Rape Camps Research Articles

Christiane Amanpour and the Quest for the Jewish Egg

Feminist Studies 41, no. 3. © 2015 by Sayantani DasGupta 651 Sayantani DasGupta Christiane Amanpour and the Quest for the Jewish Egg Whoever adds one Jewish soul is considered as having created an entire world. —Maimonides An Asian American or African American egg results in babies with obvious genetic traits, but what exactly makes an egg Jewish? —Caroline Binham, “What Makes an Egg Jewish?”1 I. Chicken or the Egg First and foremost, I blame Christiane Amanpour. Of course, that’s not fair. I should be discrete, conscious of possible lawsuits, avoiding accusations of slander. But I’m sure Christiane is too busy reporting on global crises from fields of landmines to be bothered by the ramblings of an embittered barren woman. The truth is, I don’t think I would be where I am today were it not for her. So, with my apologies to the flesh and blood woman, as well as to her entire news 1. Caroline Binham, “What Makes an Egg Jewish?” Portfolio (online journal), New York University Department of Journalism, March 30, 2003, http://journal​ ism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/portfolio/binham/eggs_jewish.html. 652 Sayantani DasGupta organization, I do blame Christiane. I blame her for many things, but above all for making my father love her. Since her first appearance on CNN in the early 1980s, my father avidly followed her career. “That Christiane Amanpour!” He would murmur, his eyes transfixed on her serious face, “That, Allie, THAT’s the kind of woman you are going to become.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I would study her speech patterns, her determined expressions, her almost masculine beauty. Christiane wasn’t his first newscaster love. When I was a child, it had been the inimitable Jessica Savich. My parents’ marriage was also a lot younger then, and my mother far less tolerant of my father’s extramarital passions for television reporters. Jessica’s blonde-haired beauty had driven her almost to distraction, and my father’s abject mourning of her death had enraged her even further. “You’re such a cliché, David,” she accused, “sitting shiva for your blonde princess.” But my father was nonplussed by her reproaches. “Love,” he said, looking at me, but aiming his comments in my mother’s direction, “love knows no creed or color.” He had grabbed her playfully as she passed, earning himself a swat, accompanied by a noise my mother made clicking her tongue against her teeth. I was never sure what that sound meant, but it seemed to please him well enough. It took my father a few years to get over Jessica Savich’s death— Barbara Walters was a poor substitute—and by the time his eye was captured by Connie Chung, my mother had seemed to grow more tolerant of my father’s infatuations. “Well, she’s married to Maury Povich, so that’s something,” she offered. I wasn’t sure how that was to Connie Chung’s credit, if at all. My mother, ever clannish, added, “Do you think she’ll convert before they have children?” That was before Connie and Maury’s problems with infertility came out. But then came Christiane—whose hard-bitten reports made even Connie Chung seem an intellectual lightweight, whose effortless beauty made Cokie Roberts’s makeup team shudder. Christiane, the London born Persian émigré, the global citizen, the front-line daredevil whose bravery Sayantani DasGupta 653 went beyond the limits of gender. Not a good (female) reporter, not brave enough (for a woman), but a woman who tred where few dared to go, a woman who could do anything. As if proof of her super powers, Christiane eventually won over even my mother. It was during the war in the Balkans, when her reports about ethnic cleansing demanded the world’s attention. Christiane and her all-female crew made no apologies for focusing their camera lens on women ’s lives—placing these private stories about women’s bodies, families, and children on equal par with public stories about statehood, conflict, and government power. It was Christiane’s voice that rang out against not just murder, although there was plenty of that, but the rape camps in which...

