Fighting rape

It is time, therefore, the world treated sexual violence in conflict as a war crime; not as the unfortunate collateral damage of war. And a solution is urgently sought for the lack of reparation for women victims in most countries. Since the 1994 Rwandan genocide when around 250,000 women were raped, women have suffered devastating forms of sexual violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur and Bosnia among other conflict zones. Recently, the killing of Rohingya babies and girls, the gang-raping of women and displacement of entire villages has shown that irreparable wartime horrors against minority ethnic communities will continue when authoritarian rulers act with impunity. This is precisely why the world community must lend humanitarian and legal support to survivors. Ms Murad’s rare resilience to keep telling her story because she wants to ensure she is “the last girl in the world with a story like mine” should be enough inspiration for global leaders to act. Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2018