Feminist Peace Network

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams recently led a high-level mission to the Darfur region for the U.N.  They were not able to obtain visas to enter Sudan but did visit a refugee camp in Chad near the border and were able to meet with Darfurian women in the camp.  Ms. Williams writes,

“In the space of the little over one hour of time we had with the women, we were told stories of eight rapes — six of those women were in the room. All were from different villages and all had been gang raped.

The ages of the women in the room who had been raped were 15-17-20-21-35 and unsure of the one whose face had been covered. The thirty-five year old woman had eight children. When her husband learned of the rape, he divorced her on the spot. The story of the two women who had been raped but were not in the room was told by an older woman who had been with them. They were four women together when their village was attacked by the Janjaweed. The old woman in the group was thrown into the fire by the attackers and she burned to death. The woman telling the story was badly beaten, as the two younger women were repeatedly raped. One of them got pregnant and when she had the child, it “died” immediately. She has “been sick” ever since. That was three years ago. She has four children and her husband was killed in the attack. One woman had been raped outside of the camp. She’d gone to get firewood and was raped by a group of Chadians.”

For more on Ms. Williams’ work, visit the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities