Analysis
In 1993, the Canadian Panel on violence against Women coined one of the greatest statements on violence and intimidation against women. To this panel, violence against women in the society draws inspiration from inequality structures in the patriarchal nature of many societies. Therefore, developing a sustainable solution to this ill depends on the ability of leading elites to develop adequate equality and equity structures between men and women in the society. Until then, gender violence will remain elusive. In the Eastern Europe’s case, there exists a link to detach to gender violence against women in the post war error from the real drivers of the vice (Hepburn and Simon 57). More emphasis seems to get diversion towards the structural rooting of violence in the society. During and after the war, women suffered in the hands of men as sex pets, and commercial sex workers. Much focused aimed at clearing men of the vices committed rather than seeking justice for the women in question. The root driver of this school of thought draws inspiration from the conservative societies that believe women lack equal position in the society and should play a subordinate role to men.
Understanding Structural Roots of Gender Violence
In similarity to the universality and pervasiveness of conflicts and wars, gender violence spreads out across geographical, cultural, social, and ethnic borders. Even though the international community and human right watchdogs continue to play a vital role in fighting gender violence, the intensity of its persistence remains high (Andrijasevic 42). Gender violence across these boundaries harbors relatively similarly consequences and trends with women as the major casualties. Such an observation, based on the historical manifestations of violence, draws inspiration from the socio-economic and political contexts within which women exist. Social stratification and male-dominated societies produce these gender discrimination tendencies within class, caste, and patriarchal social relations in which male individuals enjoy super power over female counterparts. Even though direct and physical violence against women lead to physical injury and physiological trauma, use of women as sex pets and commercial sex workers during the disintegration of the Soviet Union created a social and psychological damage to the vulnerable women during and after the wars. In the Bosnia and Serbia conflict, women used as sex slave remained in psychological trauma giving up their desire to fight for dignity and self-esteem. This violence, coupled with the embedment social gender stratification normalized the violence leading to loss of dignity in women (Gallagher 72).
Consequences of Structural Violence
In war and post war economies, women and children often represent the casualties. The consequences of war on women are far reaching ranging from physical injury to psychological traumatic situations (Wilson, Friedman, and Lindy 91). Since inequality sustained the during the fall of Soviet Union and the Bosnian-Serbian conflict , the cumulative impacts of these conflicts stemmed inequality within the society with women. Denial of fundamental human rights and exploitation of sex values in women remained the great drivers of violence during these two conflicts. Violence set up within societies with conservative opinions about the roles of women presented great impact on the women suffrage especially in mental, sexual, and reproductive health (Dudley, Silove, and Gale 33). Forced sex led to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The worst part of this violence occurs during the pregnancy stages of a victim with injuries on fetus and infants. Fatal situations during this war caused miscarriage among women leading trauma and other mental health problems such as depression, fear, anxiety, and obsessive behaviors.
Human Trafficking and Displacement
According to statistics at the United Nations, conservative estimates indicate that more than two million people are victims of human trafficking. Among the casualties of the vice are migrants and refugees. War refugees and other individual fleeing their countries for safety often land in the hands of greedy and egocentric individual ready to earn some money from the desperate state of the affected individuals. Women and children represent the social groups suffering from this vice. Soldiers and other corrupt security officers in the immigration and security sectors act as the ambassador of human trafficking (Downe 65).
At the United Nations, data on human on human trafficking indicate that sexual exploitation of women and young girls from war torn regions are high. According to the Norwegian discourse on the sex purchase law, human trafficking becomes rampant in areas of war in which gender and social structures in which women serve as subordinates to their male counterparts in the society. Dang and Suphang (77), in their analysis of wartime sexual violence argue that sexual orientation in the society plays a role in in human displacement and sexual abuse of women. In the piece, they maintain that in societies with conservative opinions about the role of women in relation to those of the male counterparts, stands high chances of women and girl child exploitation in times of war compared to societies with relative equality between the two genders. During the fall of Soviet Union and the post-integration conflicts, women and girl in the region suffered not only physical and emotional problems, but also trans-locational effects. Several young girls and women, on the run for safety, landed on the hand of human trafficking leading to more damage.it is also important to note that women and girls presented the highest number of casualties of the refugees in the Bosnian war with Serbia. The role of men in the military and the militia groups partly explains the gender distribution in many refugee camps. In a setting where women and girls congest a given refugee camps, limited resources cause a state of disparity. For this reason, women become desperate to earn a living from any activity. For this reason, human trafficking often takes an easy course as some women willingly move into the activity for the sake of leaving a congested camp (Yakushko 173).
