that the things we have been told about how special we are must be a lie. The reality is that today a girl is monetized before marriage and treated like property after it. In times of conflict, being considered precious by our tribes only makes us targets, a means to inflict pain on the perceived other.

In the end, it is everyone who loses. Men, women and the children we bear, our cultures and the country we all share.

As a human rights activist in South Sudan since 2005, I have heard countless accounts of inter-community violence, human loss and sexual violence. Cruelty has become the accepted culture and the only remedies are tolerance or violence. They were called remnants of war and its effects on culture and time will heal all.

Of course, the issues never faded and time did not heal. Undeniably, it is ignoring the violence that is costing South Sudan its future, the regional its stability, and the world its newest nation.
During the second war (1983-2005) between South Sudanese and the government of Sudan, women were kept from the frontlines. Instead, it was decreed that they were to have children to replace the millions being killed as a result of the war.

This created vulnerabilities for women, as the duty to procreate was now part of the war efforts. Women were killed and many suffered rape at the hands of both enemies and their own communities.
This mentality carried on after the war. Throughout the relative peace between 2005 and 2013, sexual violence only increased in frequency and intensity.

“I want to go home” said Sarah, a 13-year old girl, as she stared through the bushes and trees towards her father’s home. Sarah’s neighbour had just raped her when she got home from school while her mother and father were out. Read more...