Christiane Amanpour and the Quest for the Jewish Egg

Feminist Studies 41, no. 3. © 2015 by Sayantani DasGupta 651 Sayantani DasGupta Christiane Amanpour and the Quest for the Jewish Egg Whoever adds one Jewish soul is considered as having created an entire world. —Maimonides An Asian American or African American egg results in babies with obvious genetic traits, but what exactly makes an egg Jewish? —Caroline Binham, “What Makes an Egg Jewish?”1 I. Chicken or the Egg First and foremost, I blame Christiane Amanpour. Of course, that’s not fair. I should be discrete, conscious of possible lawsuits, avoiding accusations of slander. But I’m sure Christiane is too busy reporting on global crises from fields of landmines to be bothered by the ramblings of an embittered barren woman. The truth is, I don’t think I would be where I am today were it not for her. So, with my apologies to the flesh and blood woman, as well as to her entire news 1. Caroline Binham, “What Makes an Egg Jewish?” Portfolio (online journal), New York University Department of Journalism, March 30, 2003, http://journal​ ism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/portfolio/binham/eggs_jewish.html. 652 Sayantani DasGupta organization, I do blame Christiane. I blame her for many things, but above all for making my father love her. Since her first appearance on CNN in the early 1980s, my father avidly followed her career. “That Christiane Amanpour!” He would murmur, his eyes transfixed on her serious face, “That, Allie, THAT’s the kind of woman you are going to become.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I would study her speech patterns, her determined expressions, her almost masculine beauty. Christiane wasn’t his first newscaster love. When I was a child, it had been the inimitable Jessica Savich. My parents’ marriage was also a lot younger then, and my mother far less tolerant of my father’s extramarital passions for television reporters. Jessica’s blonde-haired beauty had driven her almost to distraction, and my father’s abject mourning of her death had enraged her even further. “You’re such a cliché, David,” she accused, “sitting shiva for your blonde princess.” But my father was nonplussed by her reproaches. “Love,” he said, looking at me, but aiming his comments in my mother’s direction, “love knows no creed or color.” He had grabbed her playfully as she passed, earning himself a swat, accompanied by a noise my mother made clicking her tongue against her teeth. I was never sure what that sound meant, but it seemed to please him well enough. It took my father a few years to get over Jessica Savich’s death— Barbara Walters was a poor substitute—and by the time his eye was captured by Connie Chung, my mother had seemed to grow more tolerant of my father’s infatuations. “Well, she’s married to Maury Povich, so that’s something,” she offered. I wasn’t sure how that was to Connie Chung’s credit, if at all. My mother, ever clannish, added, “Do you think she’ll convert before they have children?” That was before Connie and Maury’s problems with infertility came out. But then came Christiane—whose hard-bitten reports made even Connie Chung seem an intellectual lightweight, whose effortless beauty made Cokie Roberts’s makeup team shudder. Christiane, the London born Persian émigré, the global citizen, the front-line daredevil whose bravery Sayantani DasGupta 653 went beyond the limits of gender. Not a good (female) reporter, not brave enough (for a woman), but a woman who tred where few dared to go, a woman who could do anything. As if proof of her super powers, Christiane eventually won over even my mother. It was during the war in the Balkans, when her reports about ethnic cleansing demanded the world’s attention. Christiane and her all-female crew made no apologies for focusing their camera lens on women ’s lives—placing these private stories about women’s bodies, families, and children on equal par with public stories about statehood, conflict, and government power. It was Christiane’s voice that rang out against not just murder, although there was plenty of that, but the rape camps in which...

