Breaking the Silence

Breaking the

Silence In war-ravaged Congo, rape survivors offer hope in the face of unspeakable atrocities b y C a merin C o u rtney

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Courtesy of Light of Africa Network (LoAfrica.org)

While rape has been a horrific companion to most wars throughout history and is a current reality in areas of political unrest such as Colombia and Darfur, rape has reached epidemic proportions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The extreme numbers in the Congo have prompted the UN to install its largest peacekeeping force in the world in that country. The International Rescue Committee has called the current situation in the Congo the “worst humanitarian disaster since World War II.” “I think what’s different in the Congo is the scale and the systematic nature of it, indeed, as well as the brutality,” Anneka Van Woudenberg, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch, told 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper in 2008. “This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror.” The war that’s been raging in the Congo since the late 1990s has claimed more than 5 million lives. But in addition to the death toll, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped and sexually assaulted by foreign militias and the Congolese army. The brutality of these rapes has left many women physically — not to mention psychologically — damaged beyond repair. Countless others have been infected with HIV or other STDs, or impregnated with babies their bodies are too young to support or that they are financially and/or emotionally unable to care for. American Lisa F. Jackson, an Emmy Award-winning producer/director and a gang rape survivor herself, traveled to Africa to document the female experience of war, but when her filming took her to the Congo to cover the issue of rape, she realized that the rape epidemic needed a film of its own. “Just walking into Panzi Hospital,” Jackson recalls of her visit to a Congolese medical facility that cares for rape victims, “and seeing row after row after row of women just staring at the ceiling while their traumatized bodies healed was overwhelming.” Jackson wanted to explore the universal stigmas associated with rape and its survivors. In the Congo, those stigmas are even greater than they are in the United States. Because rape brings shame to a woman’s entire family, Congolese women are often told to keep quiet about their attacks. This is a culture where, despite their daily backbreaking work to support their families, women are dependent on men for their economic and physical security, so speaking out against the sexual violence performed by men is a risky proposition. Those who do speak up are often rejected by their husbands, kicked out of their villages, and turned into beggars. And until recently, little would have been done even if they had dared to speak up. In this region where sexual vio-

pening. Take these stories to someone who will make a difference.” HEAL Africa trains Congolese women as counselors — to listen to their countrywomen with compassion and to refer survivors to appropriate treatment. Those who need medical attention are treated at HEAL Africa’s medical facility in Goma, a city in eastern DRC. During treatment, these women also receive literacy and vocational training — they’re taught how to sew and make soap. “We want these women to go home with value added for the community,” says Judy Anderson, executive director of HEAL Africa. “We want them to return home not victims but strong women who know they are loved, valued, and valuable.” Panzi Hospital of Bukavu, highlighted in The Greatest Silence, is another example of a Congolese-led, holistic approach to healing. Dr. Mukwege settled there to help area women who had no medical care during childbirth but then noticed the large number of patients who were victims of sexual violence. He created specialized services for these women, many of whom needed vaginal reconstruction, and soon started training other medical personnel in these procedures. Today the service receives an average of 10 patients a day. These women also receive psychological and spiritual attention as well as vocational training. HEAL Africa is also working on preventative measures. “You can’t just fix up the women in the hospital and send them back to the same situation,” says Anderson. Members of their organization are approaching leaders of regional militias, asking them how they’d feel if someone raped their sister, daughter, or mother. “It’s part of the human condition that we try to make the other non-human in order to more easily gain power,” Anderson says. “We’re attempting to remind

