Women and war.

Women and Armed Conflict

A fact sheet disseminated by the United Nations at the end of 2002 identified 30 countries and areas in conflict and post-conflict situations, including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bougainville, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chechnya, Colombia, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India, Israel, Kosovo, Liberia, Pakistan, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan and Western Sahara. Today, Iraq must be added to this list.

While the visage of war may be male, the victims of war are primarily women, children and the elderly who do not chose or make war but suffer its devastating consequences. An estimated 90% of those who are affected by armed conflict are unarmed civilians in urban and rural populations who are not directly involved in the conflict.

As the UN fact sheet explains, "Women and children are generally most affected during times of conflict. During wartime, women and children are at particular risk of human rights abuses because of their lack of status in most societies. Such abuses include sexual and gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and recruitment as soldiers. Women are also disproportionately affected by lack of basic services endemic to conflict and displacement--such as adequate medical care, nutrition, sanitation and shelter--due to discrimination and their own powerlessness. Displaced and refugee women and girls, elderly women, women heads of household and women held in detention and detention-like conditions are more vulnerable to the impact of conflict."

In the post-conflict period women continue to suffer from war's impact on their families and communities. Women often must assume responsibility as heads of household in the absence of men and also take charge of the urgently needed reorganization of essential social structures to ensure the survival of their communities.

The humanitarian crisis often forces women to seek refuge in neighboring countries or to be constantly displaced within their own country for their own safety and survival. By 2002 there were an estimated 20 million refugees and persons of concern to the UN High Commission for Refugees around the world, 80% of whom were women and children.

The Agony of War

As we have indicated above, war's direct consequences for women are numerous. In addition to the possibility of death, women are at risk of rape and forced pregnancy. They may be obliged to have abortions or be sterilized without their consent. They may be coerced into prostitution or forced to offer sexual favors to the troops. Some may resort to sex work in order to survive extremely adverse conditions. If they are taken prisoners, they are selectively tortured. Repeated or gang rape is one of the principle forms of torture. Mass rapes are also considered a strategy of extermination used not against women alone, but against the people to which they belong, a brutal form of genocide.

Women are frequently used as war booty and as hostages. They are often forced to act as human shields against enemy troops.

Women and girls who live in refugee camps are six times more likely than those who live elsewhere to become infected with HIV, primarily as a result of the sexual violence of which they are often victims in the camps. In general, in all the zones of conflict that imply the displacement of persons and the existence of refugees and military personnel, there is a greater rate of HIV transmission than in the general population.

The UN fact sheet on women and armed conflict offers several examples of the iii effects of war on the female population.

Rwanda: Approximately 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide, and an estimated 5,000 pregnancies resulted from those rapes. Two-thirds of the women who were raped contracted HIV.

Sierra Leone: Over 50% of women experienced some form of sexualized violence during the conflict in 1999; of an estimated 4,500 children abducted following the 1999 invasion of the capital, Freetown, 60% were girls, most of whom suffered repeated acts of sexual violence.

Bosnia: An estimated 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped during five months of conflict in 1992. An estimated 60% of women trafficked in Sarejevo are between the ages of 19 and 24.

Colombia: An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced internally by ongoing conflict, with 80% women and children.

In addition, of the 17 countries with over 100,000 children orphaned by AIDS, 13 are countries in conflict.

Iraq, A Humanitarian Catastrophe

In Iraq the status of women and children is critical as is that of the population in general. It appears that health indicators--infant mortality, maternal mortality, life expectancy of women and men, rates of contagious diseases and other illnesses--will only get worse in the short-and medium-term. The humanitarian crisis unleashed in this country is evident in the lack of food, essential drugs and potable water, insufficient medical services and emergency medical care in combination with the direct impact of the war (bombing, gunfire and use of other weapons).

International agencies such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF report increased rates of cancer and congenital and renal malformations among the Iraqi population. The Iraqi government has blamed this phenomenon on the exposure to depleted uranium from the bombs used by the United States during the Gulf War in 1991. While there are no definitive findings on this matter, there is concern that the current war will result in increased rates of cancer and malformations, especially among the children of Iraq.

Spontaneous abortions, premature births and other complications in pregnancy and childbirth are some of the direct reproductive health consequences endured by Iraqi women, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). An estimated 70% of pregnant Iraqi women are anemic and malnourished and will probably give birth to low-birth-weight babies. Maternal mortality has also increased since the embargo against Saddam Hussein was established in 1991. Today, the maternal mortality rate in Iraq is 370 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; in the 1980s, the maternal mortality rate was 117 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

UNICEF reports that there are over a million children under age five who suffer from chronic malnutrition in Iraq and that infant mortality is twice as high now as in the late 1980s. In addition to precarious nutrition, children suffer serious psychological and emotional reactions as the result of the loss of their homes, separation from their families, the death of one or both parents, forced displacement, etc.

Hunger is also a reality. Before the war, 60% of the population depended exclusively on food distributed by the government. Today, it is estimated that over 18 million women and men (of a population of over 24 million) lack sufficient food. The UN World Food Program indicates that it will take at least 1.3 billion dollars to feed the civilian population in Iraqi that has been affected by the war.

In addition, an estimated 2 million people have been displaced to nearby countries, both fleeing the war and searching for food and water.