![]() In August 2015, the UN Security Council warned that, in Iraq and Syria, sexual violence is being used as a deliberate tactic, saying these acts are war crimes, with claims that Daesh (Islamic State) in particular has created a ‘theology of rape’ including sexual slavery. Report after report describes women being raped and tortured in front of their husbands, and even their children. Women are often raped during conflict in order to humiliate their male relatives – their husbands and families. Sometimes rape is used to deliberately infect women with HIV, to render women from the targeted community incapable of bearing children, or conversely, where ethnicity is inherited through the male line, to force them to bear children. Rape and sexual violence during conflict are often intended to demonstrate victory, terrorise the population, break up families, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation. In fact, violence against women during conflict has now reached epidemic proportions and become an intrinsic part of the war process in many conflicts. Even today, the subject tends to be overlooked and pushed to one side, despite increased attention in recent years. ![]() ![]() Sexual violence against women in war and conflict is one of the great silences and repressed issues of history. Yet, it is a topic that is much understudied and often outrightly ignored. Rape and sexual violence during conflict are tactics that are often employed and are used to demonstrate victory, terrorise the population, break up families, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation.
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