lence is used to terrorize, displace, and subdue populations largely to gain control of land rich in gold, copper, diamonds, and tin, the rights of individuals are all but ignored. The government, many members of which are guilty of sexual violence themselves, has been slow to prosecute for these crimes, and most women aren’t familiar with the few laws that exist to protect them. “The culture of impunity there is the problem,” Jackson says. This is why awareness-raising efforts such as Jackson’s are so important. At the release of her film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in Congo, in 2007, she wrote, “By bringing these women out of the shadows, the film will be a catalyst in focusing world attention on their plight, bringing opprobrium upon those in power who turn their backs, and sparking conversations and policy change concerning the fate of women and girls in a world consumed by armed conflict.” The Greatest Silence helped inspire former US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad to introduce a UN resolution to classify rape as a weapon of war.The resolution was passed unanimously in June 2008.The resolution called for the “immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians” and noted that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.” While those working to combat sexual violence know this won’t solve anything, most agree it’s a much-needed statement against the culture of impunity in many conflict zones worldwide. Efforts from groups such as the American Bar Association, which set up a legal clinic in January 2008 to help rape victims bring their cases to court, have begun the huge task of tackling the legal side of the atrocities. A new DRC constitution in 2006 introduced new protections for women and children, a fact that HEAL Africa’s Gender and Justice Program is currently educating the public about, ensuring that women know their rights.

©Jackson Films

Voices of Hope

While these legal efforts are extremely important, the most compelling stories coming out of the Congo have been from the survivors themselves. One by one they’ve emerged from the shadows and shame to give voice to their experiences, which have largely gone unnoticed on the global stage. Many grassroot groups are encouraging women to share their stories in open forums. No perpetrators or judges are present, just women who have suffered and who need to tell their stories, need to reclaim their voice after enduring such dehumanizing acts. In fact, one of the most common things survivors said to Jackson during her five months of filming in the Congo was, “Please let the world know this is hapPRISM 2 0 1 0

The Rape-Porn Connection For decades, feminists and anti-pornography lobbyists have spoken to the connection between porn and rape. In 1974, Robin Morgan succinctly described this link in “Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape,” in a now-famous line, “Pornography is the theory; rape the practice.” This connection has taken some time to gain mainstream acceptance. But several studies over the past two decades have proven again and again the impact of images of sexual violence that permeate much of pornography on the viewers’ practices. In one study mentioned in Transforming a Rape Culture (Milkweed Editions, 2005), male college students were exposed to pornography in which women appeared to be enjoying rape. After these viewings, the men were more likely to agree with statements such as “a woman really wants to be raped” and “no means yes.” Other similar studies found men denying the credibility of rape victims, being less and less offended by the material, and feeling more likely to commit an act of sexual violence. “The dehumanization of women occurs because the pornographic female images are not regarded as persons with feelings, opinions, and needs of their own,” writes Steven Hill and Nina Silver in Transforming a Rape Culture. “This is what defines the women as commodities:They exist solely for the purpose of their consumers. … In hard-core porn, not only are women presented as experiencing sexual pleasure in being raped, they are also tied up, cut, mutilated, bruised, battered, and portrayed as enjoying this pain.” These concerns are gaining traction as the internet is taking porn to new economic heights — the adult entertainment industry is now an estimated $12.6-billion-a-year business, and thousands of sites cater to those with a taste for sexual violence) — and to new locations. Thanks to black market DVDs and internet cafes, even remote African villages are gaining access to Western porn, exposing many people to the only “sex education” they ever receive. (See “Africa goes hardcore:The porn industry must take responsibility for the impact of its work on the developing world” by Tim Samuels in the Guardian at bit.ly/1d8Vrx.) There are increasing reports of acts of sexual violence following such viewings and an increase in the spread of HIV, as protected sex is a rarity in most pornographic material.

The documentary The Greatest Silence features the stories of rape survivors, some of whom are pictured here with Major Munyole of the National Police and a rape counselor at Centre Olame, a woman’s organization in Bukavu, DRC.

these men that the women they’re doing this to are no different from their daughters, mothers, or wives.” The ministry has also created curriculum for community leaders as well as primary and secondary school teachers, encouraging them to rethink the inferior status of women and girls in many of their cultures and challenging them toward greater gender equality. Many of these lessons point to their own proverbs, constitution, and wisdom books to see how these all express the value of females. “The Congolese are the only ones who can change this situation,” says Anderson.“It’s a privilege to cheer them on and Continued on page 30.

