This slide show is from the Power Point presentation that accompanied a talk by Lucinda Marshall, Director of the Feminist Peace Network, http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org at the University of Dayton on "Militarism and Violence Against Women: The 'Other' Terrorism.

1. “While bullets, bombs and blades make the headlines,
women’s bodies remain invisible battlefields.
--Margot Wallström, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict
Militarism and Violence
Against Women
The 'Other' Terrorism
Lucinda Marshall University of Dayton April, 2010

2. Defining Commonalities Between
Militarism and Violence Against
Women
• The need to assert power
(over)
• Sense of entitlement -- Might
makes right
• Desire for control and
domination
• Othering

3. "I was raped by them in front of my husband.
They held him down while they did it. I was
released afterwards because my husband
and children pleaded with them, and cried
saying "They will kill maman." I was raped by
more than three men. I cannot remember the
exact number because I lost consciousness.
Afterwards a neighbor helped me, because I
was bleeding. She boiled water and some
herbs for me.”
(Human Rights Watch interview, Bukavu,
October 16, 2003)

4. The Impact of Othering As A Tool
of Militarism
Rape/Sexual Assault
Sexual Slavery/Trafficking
Forced Marriages and
Pregnancies
Femicide

5. The Numbers Speak For
Themselves
• Rwanda Genocide--As many as 500,000
women raped
• 64,000 women raped during conflict in
Sierra Leone
• 40,000 women raped in Bosnia/Herzogovina
• 4,500 Rapes in just 6 months in one province
of the DRC
• Hundreds of women raped every day in
Darfur

6. Afghanistan Human Rights
Watch, December
8, 2009:
Afghan women are
among the worst
off in the world,
violence against
them is “endemic”
and Afghanistan’s
government fails
to protect them
from crimes such
as rape and
murder.

7. Iraq

8. Sexual Assault in the U.S.
Military

9. Sexual Victimization of
Civilians by the U.S. Military
Situations of armed conflict consistently and
systematically attack the integrity and lives
of women and girls around the world who
experience violence first hand. Their
vulnerability increases with situations of
poverty, neglect, and lack of opportunities.
The escalating trends of sex trafficking in
the context of armed conflict are a persistent
symptom of war, where the practice of
forced prostitution is widespread and
nourished by the different repercussions of
war on women.
--MADRE

10. Why it is SO Difficult to End the
Problem of Sexual Assault in the
U.S. Military
“Our drill instructor explained how the M-16 was like a
woman:
front sight assembly - teat
magazine well - vagina
trigger - clitoris
I particularly liked his admonition to learn to stroke her
rear (charging handle) with authority.”
"This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for
shooting, this is for fun."

11. The Global Dimension of Militarism
and Violence Against Women
"After raping her they killed her by
shooting into her vagina. No action was
taken."
-- The Karen Women's Organization
(KWO), "State of Terror: the ongoing
rape, murder, torture and forced labor
suffered by women living under the
Burmese Military Regime in Karen State
(February 2007)

12. Changing The Paradigm
CEDAW
UNSCR 1325
UNSCR 1820
ICC
I-VAWA

13. What WE Can Do
1. Make Violence
Against Women
part of the Peace
Agenda
2. Change the
paradigm of how
we define power.

14. This presentation can be viewed
online at:
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/about/lucin
da-marshall/presentations/
and more information can be found at:
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/facts-about-
vaw/militarism-and-violence-against-women/
by Lucinda Marshall, Director--Feminist Peace Network
www.feministpeacenetwork.org
www.facebook.com/feministpeacenetwork
www.twitter.com/fempeace
LucindaMarshall@feministpeacenetwork.org