Use of sexual abuse as a means of political suppression in Africa

Use of sexual abuse as a means of political suppression in Africa

By Dr. Abbas Azadian,

According to recent reports, 150 countries continue to use torture and ill treatment as an instrument of po­litical pressure and repression against those who challenge the prevailing order. In Africa, inter-ethnic and armed conflicts have been ongoing struggles over last few years. These conflicts continue to fuel human rights abuses. People are caught in the conflict between governments and rebel forces and suffer appalling atrocities such as abduction, rape, amputation, torture and death. According to the most current Amnesty International report, human rights were violated and detainees were tortured and ill treated[1] in at least 32 African countries.

Sexual Abuse as an Instrument for Political Suppression

Sexual abuse and rape have been frequently used as a means of suppression. In many African countries, rape, mutilation and other forms of torture have been used as weapons of war in recent conflicts and in par­ticular when ethnic issues were prominent. In particular, rape and other forms of sexual violence have been inflicted on women in many African countries. Women in custody have been subjected to many forms of torture and in particular sexual violence and rape. These women may be psychologically traumatized for life. The ill effects of rape and sexual violence continue even when these women are forced to flee their countries of origin and subsequently seek refuge in a safe country like Canada. In this paper we will re­view a few cases of women who have been sexually abused in different settings to demonstrate the pro­found and long lasting effects of sexual abuse and rape on the victims.

Sexual Abuse in Political Settings

Case 1

Politically motivated harassment of opponents remained a public policy in Angola and many other African countries where officials systematically undermine freedom of expression and suppress any criticism of the government's practices.

BC is a 21-year-old woman from Angola. Her father was a political activist writing about corruption in the government, the lack of freedom and social justice in the country. The government of Angola had been fol­lowing his activities and harassing him on a regular basis. He was arrested on several occasions. On one particular night the government forces attacked their home. They started beating everyone. They also ran­sacked the place. "To give her father a lesson" she and her mother were sexually abused in front of the rest of family; her father included. She was later blindfolded and taken to jail. She was forced to do hard labor in prison. She was repeatedly raped during the 2 years she was in jail. She was also beaten up on a regular basis. This treatment continued until she used an occasion to escape the jail and the country. She has never seen her family members since that morning when the police came to their house.

BC's emotional reaction to the ongoing sexual abuse is one of detachment and depression. She is cold and distant. She persistently tries to avoid talking about her traumatic experiences. She is confused about time and place. She dissociates and things appear unreal to her. She also reports difficulties falling sleep. When she goes to bed she would continuously think about the traumatic events and sexual abuse. She usually wakes up in the middle of the night confused after having nightmares. Her heart races and she has diffi­culty breathing. Sometimes, she is unable to get back to sleep. As a result of inadequate sleep, she ex­periences extreme fatigue and has difficulty concentrating and functioning.

Case 2

GJ is a 30-year-old woman from Rwanda. She and her family endured many types of persecution, threats, violence and killing that extended beyond the war and continued to the present day. This in­cludes her gang rape at the hands of Hutu soldiers at a refugee camp where her family fled during the war. On another occasion, someone threw a hand grenade through the window of her house. When GJ arrived, she found one family member dead and another one mortally wounded.