AIDS: The “Women’s Disease” In Women and Health, a study released in November 2009, the World Health Organization reported that AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries, especially Africa. The study pointed to the lower socioeconomic status as a cause for fewer choices and higher risk behavior among women. While the report also indicated that gender inequalities in education, income, healthcare, nutrition, and political power contribute to women’s overall poor health and reduced well-being, it also stressed the role of rising rates of violence against women. “We know that there is a strong relationship between violence against women and HIV,” responded Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. “We need to help young women develop the skills for mutual consent in sex and marriage and put an end to violence and sexual coercion. This is key to preventing HIV and to achieving gender equality in all aspects of life.” March 10 is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. For more info, go to bit.ly/4AiLbp.

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Undone: Rape in the US A photograph of a teenage girl is taped to Leila Rae Sommerfeld’s bathroom mirror. It’s a reminder to pray daily for this rape survivor, a promise Sommerfeld made to the teen girl weeks after she was gang-raped during a missions trip to Africa. “She was home-schooled and raised in a close-knit Mennonite family,” Sommerfeld explains.“I’ll never forget when she told me she was angry that her parents and the church never prepared her for evil.” Stories such as this are one of the reasons Sommerfeld leads Taking Back Control, 18-hour seminars for women seeking recovery from rape as well as for those wanting to assist in that recovery. Sommerfeld has also served as a volunteer counselor with Good Samaritan Ministries, a Christian mental health clinic in Beaverton, Ore., as well as an advocate at the Washington County Sexual Assault Resource Center. Her recently released book, Beyond Our Control: Restructuring Your Life after Sexual Assault (Kregel), shares insights and lessons from her journey as rape counselor — and survivor. Sommerfeld’s rape happened years ago when she was a young mom.While her husband was out of town, a neighbor’s grown son cut the power lines to her rural California home, broke in through her bedroom window, and raped her while her two daughters — 7 and 3 — slept just one room away. Sommerfeld was undone. But that was in the 1970s, when rape crisis lines and women’s crisis centers were unheard of. Sommerfeld’s mother was too devastated to be of any help, and Sommerfeld was too embarrassed to go to her pastor. So while her rapist was convicted and eventually landed in a prison for the insane, Sommerfeld suffered in silence. Alone. Six years later she had a breakdown and spent three months in a mental hospital. As is often the case with rape, her marriage ended in divorce. So Sommerfeld moved to Oregon to try to create a new life from the broken pieces. And God eventually crafted those pieces into a beautiful mosaic of healing — both her own and that of the countless women she has ministered to. While she’s thankful that recovery efforts have come a

long way since the ’70s, Sommerfeld says there’s still room for improvement. Especially in the church.Though a woman is raped in the US every two minutes and despite the fact that America has one of the highest rates of rape in the world, there’s little talk of this reality in Christian circles, she says. “The church needs to preach from the pulpit that domestic violence and rape are happening — and are wrong,” she says. “There’s a sense that if we pray over our kids or live a good Christian life, we’ll be safe. But I was a church-going, Godfearing woman when I was raped. I was raised in a good Christian home. This thinking gives a false sense of security and makes it harder for victims to deal with an assault.” While she doesn’t want fearmongering, she does advocate awareness. “Let’s teach our young girls the characteristics of potential rapists and violent men. Let’s create conversations in the church about sexual assault so that victims feel comfortable coming here for help. Let’s make sure our pastors are getting rape-counseling training in seminary. Let’s encourage Christians to volunteer in crisis centers. Let’s get our men to hold other men accountable for their words and actions. And let’s pray for these hurting survivors.” (See “How You Can Combat Rape” on page 30.) “The body of Christ is called to express God’s love and healing to anyone experiencing grief and pain,” Sommerfeld says. This is what motivates her to pray daily for the young woman in the picture on her bathroom mirror, to teach a self-defense class at her church, to work with rape victims and perpetrators in her seminars. “When women hear stories of healing and success from other women, that brings them hope,” she says.

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• Every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted. • 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. • Only 6 percent of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. • 60 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. • The US has the world’s highest rape rate of the countries that publish such statistics. It is four times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan.

