Rape as a weapon of war

It is widely recognized that sexual violence in wartime is a violation of human rights. If we talk about the weapons used during war, then according to feminist ideology sexual violence in war takes place in many ways. For example, gender is  used as a much-needed weapon, from women and girls facing rape or sexual  violence to being sex slaves for male combatants, from being the so-called 'wife'  to being a maid who spends the day. Does domestic work during the day and provides sexual services during the night, etc.

The most recent example of all this is the sexual assault on women in Ukraine by  The Russian military which is named as “Bucha killings”. Ukrainian women have been victims of being raped by Russian soldiers in Ukraine amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Doctors say that autopsy reports suggest that many Ukrainian women were raped before being shot. According to a Guardian report 124 cases of alleged sexual violence in Ukraine have been reported to the UN team.

Our patriarchal society believes that raping someone is an attack on the most sacred part and dignity of a human being. A woman is a man's property and cannot take decisions related to her body. Therefore, sexual violence and rape of women during the war are considered an attack on the pride of the enemy.

“The use of women's bodies and rape is used as the most effective weapon in war,” raises many questions. Such as, how women's bodies and their individual parts are seen and understood by soldiers in the military. How this is related to misogyny and militarism? How this affects the principles of training and instruction of military personnel that leads to sexual violence and promotes rape culture. Also how different cultures and countries all over the world understood this? How they made policies for their benefit which justifies sexual violence or rape.

As in Western civilization, it is believed that the most sacred soul is in the human body and the vagina is a door to reach the soul of women. Rape is seen as an act of access to that property and it turns the woman into a 'thing'. According to the research authors, when someone rapes a woman, rape is not an aggressive expression of sexuality, but a sexual expression of aggression. The rapist does not act on sexual urges; rather he uses sexuality as a way of showing his aggression and dominance over the woman.

It is an attack on his identity. It weakens the enemy mentally, making it easier to attack and defeat. The worst thing is that women do not even have the right to claim their pain as their own. Due to this women have to bear double pain. One is rape and the other after rape, women are not considered 'pure'. They are thrown out of the house. Their own families refused to adopt them.

Violence against women in times of war undoubtedly involves humiliation and displays of power, but sometimes impregnates women, infecting them with HIV or AIDS as a tool to exterminate an entire enemy race. There is a very unfortunate patriarchal idea in our society that rapes are caused by the uncontrolled sexual power of men. It focuses on the ideology that man's nature is like a pressure cooker, uncontrollable and bound by his desires.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War (1971), the West Pakistani army raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in camps, repeatedly raping them to reinforce the belief that West Pakistani chiefs were more powerful and populous, not like those Bengali men who can't protect their people so they are better than East Pakistanis and deserve to be ruled over. Many women committed suicide or were thrown out of their homes. Some women who became pregnant did not even get a chance to have an abortion. The gang rape and murder in Bangladesh have not yet been recognized by the United Nations as genocide. A film was made on this incident in 2014 with the name of ' Children of War '.

In the year 1937, the Japanese army invaded China and captured the capital of China. This became known as the Nanjing Massacre. Japanese soldiers and officers systematically raped all the women in the city on the orders of General

Iwana Matsui and Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. These incidents occurred in China as well as with South Korean women. These women were forced into sexual slavery. These women are called ' comfort women '. They were known by the name of soldiers who used them and kept them in army camps. Japanese soldiers used them as per their wishes. In the civil wars of Rwanda, Africa and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the late 20th century, rape was used as a systematic tool of intimidation, intimidation, ethnic cleansing and genocide. The policies of war included taking women captive, raping them, and cutting off their breasts.

During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in 2013, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that “the international community needs to understand that rape is a weapon of war that can be used to destroy lives, tear apart communities and for military purposes”. To achieve this is done in the same way as tanks and bullets are used.