War and rape

There’s something unsettling about the campaign to collect lipsticks and other personal stuff for the women evacuees of Marawi.

One can understand how the collection of scarves and head coverings (hijabs)would help Muslim women in terms of

providing privacy and protection, enhancing modesty, and complying with a religious imperative. But lipstick? To be sure, looking good can make people feel better, but in the midst of war — when survival is of the utmost concern — painted lips are not exactly foremost on women’s minds. And while it wouldn’t hurt for women to look good, it’s quite clear that efforts and resources should go to more urgent needs — food, hygiene kits, mats and blankets, more tents for greater privacy, sanitary toilet facilities, ample water supply.

Much more unsettling is the subtext underlying the idea that women are expected to look good even under the most trying circumstances, as though their worth rests solely on their appearance. This undue focus on women’s looks and desirability ultimately bolsters the idea of women as objects, or, in Marawi’s grim setting, as spoils of war.

A member of a National Interfaith Humanitarian Mission who visited Iligan City last June 15 recalled talking to a 22-year-old woman who fled Marawi even when fighting had yet to start in her village because a soldier supposedly told her to behave or he would rape her. Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas has expressed alarm over stories that she said she had heard from women evacuees from Marawi. She said policemen in the city had threatened to rape women in evacuation centers, an aggressive stance she attributed to President Duterte’s public remarks on rape. (In a speech before military men when fighting broke out in Marawi last month, the President expressed full support for government forces and joked that they could even rape up to three women and he’d take responsibility for them.)

The Philippine National Police on Monday challenged Brosas’ claim, and said Gabriela must show proof, or it could file a complaint, present evidence and prove its allegation. The police force does not tolerate such abuses, said Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, spokesperson for the PNP.

True or not, such stories illustrate the particular perils afflicting women during wartime. With fathers, husbands, brothers and sons forced to fight in wars, women are often left to fend for themselves and their children, and become vulnerable prey.  As a tactic of war, rape is meant “to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or an ethnic group.”

Rape also brings with it its own brand of shame, a potent means of emasculation as it renders the men of the vanquished group helpless and unable to protect their women. At the same time, rape dilutes and taints the purity of one’s race, as raped and impregnated women are often forced to bear the enemy’s offspring in the absence of other options.

In societies where chastity is seen as a premium, raped women are ostracized by  families and communities and often subjected to domestic violence by husbands who believe this is the only way they can reassert control over their household.  The strong communal reaction to the violation of rape thus leaves its stamp on entire families and communities. With women seen as the repository of cultural and spiritual values, rape becomes an attack that tears at the very fabric of society.

In recent times, rape has also become a painful route of transmitting disease, with very young girls targeted in the twisted belief that sex with virgins could cure HIV-AIDS.

But rape in evacuation centers also becomes a very real threat, there being little or no privacy in this communal space, and very sparse resources, forcing women to wander far to explore other means to feed their children. The breakdown in law and order thus exposes women to malcontents in remote areas.

With such a ripe prospect in the face of the continued fighting in Marawi, it would do well for all parties—government agencies, officials, military forces, and private individuals to weigh their words and check their actions, lest these result in unintended consequences in the battlefield where hardly any rules apply.