Attack with a Friendly Weapon

bibliographic database
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Book chapter

Title:	Attack with a Friendly Weapon
Author:	Halim, Asma Abdel
Book title:	What women do in wartime: gender and conflict in Africa
Year:	1998
Pages:	85-100
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Sudan
Subjects:	civil wars sexual offences women Cultural Roles Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government slavery
Abstract:	The civil war in Sudan is now Africa's oldest conflict and it continues with no sign of abatement. In the past 30 years, southern resistance to the north's monopoly of power has resulted in the displacement of nearly four million people from their homes. In these circumstances, women and children have no choice but to migrate north to the centre of power. While in the cities, these women quickly become the dartboard on which the morally righteous Islamic government of the Sudan tests the efficacy of shari'a law. In the south, women's daily existence is bedevilled by the fear of being raped, enslaved or killed. Since 1989, when the war took on a religious nature, women are considered legitimate spoils of war. Women combatants do not have better luck than civilians. Women are reminded that whatever additional roles they are entrusted with, their original role as providers of sex comes first. It was only in 1996 that rape was recognized by the international community as a human rights violation and as torture. Notes, ref.