Breaking the Silence continued from page 28. dehumanize somebody else, we dehumanize what God has made.” “God is stronger than all of these other things,” Anderson says. “The Light is stronger than the darkness. And we who have that Light inside us are the ones called to bring healing — the kind of healing that turns a gang rape survivor into a policy-shaping documentarian, that takes the thousands of sexual violence survivors in the Congo and turns them into strong advocates for peace and justice. n

encourage them in the healing and strides they themselves are making.” At a 2008 screening of The Greatest Silence, many of the women featured in the film wore bright yellow shirts sporting three sentences in Swahili: Break the Silence. Denounce Rape. Fight Impunity. When Jackson showed her film to the parliament at the Palace of the People in Kinshasa, Marie Jeanne, a 42-yearold rape survivor featured in the film, addressed the crowd after the screening. Marie Jeanne had watched her husband’s brutal murder before being raped and having five of her teeth knocked out. “After the screening, she gave this impassioned speech and told her story to the 690 people gathered,” Jackson recalls. “She shook her fist at the president, saying, ‘You don’t care enough about your greatest resource: your women.’ It was amazing.” “Rape dehumanizes,” Anderson says. “And anytime we

Camerin Courtney (CamerinCourtney.com), former editor of Today’s Christian Woman magazine, is a freelance writer, movie critic, and author of two books for singles (Table for One and The unGuide to Dating). In her spare time she can be found either traveling or volunteering with an ESL class for refugees and immigrants in her corner of the Chicagoland area.

How You Can Combat Rape tices into US foreign assistance. You can sign the petition at bit.ly/sXWBO.

Volunteer at a rape crisis center. “Christians aren’t getting involved in crisis centers,” says Leila Rae Sommerfeld, author of Beyond Our Control: Restructuring Your Life after Sexual Assault (LeilaRae.com). But these places need the healing hope of Christ, she asserts.To find a center in your area, go to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network website (RAINN.org), click “Get Help,” and scroll down to “Find a Local Counseling Center.”

Give. “Most programs at HEAL Africa are funded on a sixmonth basis, which makes it challenging to plan and sustain long-range plans,” says Judy Anderson, executive director of HEAL Africa. Even small donations of $15 and $20 make a difference when enough people give. Go to HealAfrica.org, PanziHospitalBukavu.org, FriendsoftheCongo.org, or WomenforWomen.org to donate.

Call your elders. Suggest that your church address the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault from the pulpit, in a class on healthy sexuality, or in a support group for survivors. Get trained counselors in your congregation to help lead the way. Or suggest a book study of Sexuality and Holy Longing by Lisa McMinn (Wiley), Authentic Human Sexuality by Judith and Jack Balswick (IVP), or Sex and the Supremacy of Christ by John Piper and Justin Taylor (Crossway).

Raise awareness. Help others in your neighborhood, church group, or civic organization understand the severity of the problem in the Congo. Gather a group to watch The Greatest Silence (available at TheGreatestSilence.org) or Lumo (available at GomaFilmProject.org).Visit WomenforWomen.org for other ideas and resources for an awareness-raising event (click “Get Involved” and then “Host an Event”). Share the audio and written essays of Congolese women at CongoWomen.org/erssays.

Shop smart. Purchase products made by rape survivors in other countries. Women for Women International’s job-skills training helps rape survivors find much-needed sources of income. Buy their lovely purses, necklaces, and other products at WomenforWomen.org (click “Get Involved” and scroll down to “Shop With Us”).

Pray. “It doesn’t matter where you are, you can pray for justice to reign in the Congo,” says Anderson. “Pray for the individual women who are being raped. Pray for their children. Pray that the people in power in Congo today would recognize what a great opportunity they have to bring peace.” Pray, too, for rape victims worldwide and in your neighborhood. For guidance on how to pray, download the beautiful prayer book at the Light of Africa Network website (LoAfrica.net). And pray that God would show you where he wants you to get involved.

Sign the petition. The International Violence against Women Act would support survivors of sexual violence, hold perpetrators accountable, and prevent violence against women around the world.The bill would also increase US diplomatic attention to ending violence against women and incorporate best prac-

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