you should read this, but I can't bear to post excerpts from it

[ensho]

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/125612/

[G_j]

1. omg

I see why you didn't want to post quotes, but I'll post a very relevant passage.


(this refers to the atrocities in the Congo)

<snip>
Ensler is hoping to help end the terror through what she sees as the necessary first step, creating awareness. “People have to get educated about what is going on.” The idea for the conversational format of the tour came from Ensler’s experience two years ago when she interviewed the doctor at the request of OCHA, a UN agency. Famous for her award-winning “The Vagina Monologues,” which began as a play about women and their bodies and ultimately spawned her anti-violence movement V-Day, Ensler has always believed in the power of conversation to illuminate our understanding of important issues. “Unless people hear the details and specificities of things, they don’t get moved to action. And when you hear Dr. Mukwege, and you see a man who has been on the frontlines for twelve years, sewing up women’s vaginas as fast as these militias are ripping them apart -- and still having that degree of dignity, and that degree of steadfastness in the face of all this -- then you have to join the cause and do something.”
<snip>

[ensho]

3. thank you, I go to pieces over it

nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. This is the issue:

Says Mukwege, awarded the UN Human Rights Prize in December 2008 for his humanitarian work:

“attacking women, the bearer of life, with this level of terror, I believe it has nothing to do with sexual desire.

I think it’s about destabilizing society, trying to destroy society and bring about its complete destruction.”

That is exactly the point.
So the question is, who is paying for this terror and other forms of it in Africa, in So. America,
in the Middle East?
Whose interest is it that these countries become and remain destabilized?
And whose interest is it that our country remains economically helpless?

When you ask the right question, you get the right answers.

[ensho]

4. neo con criminals

nt

[jwirr]

6. There have been very few wars in history where the women were

safe. I agree that it is a way of destroying the society and maybe the best example of this was during the Clinton presidency in the fight between the christians and muslims in that war. Rape was a primary weapon used to demoralize the other side.

[canetoad]

11. Sometimes I believe

That wars are waged for one purpose only: to rape.

[jwirr]

12. No the rape is a weapon.

[lynnertic]

5. You'd probably get more action on this thread if you at least gave us the headline

people don't like to follow blind links.

[ensho]

9. I stated why I wasn't posting that

guess you will have to deal with it

[lynnertic]

10. No, you stated why you weren't posting excerpts.

I really don't have to deal with it lady, I was trying to HELP YOU.






You're welcome.

[defendandprotect]

7. Rape as a tool of war . . .

With the rise of the right we always see new attacks on women, on children ---

sexual assault and sexual enslavement --

The rise of the GOP in America over these decades has purposefully worsened conditions

for females ocross the planet in every way possible.

And I agree, no matter where we fail to stop such violence, we ourselves will be

threatened by it.

"Ensler says that while there has been growing media coverage of the war in the Congo, she hopes the tour will put additional focus on the fact that women are being used as weapons of war. “We still live in a world where femicide is taken for granted, where the raping of women, the destruction of women, is a given. Not extraordinary. And part of what we want this tour to be about is to say that this is not ordinary and is unacceptable.” In a recent interview with the National Post, Mukwege observed, "the traditional battlefield has changed. It is no longer war on the ground, but it is war on women's bodies. It is … the psycho-social destruction of a whole community in which the women are humiliated." Ensler sees wide implications to accepting these tactics. “When we allow this many women to be raped, when we allow this many women to be destroyed, we are basically giving license to that happening, not just in the Congo, but in Africa and throughout the world. If we can stop the violence towards women in the Congo,” it could be “a template that we apply to other conflict zones.”

I spoke to Ensler on Martin Luther King Day. She was in Washington for a rally the day before in support of peace in the DRC, as well as to speak at the first ever Inaugural Peace Ball on Inauguration Day, and I asked her what message she would most want to deliver to President Barack Obama. “The thing I would say is that ending violence against women is as essential as ending global warming. You cannot think of over half the world’s population, that one out of three of them are being beaten and raped, and not think that the greatest resource on the planet is being degraded. And my dream is that in ten years this issue will be so front and center that it will be undeniable, and that it will change.” When I asked her if she feels hopeful that Obama’s election marks a new paradigm shift, she became reflective. “I feel hopeful that the energy that Barack Obama brings to the White House can actually begin to formulate a real left in this country, a real social, progressive movement. A door has been opened, but it is up to us to get our whole body through that door.” She added, “I live constantly in the center of two opposite thoughts: the world is ending, the world is about to be born. I am fighting for the latter.”

[Solly Mack]

8. I hope more people read this...

K&R

[sam sarrha]

13. this is genocide...

[Solly Mack]

14. kick

[Tsiyu]

15. Off to the greatest with you

Sad, sad and sad.

Kicking

[lostnotforgotten]

16. I Cannot Imagine Any Soulless Existence That Could Contemplate Much Less Engage In These Acts

eom

[Hydra]

17. I have only one reaction:

:puke:

[ThomCat]

18. Why is it that in times of war men immediate resort to rape as a weapon

against women and girls?

I think it's because Rape is always just below the surface in some portion of men, even in times of peace. That's why rape never goes away as an epidemic. It might be better covered up and better ignored in times of peace, but it's still there.

It is like a weapon that is always kept primed, always kept in good enough practice that it can be brought on at any time in the event of war.

Look at the vandalism if this flier.





The idea that real men rape is apparently humorous, and more acceptable to many people than the idea that real men can/should prevent rape. Is it any wonder that Rape erupts as a weapon in times of war? It's already there already in use, waiting to erupt into even greater user as an even bigger, stronger, tougher weapon against women and girls.

The fact that Rape is being used so horribly as a weapon of war is no surprise. It's always being used everywhere all the time, just not always quite so openly, blatantly, and severely to such a huge percentage of the population.

If we could somehow train more men, and more, and more to break the culture and acceptability of rape, maybe we could reach a tipping point where rape is no longer available as a weapon of war.

The story of that vandalized flier is from here:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/02/06/anti-feminist-vandalism/