GJ's emotional reaction is very similar to BC. She feels she has changed for life. She describes herself as being a happy, sociable and outgoing person before these incidents, and now feels very detached from others and keeps to herself. She does not want to be in any groups and prefers to stay in her room. She does not take pleasure in anything and no longer smiles. She feels continually sad. She is also troubled by very poor concentration and memory difficulties, often forgetting scheduled activities. She has great difficulties falling asleep at night because it is at this time that the memories of her rape and the grenade attack are strongest. She lies in bed remembering her assailants' voices and laughter and sees images of the scene of her rape or the grenade attack. She tries to block these thoughts out but is not successful. Often these thoughts and images keep her awake until 4 in the morning. Her sleep is also disturbed by nightmares wherein she hears friends crying for help. She runs to save them, but arrives too late. She awakens from these dreams with a pounding heart and cannot settle back to sleep afterward. She also describes a hypersensivity to sounds in her environment. For example, she gets extremely upset by sounds on the street, which remind her alternatively of artillery fire or of a grenade blast. She reports that when she hears these loud voices she instinctively "close the door and start running", her heart pounding. She says it takes her a few minutes before she realizes that she is no longer in Rwanda and that the sounds are benign. GJ's feelings of sadness are compounded by feelings of guilt. She feels re­sponsible for her rape, even though others have told her that she could not have prevented it from hap­pening. She wonders if she could have been "firmer" or more resolute in saying "no" to her assailants. Since her rape she has had a sense of being tainted and feeling "dirty". This pattern of thinking has per­sisted to this day. She sometimes wonders if she would be better off dead. While telling her story, GJ was anxious, hesitant, upset and tearful. She was sad.

Sexual Abuse in Domestic Settings

Case 3

As prominent as the use of sexual violence has been in armed conflicts, ethnic disputes and political re­pression, in most countries a woman's greatest risk of violence comes from people she knows. Violation of human rights against women happens not only at the hands of police and soldiers, but also at the hands of their own husbands, fathers or employers. In particular, sexual abuse may be used in domestic setting to intimidate women and force them into subversion. The following case is an example of the use of physical and sexual abuse in this setting and highlights the effect of economic hardship and poverty.

MK is a 27-year-old woman from Nigeria. She was forced to marry her husband when she was very young. Her husband was a dedicated Muslim and Imam (an Islamic religious leader). As soon as she moved to her husband's house, he started to abuse her in a variety of ways. He would beat her for not being covered properly. He would use a hot rod to inflict pain on her. On another occasion he put a hot cooking spoon on her body. This ill treatment continued until she could not tolerate it any longer and she ran away. She attempted to run away a few times but she was found every time and returned as she had very limited resources. Her punishment became worse each time she was returned. She was forced to do the chores of all four wives of the Imam. He raped her repeatedly and continued to physically abuse her. On one occasion when she had been caught and brought back, she was tied to a hook from the ceiling and a hot coal was put under her with ground, dried pepper in it to make breathing more difficult for her. Eventually she had to leave the country as she could not tolerate the pain and suffering inflicted on her and in particular she could not tolerate the sexual abuse.

Her emotional reaction to these repeated episodes of sexual abuse was what we expect from all victims of sexual abuse. She felt down and depressed. She thought of killing herself. The pain inflicted on her was so intolerable that she could not sleep, concentrate and function properly. She had a very difficult time in de­scribing the pain inflicted on her as well. She would get agitated and restless and would cry nonstop. MK' s situation is by no means unique.

Psychological Reactions to Sexual Abuse

The cases described demonstrate there is a tremendous range of frequently occurring reactions to trauma. Some people withdraw into silence; others seek out support or have a pressing need to talk about what hap­pened. Some may be preoccupied with thoughts about what they could have done differently to prevent what happened. Others may be filled with anger and rage at the injustice and feel a deep sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Abuse may affect victims physically, emotionally and behaviorally. It may affect also their thinking patterns. The physical reactions may include jitteriness, muscle tension, upset stomach, rapid heart rate, dizziness, fatigue and lack of energy. Emotional reactions may include extreme fear and inability to feel safe, sadness, grief and depression, guilt and anger, inability to enjoy anything, intense or extreme feeling at one time and a chronic feeling of emptiness at other times. As a result, the abused woman may become with­drawn or isolated from others, startle easily and avoid certain places and situations. She may also become confrontational and aggressive, change her eating habits, and become restless. The cognitive changes may include heightened awareness of surroundings at times and lessened awareness and disconnection from envi­ronment at other times. She may also think differently about herself and the world. She may have previously thought of herself as strong and independent. Subsequent to the traumatic experience she may think that she is no longer in control of her fate. She may also think the world is not a safe place to live in anymore. As a result she may not be able to trust anybody or count on people and feel more isolated as a result. This may lead to loss of self-esteem.