In the wake of globalization and technological advancements, the demands for resources continue to rise. Several conflicts over natural resources and other factor arise across the world forcing a large number of people into displacement. For this reason, there has been an increase in the number of refugee camps. As communism ended, the demand for control of resources to serve the rising independent states set precedence for increased number of conflicts (Tepfenhart 89). Several countries broke out together but disintegrated due to lack of agreement over control of resources. As the number of international conflicts increased, several vices occur within the displacement facets of the affected populations. With little disregard to the plight of the displaced refugees, there exists a disconnect between the human rights group striving to serve and rehabilitate the depressed refugees and the unscrupulous soldiers and other institutional officials seeking to earn few bucks from the desperate situations of the refugees. In the Bosnia war with Serbia, several women displaced from their original homes based on ethnicity and violence got refuge in the camps under military protection. In such camps, some soldiers not only subjected them to sexual exploitation but also engaged in further displaced through human trafficking. The trauma resulting from loss of family during war and conflict coupled with the separation of women from their cultures offered a prerequisite for trauma and depression (Tepfenhart 93).
Women Trends in War
In the history development of wars, women and girls as casualties stand out as one of the uniform phenomenon. Smock (23) in her analysis of the plight women and young girls argue that media, and political leaders continue to unravel the relatively quiet and unexplored tragic stories of rape during wars. Even though rape exists in the society with or without wars, in the war context it takes a relatively traumatic course as victims often suffer without any legal proceedings against the perpetrators. Apart from the absence of judicial proceedings against the perpetrators of this vice, nepotism, favoritism, and tribalism sets out as a factor of rape and sex slavery in many war camps (Downie 63). Women in each society have a culture and way of life. In the war camps the war camps, things change. It remains a norm for women to play subordinate roles to the soldiers and serve as slaves. Women with relatively masculine and stronger genes get better treatment and service in order to sire children with abilities to serve in the military. Women with weak and unwanted traits on the other hand act as sex pets and customers to the human trafficking syndicate with the camps.
In the Bosnia-Serbian war, there existed not only rape but also forced reproduction of perpetrators genes to eliminate the genes considered inferior in the society (Kourvetaris 163). Despite the biological believes and facts about children being a balance of the genes from the biological parents, the Serbian perpetrators of rape and gender violence in this war believed that the genes from the perpetrators dominated the child’s biological characteristics. The Serbians therefore, in their superiority complex’ war with the Bosnians, exploited this fact on Muslim women in the war camps with the aim of cleansing the inferior Muslim minority. In the refugee camps during this war, the Serbian soldiers raped and abused women refugees until death or conception. The victims who conceived were further concentrated in the camps to ensure zero abortion procurement (Marchak 16). Through these inhumane acts, the Serbian soldiers aimed at increasing their ethnicity and eliminating the Bosnians. On the Bosnian side, more than two thousand women from the Serbian communities underwent the same activities during the war (Vlachova and Biason 63).
Sexual objectification theory remains evident in this explanation of rape and ethnic cleansing in the refugee camps during the Bosnia-Serbia war. Evidence show that soldiers from both camps used the women as an object of developing a new and superior identity irrespective of the traumatic problems the women went through. As objects of developing a new and superior identity, the soldiers raped, maimed, and in some cases killed women who failed to conceive. As described the objectification theory that sees women as objects and means to an end for the male in the society, the Bosnia-Serbian war presents a great example in which this theory stands out as the leading school of thought especially among the soldiers (Fairchild and Rudman 347).
Conclusions and Recommendations
Structural rooting of gender violence in the society plays a vital role in the culture and bearing of women roles in the society. In order to develop a society devoid of gender violence, the change towards equality and equity among the gender remains overdue. Gender empowering and creation of social cultures that appreciate the role and differences in the gender act as a basis for stemming out gender violence (Bronstein 71). In times of war and conflict, human rights and social activists need highly developed systems of monitoring the military activities taking place in the refugee camps to ensure protection of women and vulnerable person living in the camps.
Structural and cultural violence towards women remains evident in many societies. Inequalities and discrimination against women in the education, employment, and leadership opportunities presents an ample environment increased violence and gender disparities. Given the patriarchal nature of many societies, there is need for sensitized women focused development to stem out the culture of discrimination. Developing and in depth understanding of the root drivers of gender and violence against women offer the opportunities for unmasking the gruesome patriarchal structures which encourage women victimization (Schumacher and Slep 235). In the objectification theory, scholars need to develop adequate points against such a school of thought and encourage women to embrace their dignity and live in equality with the male counterparts. Offering women equal opportunities with the male counterparts improves their abilities to withstand violence and the traumatic problems associated with war and effects of war.
In the social empowerment and capacity building perspective, women need to develop sustainable income earning activities to reduce overdependence on their male counterparts. Economic independence offers basis for social independence thus reducing vulnerability of women during war (Smolak and Murnen 510). As some organization and international non-governmental organization continue to develop women empowerment programs through community groups’ investment and small business enterprises, there remains a need for improved funding of women empowerment initiates to reduce the level of women dependency on male earnings.
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