Gender and the Security Sector: Towards a More Secure Future

IntroductionThe way we conduct war and peace is completely changed.We need a more diverse core of soldiers.Ine Erikson,Minister of Defense of Norway 1In recent decades, the nature of war has changed dramatically. Internal conflicts are being waged by opposing armed groups, often divided along ideological or ethnic lines that increasingly target civilians and wreak havoc on society with severe physical, psychological, social, political, and economic consequences.With the changed nature of conflict has come an increasing demand to consider its varied effects on women and girls, men and boys, and to address their specific needs before, during, and after conflict. There is also an increasing awareness of the importance of including women in peace and security processes. Women are 50 percent of the population and a critical part of society and, without them, real and sustainable peace cannot be achieved. They are not merely victims of conflict; they also play active roles as combatants, peace builders, politicians, and activists, and are often in the strongest position to bring about peace in their communities. Women around the world have emerged as voices of peace, mobilizing across communities and using their social roles and networks to mediate and mitigate violence. They have demanded attention to the complex issues of peace and peace building, and the needs of the communities involved, rather than to just cease-fires and power sharing.The international community has responded with a framework for addressing women, peace, and security, which includes United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions and binding international law. Regional bodies such as the European Union, NATO, and the African Union have also developed strong frameworks around gender equality and women's rights in order to build sustainable peace, driven by advocacy by women's groups and the experiences of conflict.With these changes has also come a paradigm shift in the concept of security from one of state security to human security. Whereas traditionally security involved the protection of borders and state sovereignty, the modem concept of security addresses the security of individuals and communities. It broadens both the nature of security threats such as poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence, lack of democracy and marginalization, and the actors involved, including non-state actors and civil society. It means creating societies that can withstand instability and conflict. It is more than the absence of armed conflict; it is an environment where individuals can thrive.2A security sector that is based in human security takes into account the differing needs of men, women, boys, and girls, and ensures that the full and equal participation of women addresses the needs of all of the population and helps to establish a more peaceful and secure society.Integrating a gender perspective into the security sector is essential: 1) to abide by universally accepted human rights principles; 2) because when both men and women are involved in decision-making processes, there are better outcomes; and 3) using gender perspectives and mainstreaming increases operational effectiveness.The Women, Peace and Security FrameworkUnited Nations Security Council Resolutions and International LawThe civil wars that raged in the 1990s showed the world how conflict was transforming. The genocide in Rwanda and the rape camps of Bosnia proved that the nature of conflict and its ravaging effects on women needed to be addressed urgently. At the 1995 UNsponsored Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, women from around the world came together and, for the first time, there was a concerted focus on women's experience in war. This resulted in a dedicated chapter on Women and Armed Conflict in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It was a turning point and a call to action for women. …

Campos de estupro: as mulheres e a guerra na Bósnia

A guerra na Bósnia-Herzegóvina organizou territórios etnicamente e redefiniu as categorias étnico-nacionais - sérvia, croata e bosniac (muçulmana). Enquanto os soldados combatiam nas linhas de frente, inúmeras eram as atrocidades testemunhadas em outros campos de batalha: casas, vilas, cidades, campos de detenção e concentração e os campos de estupro. Faço neste artigo uma revisão da discussão acerca do estupro na guerra na Bósnia, como este pode ser visto como arma de guerra e um instrumento de limpeza étnica e de tentativa de extermínio.

Two Victim Paradigms and the Problem of "Impure" Victims

In this passage, Richard Rorty is commenting on the failure of the United States and its European allies to take effective military action to stop the massacres and genocidal rape camps Serbians launched against Muslims during the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia. Instead of construing the problem as a question of what we owe to distant others or a question about the limits of national sovereignty, Rorty frames it in terms of moral psychology. ‘‘We’’ perceive victims as contemptible losers.2 ‘‘We’’ perceive victimizers as disgusting brutes. Both are morally tainted and hence unworthy of ‘‘our’’ moral attention and response. Stated baldly, this seems undeniably true and utterly bizarre. People shy away from trouble and extra responsibilities. So it’s no surprise that ‘‘we’’ would stick our collective head in the sand during the Holocaust and the ‘‘ethnic cleansing’’ in the Balkans. Lost in this orgy of ‘‘there’s blame all around’’-ism is John Locke’s firm distinction between wrongdoers and victims. ‘‘In transgressing the law of nature,’’ Locke avers, ‘‘the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity.’’3 Such an individual ‘‘so far becomes degenerate, and declares himself to quit the principles of human nature, and to be a noxious creature.’’4 By injuring another person—a rightholder—the perpetrator becomes an enemy of the whole human species, more like a rogue elephant running wild and causing indiscriminate harm than an adult human being.5 In taking leave of reason, offenders forfeit their rights, which clears the way for others to punish them.6 In sum, Locke divides people into three rights-based categories: (1) bearers of rights who deserve protection from harm; (2) offenders who deserve to be punished for violating someone’s rights; and (3) victims who deserve compensation because someone has violated their rights. Admittedly, Rorty is discussing a far more complicated situation with very high stakes—military intervention in another state’s treatment of its own citizens. However, Rorty does not comment on the niceties of international law, nor does he speculate about the possibility that intervening might cause greater loss of life and aggravate the trauma. Instead, he focuses on why humanitarian intervention is pretty much a nonstarter in the popular imagination—why ‘‘we’’ do not conceptualize the victims’ peril and suffering, on the one hand, and their assailants’ cruelty and brazen flouting of human rights, on the other, in Locke’s crystalline moral terms. According