All people have psychological defenses that in difficult and stressful times protect them against fragmentation and loss of control. At times these defenses are overwhelmed to the degree that the person not only reacts negatively to events but may also meet the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. The most common and well know disorder in trauma victims is posttraumatic stress disorder. However the reaction is not limited to this condition. A wide variety of disorders including major depressive disorder, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks and substance abuse may be observed in trauma victims.

Conclusion

The cases discussed also demonstrate that torture and violence occurs in a wide range of circumstances and serves different purposes. There is no reliable estimate of the true prevalence of torture in the world. The above data published by Amnesty International that probably reflect but a fraction of all human abuses may give some idea about the extent of the problem. It appears that there is a wide spread and regular use of tor­ture and ill treatment in many African countries. These include whipping, flogging, caning, amputations, beating, verbal abuse and threats, isolation and solitary confinement, physical abuse and use of excessive force. Sexual abuse is also widely used in a variety of settings in these countries. Physical and sexual abuse is also used in domestic settings to maintain the dominance of men and subordination of women in the family and society.

The three cases discussed in this paper demonstrate the reality that torture has long-term and disabling psy­chological effects. Torture survivors and survivors of sexual abuse have more difficulties with concentration, memory, energy and sleep. They have nightmares in which they are being followed, arrested and tortured.

They wake up confused and demonstrate symptoms of anxiety. They may feel guilty about what happened and limit their contacts with other people and so lose their social network of support. These psychological problems can cause severe psychosocial disability that may last decades or even a lifetime.

To address psychological problems of torture survivors, interaction at several levels of care may be necessary. They may benefit from pharmacotherapy. Medication may improve their sleep, increase their energy and ap­petite and lift their mood. Nightmares and flashbacks may decrease as well. Psychological treatment for ef­fective rehabilitation of torture survivors has been widely recognized and advocated[2]. Most rehabilitation centers have adopted a multidisciplinary approach in the case of survivors, involving legal, medical, social and psychological help[3]. There is ample evidence that with adequate support and treatment, torture survi­vors can return to normal life and end the cycle of mental anguish. However, it appears that prevention of tor­ture and ill treatment of political detainees is the best method of limiting psychological pain to people tor­tured and of curbing the cost to society.

Certain safeguards are necessary to end the torture and ill treatment of detainees. These include clear policies that torture and ill-treatment will not be tolerated; an end to incommunicado detention, including giving de­tainees access to independent medical examination and legal counsel; outlawing the use of confessions ex­tracted under torture as evidence in courts of law; independent inspection of places of detention; informing detainees of their rights; human rights training for law enforcement personnel; compensation for the victims of torture; medical treatment and rehabilitation for the victims of torture[4]. Governments have to ensure that prison conditions do not amount to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in line with interna­tional human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners. Special attention should be paid to the issues of ethnic background and gender. An emphasis on working against abuses based on gender should be at the heart of any torture campaign. This includes the use of violence and in particular sexual abuse in domestic settings. Any form of torture is indefensible and may affect individuals for the rest of their lives.

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[1] Amnesty International. Amnesty International Annual Report. London, England: Amnesty Interna­tional Publication; 2001.

[2] Vesti P, Kastrup M. Psychotherapy for torture survivors. In Basoglu M, ed. Torture and Its Conse­quences: Current Treatment Approaches. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1992:348-362

[3] Van Willigen LHM. Organization of care and rehabilitation services for victims of torture and other forms of organized violence: a review of current issues. In Basoglu M, ed. Torture and Its Conse­quences: Current Treatment Approaches. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1992:277-298

[4] Amnesty International. Amnesty International Annual Report. London, England: Amnesty Interna­tional Publication; 2001