According to a survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2010, 30% of women and 22% of men from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported that they had been subject conflict-related sexual violence[1]. Similarly, a 2009 study by Lara Stemple noted that sexual torture and rape were experienced by 76% of male political prisoners in El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War, as well as by 80% of male concentration camp inmates in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War[2]. Despite the popular perception that rape during conflict is primarily targeted against women, these figures show that sexual violence committed against men is not a marginal occurrence. The lack of awareness for the magnitude of the rape of men during conflict relates to chronic underreporting. Although the physical and psychological repercussions from rape are similar for women and men, male victims tend to demonstrate an even greater reluctance to report their suffering to their families or the authorities[3]. Correspondingly, acknowledgement of the rape of men by non-governmental organizations or political bodies, as well as media coverage on the matter, remains insufficient. The chronic underreporting relates to a particularly harsh stigmatization of male rape victims. This phenomenon is captured well in the following excerpt from The Guardian: “[B]oth perpetrator and victim enter a conspiracy of silence and why male survivors often find, once their story is discovered, that they lose the support and comfort of those around them. In the patriarchal societies found in many developing countries, gender roles are strictly defined. […] Often, […] wives who discover their husbands have been raped decide to leave them. "They ask me: 'So now how am I going to live with him? As what? Is this still a husband? Is it a wife?' They ask, 'If he can be raped, who is protecting me?'”[4]. Gender roles within social hierarchies are concerned with the question of agency in the conduct of physical violence. Men are expected to exert violence, while women are victimized by it. In conflict situations, rape against men dissolve this relationship and put men in the ‘receiving’ role of the victim. Similarly, the ‘penetrating’ role of men as opposed to the ‘receiving’ role of women in (conventional) sexual intercourse illustrates this constructed power relationship. Hence, male rape victims experience the worst possible ‘humiliation’ with regards to the ingrained social roles they are traditionally expected to fulfill. Moreover, their stigmatization takes on particularly severe dimensions within conservative social environments in which homosexual intercourse – regardless of consent – is punished harshly. For example, Ugandan male rape victims explain their choice to not speak out with the fear of being branded homosexuals[5]. As homosexuality is widely condemned in Uganda, male victims of sexual violence often struggle to get proper support because they are accused of being gay. In certain cases, gender roles concerning violence and sexual conduct are so deeply ingrained that the mere existence of male rape is not being believed in.
- ^ The Guardian (2011). "The rape of men. The darkest secret of war". Retrieved at: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
- ^ Stemple, Lara (2009). "Male Rape and Human Rights". In: Hastings Law Journal 60 (3): 605.
- ^ IRIN News (2011). "HEALTH: Rape as a 'weapon of war' against men". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Retrieved at: http://www.irinnews.org/report/93960/health-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-against-men
- ^ The Guardian (2011). "The rape of men. The darkest secret of war". Retrieved at: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
- ^ Al Jazeera (2012). "Male rape survivors fight stigma in Uganda". Retrieved at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/04/2013411111517944475.html