Health Effects of Sexual Violence against Woman as a War Weapon: Case of Bosnia War

OBJECTIVE: Health effects and human rights dimensions of sexual violence against women, a public health and human rights problem, evaluated by the case of Bosnia War. METHODS: Bosnia War, United Nations resolutions, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) cases, activities of NGOs, approaches of WHO, Dayton Peace Agreement, current health programs were evaluated with the health effects and human rights dimensions of sexual violence against women. RESULTS: Sexual violence against women and systematic rapes were used as an “ethnic cleaning” tool and war weapon during Bosnia War, estimated 20.000-60.000 women and girls were raped systematically, captivated in rape camps, exposed to sexual violence. Medical care following the sexual violence against women and rape should include; Determination and teatment of injuries, forensic notice and documentation, preventive and curative services for Sexually Transmitted Diseases including HIV/AIDS, emergency contraceptive services, safe medical abortus, follow up of pregnancies, psychosocial support and services and training of health care professionals. Mental Health Reform became a priority health topic for Bosnia Herzegovina aftermath of the Bosnia War. Taking measures to prevent social stigmatism of the victims, economic support and implementation of rehabilitation programs, punishment of the perpetrators to repair social and community bonds are important. ICTY investigates and punishes the crimes of rapes and sexual violence against women. CONCLUSION: UN defines the violence against women and rapes during wars as “crime against humanity”. Besides improving the status of women, comprehensive approaches with the cooperation of medical, legal and social organisations are needed.

The Foča “Rape Camps”: A Dark Page Read through the ICTY’s Jurisprudence

The Foča “Rape Camps”: A Dark Page Read through the ICTY’s Jurisprudence

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Rape- and War-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder With a Female, Bosnian Refugee

Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among rape victims and war refugees is high. Cognitive-behavioral interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in alleviating PTSD in rape survivors. Effectiveness of such interventions when rape is perpetrated as part of war hostilities has not been examined. Rape and plunder of civilian populations characterized the 1991 to 1995 war in the former Yugoslavia. Rape camps terrorized civilians on all sides of that conflict. This case study illustrates a course of cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD with a female, Bosnian refugee and rape survivor. At post treatment, the client no longer met criteria for PTSD, and improvements were evident at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Approaches to treating PTSD in war refugees are discussed.

On the battlefield of women's bodies: An overview of the harm of war to women

Synopsis By the 1990s, 9 of 10 people who died in war from direct and indirect effects were civilians. Bombs and weapons of modern war kill and maim civilian women in equal numbers to civilian men. A unique harm of war for women is the trauma inflicted in military brothels, rape camps, and the growing sex trafficking for prostitution and by increased domestic violence, all of which is fueled by the culture of war, male aggression, and the social and economic ruin left in the wake of war. Widows of war, women victims of landmines, and women refugees of war are particularly vulnerable to poverty, prostitution, the extortion of sex for food by post-war peacekeepers, and higher illness and death in the post-conflict period. While problems exist with definitions and methods of measurement, a full accounting of the harm of war to civilian women is needed in the debate over whether war is justified.

Children of bad memories

Throughout history, the international discourse about armed conflicts has turned a blind eye to the issue of rape, conceptualising it as an inevitable by-product of war. The 20th century witnessed rape being used as a weapon of war more consciously as a means to demoralise and destroy the enemy. The 1937 Japanese occupation of China’s wartime capital, for example, became known as the Rape of Nanking. Although military tribunals were established to enforce accountability to those responsible for the heinous crimes committed during such conflicts, rape has continued to remain invisible as a war crime and hence is rarely sanctioned. Conflicts in the former Yugoslavia (1992) and Rwanda (1994) have, however, promoted immense attention to mass rape, for it was used as a tactic in the genocidal intent of the conflict. Women were held in rape camps with the specific aim to impregnate them with a child of the enemy. Evidence of the pregnancies resulting from rape in these conflicts aroused interest in the international legal and feminist communities, because “rape-induced pregnancy was presented as a worse crime against women than rape itself”. 2

