War’s Silent Scourge: Sexual Violence Against Women

A displaced Syrian woman covers her face with a scarf in a school, where almost 15 families from Homs are living, in Souran, Syria, October 1, 2012. [AP File Photo]

In a recent opinion piece for The Daily Beast, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and Ambassador Peter Westmacott, the U.K.’s Ambassador to the United States, addressed the use of sexual assault as a weapon. The text of their opinion piece, which appeared on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, appears below.

“Nearly 40,000 people have died already in Syria’s civil war, and close to 100 are still being killed each day. Homes, hospitals, water infrastructure, and sanitation systems have been destroyed. But one element of this ongoing brutality has been largely overlooked in the media: the appalling sexual violence being visited on the Syrian people by government and militia forces. Such use of sexual violence as a tactic…more »

Posted 5 months ago
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Tagged: melanne verveer, peter westmacott, women, syria, .
Source: blogs.state.gov
  1. lemgeek reblogged this from statedept
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  5. hermitinthemountains reblogged this from statedept and added:
    worth reading and sharing
  6. angedercole reblogged this from statedept and added:
    Just talked about this in class today. There is...such thing as hegemonic masculinity
  7. lavienoire reblogged this from statedept
  8. rethinkagain reblogged this from statedept and added:
    Sexual violence is regularly used in certain conflicts...some groups who want to do...
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  12. earth-captive reblogged this from statedept and added:
    wherever there is war...violence, there is rape...abuse but...
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