Helplessly In Fear: The Realization Of Darfuri Women
Helplessly in Fear: The Realization of Darfuri Women
“As you have raped me, please don’t leave me alive . . . kill me with your gun,” begged Almina to her rapist. “May shame kill you,” was the reply of the Janjaweed militia man reported Montesquieu from an interview with Almina, a rape survivor from Darfur (2). Life is very difficult, almost unlivable when you are a rape victim and are of the Muslim religion. It is considered a serious insult to the tenets of Islam and can be punishable as severely as being stoned to death. Although the entire Darfur region suffers greatly every day of their lives, the women are at the greatest disadvantage. Faced with sexual harassment, sexual assault, abuse, rape, and death, the women in the region clearly suffer the worst of the brutality.
First and foremost, we must consider that the entire region of Darfur suffers from unbearable living conditions and outright oppression from the Janjaweed militia. There is starvation and a lack of clean water, which leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths since the Arab government first came to power in Sudan. Furthermore, when aid from organizations such as the Red Cross arrives, they are stripped of all the supplies given as aid. The Janjaweed would rather see food, fresh water, and medical supplies squandered, then to allow the oppressed African population to have them. Additionally, the Darfur region in Sudan is known to be a barren wasteland, scarce fresh water, virtually no shelter, or food and temperatures reach into the 100’s of degrees. What little land they are allowed to populate is often seized, pushing them further into this “no man’s land” where not only do they lack basic necessities for life, but now they have millions of malnourished people in an area not big enough to contain them. One must also consider that the removal of the African population is not voluntary. A rural African village, with 50-100 residents cannot fend off large numbers of...
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