Crossing the River Drina: Bosnian Rape Camps, Turkish Impalement, and Serb Cultural Memory

On February 22 2001 at the trial of three indicted war criminals from Foca the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded for the first time that rape and sexual enslavement were violations of sufficient gravity to be considered as against humanity under international law. This overdue move to place sexual crimes on the list of most serious crimes for prosecution came in the wake of the international outrage generated by the Bosnian war where the mass rape and forced incarceration of women in so-called rape camps had been one of the chief strategies used by Serbian forces primarily against the Muslim populations of both Bosnia and Kosovo. Thus in what the Associated Press described as wrenching horrific testimony (Associated Press quoted in Gartenberg 2000) those Bosnian women courageous enough to testify became symbolic speakers for the many thousands of women who did not appear either because they had been killed after being raped or because their rapists remained unapprehended or because they remained silent for fear of being ostracized within their own culture. (excerpt)

Rape Camps as a Means of Ethnic Cleansing: Religious, Cultural, and Ethical Responses to Rape Victims in the Former Yugoslavia

* Todd Salzman completed his doctorate in Moral Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1994. He taught ethics at the University of San Diego for two years (1995-1997), and is currently an Assistant Professor at Creighton University, Omaha, NE. His interest is in ethical theory, how it pertains to contemporary social issues such as the atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia, and what can be done to both prevent such atrocities in the future and to seek justice for the victims of those atrocities. I dedicate this article to my wife, Katy Salzman, whose support and work in Geneva at UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) were invaluable in providing the documentation for this article. I would like to thank Maarit Kohonen at the United Nations Centre for Human Rights for her assistance in bringing this article to fruition. 1. See Working Paper on the Situation of Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-Like Practices During Wartime, Including Internal Armed Conflict, Submitted by Ms. Linda Chavez in Accordance with Subcommission Decision 1994/109, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 47th Sess., Agenda Item 16, I] 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1995/38 (1995) [hereinafter Working Paped; M. CHERIF BASSIOUNI & MARCA MCCORMICK, SEXUAL VIOLENCE: AN INVISIBLE WEAPON OF WAR IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA 3 (1996) (distinguishing between rape, sexual assault, and sexual violence).

Rereading the Body Politic: Women and Violence in Judges 21

AbstractThe essay compares the treatment of the women of Shiloh in Judges 21 with that of the pilegesh who is raped in Judges 19. The gaps and silences surrounding the violent acts against women described in Judges 21 can be filled with modern atrocities committed against women, particularly those in the rape camps in Bosnia. Filling the gaps will oblige the reader to hear the silence of the women who were given no agency by the biblical authors. If women can march through city streets to "take back the night," then feminist critics can also "take back the texts," or at least recognize what is at stake in the process of representing rape and the act of reading violence.

Rape, consumption, and the "Sarajevo war cookbook" : a review of the forum on war, women and rape

Multicultural bellies, full of tacos, felafel, and chow mein, are sometimes accompanied by monocultural minds. Unthinking Eurocentrism The cluster of issues examined in this paper have to do with the Western responses to and representations of the issue of 'rape camps' in Bosnia, within the wider context of the representation of war in the 'fonner Yugoslavia' , as a site of age-old ethnic hatreds. Within this framework the mainstream feminist response to the 'rape camps' exposes the ethnocentrism and racism that underpins a particular vision of international sisterhood and the depoliticization of the war by the way the category of gender is mobilised in those discussions. On March 8 of this year, Budinski's theatre in Carlton, Melbourne began its series 'Classroom IlIA', which was staged readings of a testimony by Amira. S, a Bosnian nurse held in a 'rape camp'. The readings were to be performed by various feminist luminaries amongst them Blanche D'Alpuget, Joan Kirner, Jocelynne Scutt and Justine Sanders, each of whom, along with others read the same text day after day.