Commentary
From Victim to Victor: Surviving Sexual Assault in Uganda
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As a survivor myself, I can tell you that there is no greater gift to rape survivors than to be believed and validated.
Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/rwanda/)
As a survivor myself, I can tell you that there is no greater gift to rape survivors than to be believed and validated.
Victoire Mukambanda was one of the instrumental witnesses who testified to bring about the first conviction of rape as a war crime in Rwanda. That historic trial is the focus of the new documentary “The Uncondemned.”
After the genocide two decades ago, Rwandan women, including the late Aloisea Inyumba, buried some 800,000 victims of massacres and devised a system to care for half a million orphans. Now, Rwandan women have rebuilt their nation.
In Rwanda, when women gathered to tell the stories of the rapes they suffered, they often preferred that my male translator kept away. But one day he is there and translates word for word. His reaction shows why rape is not a women’s issue. It belongs to all of us, male and female.
“To allow this to continue belittles the whole of humanity.” That was the comment of one visitor at the U.N. opening of a touring photo exhibit about women who face gender violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Uganda’s U.N.-run camps for Rwandan refugees, the July 31 repatriation deadline is causing particular hardships for women. For one thing, it has disrupted many families’ growing season. The last of three stories on repatriation turmoil.
Rwandan refugee women in Uganda face particular hardships under a repatriation push that started in April, with a July 31 target date for completion, a local advocacy group finds. Second of three stories on women and the repatriation turmoil.
By July 31 Rwandan refugees in Uganda are supposed to return to a homeland that suffered genocide 15 years ago. One woman says she can’t comply, not after the killing of her family and loss of her land. First of three stories on repatriation turmoil.
(WOMENSENEWS)–CheersRwanda is the first nation in the world where women outnumber men in parliament after legislative elections Sept. 18. Women now account for at least 55 percent of the lower chamber in Rwanda, according to provisional results. Previously, they held 48 percent of seats.”The role of the elected females is double: They must on the one hand concern themselves with the implementation of government decisions, and on the other be a voice for the grassroots,” said Bellancilla Nyonawankusi, a Kigali election official.Female lawmakers earned 20 seats in direct elections, Reuters reported. Another 24 were already secured in an indirect vote.
Women are most of the developing world’s farmers. But they are being left out of the rush to grow lucrative petrol alternatives because of their limited access to land, capital and technology, according to a major study released this week.