Gender Inequality and Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This essay discusses the gender inequality and sexual violence that exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It uses the feminist theory to study the gender disparity that exists in the country. The essay also highlights the challenges faced by women in the country and the need for change in the social structure.

Running Head: CONFLICT IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1CONFLICT IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
The women who live in the Democratic Republic of Congo do not have an equal status
with the men of the society. Although the women are given certain legal rights such as their right
to own property and their right to participate in the economic and political sector, however these
rights that they enjoy have a number of legal constraints which limit the scope of their work.
They believe that women are inferior; this belief is deeply embedded in their social systems.
During the colonial times the status that the women enjoyed was not very high. Women who
were not wives, widows or elderly were assumed as free women and tax was deducted from
them as they were labeled as earning prostitutes. This essay will look into the gender inequality
that exist among the women in the Democratic Republic of Congo and will use the theory off
feminism and study the gender disparity that exists in the country.
The Great Lakes region, which consists of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Rwanda and Uganda have experienced a lot of conflict for over 20 years. 12 years after that
conflict ended, the country still continues to be unstable (Vojdik 2013). The Eastern part of the
country is still at a critical position and it is a challenge for the people to maintain peace in that
area. The major challenge that this area face is the economic vulnerability among the women.
Not only do they do not have any right or economic independence but they are also excluded
from any decision making at all levels. They do not have any rights within the community or the
household or at the national and regional levels. The country often referred to as the rape capital
of world. However, this should not have been the case because the constitution enshrines that
men and women must have equal rights. This clearly shows that the constitution or the legal
rights are not enough to protect the rights of the women. The oppression of women cannot be
prevented by the constitutional rules. The greatest form abuse of the rights of women is by
subjecting her to sexual violence. Joseph Kabila, who is the current president of the Democratic

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Republic of Congo is concerned with the image that his country has to the outside world than
with the reality that the living conditions that are currently haunting the citizens of the country.
The 1998 Family Code reveals the truth of the system of the country of Congo. According to
these codes: a wife owes obedience to her husband, a husband’s permission is required in order
for a wife to affect a legal act, and the third one is only a husband has a right to establish a
matrimonial home. The last one is adultery by the husband is penalized in a more limited range
of circumstances than adultery by a wife which is penalized in all circumstances.
This is not the only law that is unfair in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the
government claims to have a Ministry of Gender, Family and Children- a department that is on
papers this department is in charge of working to promote equality between women and men
(Njogu and Orchardson-Mazrui 2013). This is all the things that are there formally but the
Congolese women go through a lot on a daily basis. According to some government officials, the
sexual violence in the country of Democratic Republic of Congo has become a cultural norm
(Destrooper 2015). These attitudes and behavior is completely opposed to what is said in the
constitution.
The feminist movement started with the agenda that women should enjoy equal rights in
all sectors of life, whether it is political, which means that they should be allowed to vote, or
social or economic rights. In Congo, neither are the rights of women not the position that they
enjoy in society are good enough. The theory of feminism claims that the patriarchal structure of
the society is what gives the men the authority to exploit the women, the fact that the lineage is
passed along the line of the man makes them entitles to the power, they structures of society
make it apparent for them to enjoy all the rights, the family property is given to them and the role
of the women gets limited to birthing and rearing of children. This is where the problem arises,

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the men are structurally entitled to a whole lot of privileges and this makes the women of the
society vulnerable. The women because of this oppressed social structure have internalized the
idea that they are inferior to men and without the help of the men they will not survive in society.
The women think that men hit them because that is how they show their love for them, they do
not think that it is violence, these are inherent in both men and women. There are other unwritten
rules that are followed in the Congolese society (Tlapek 2015). The women think that they
should marry men who are elder to them and the men should a more intelligent than women
otherwise the men believe that the women will go insane will do things that are not desirable
hence they should be a lot less intelligent than men (Baaz and Stern 2013). These beliefs are
what the feminist theorists fight against, the inherent social structure that makes that subjugates
women. These structures have to be changed but in order to do what is required is that the
women also should understand that men in the society are not helping them; they are coercing
them in believing things about themselves which are not true. Until and unless the women take a
stance the structures of the society will not change, because no men will ever change it as they
enjoy the maximum amount of privileges and they will never speak against it.
The sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the United
Nations is the worst in the world. Sexual violence has always been a part of the country but the
number of sexual violence has increased since the armed conflicts that occurred in the country in
the early 1990s (Muzard 2018). The eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is the
worst is more than any other part of the world. Apart from the men in this region, the sexual
violence is more perpetrated by the armed militia of the region (Kang 2014). The sexual violence
in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been going on for a very long time and the main
criticism against it is that the government does not do enough to solve, the government officials

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are indifferent about it ((www.globalfundforwomen.org 2019). Despite the large amount of
sexual violence cases, the area of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo has
remained un-researched. Rape in the country of Democratic Republic of Congo has been
frequently described as the ‘weapon of war’. The United Nations in the year 2008, had declared
that the rape as a war weapon in the year 2008 (africa.unwomen.org 2019). The war rapes do not
only destroy the women who have been violated but also it destroys the entire community. War,
instability and violence have poisoned the climate of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
country is plagued with culture that perpetrates violence and the most heinous form of violence
is sexual violence. In the year of 2004, in a single month 40000 cases of rape were registered
(Bihamba 2017).
All feminist ideas about rape have several underlying themes. The first is that the
feminist believe that the silence and the shame that surrounds the idea of rape should be
eliminated, if women should be allowed to express their pain about the violence that they have
gone through, and then the phenomena will be a lot more regularized than usual. They believe
that the consciousness should be raised about the phenomena of rape and this will have a positive
effect on the life of the victim. Many women often are raped more than once in their lifetime and
this will not only destroy the mental abilities but also make them more vulnerable. To prevent
this, the feminist believe there should be a culture where women should be allowed to speak,
once they talk about everything openly their pain might get normalized. Justice does not reach
the most of the survivor (Kudakwashe and Richard 2015). The perpetrators are not always
punished, in fact most of the times they go unpunished. Armed forces who rape the women are
never tried or punished, go scot free. They are instead given amnesty and are most of the time
integrated into the national army or become a part of the general society, when accepted back

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into the society they rape again. The women most of the times do not report the crimes as
complaining about the rape means that the women are only blamed and most of the times
shunned by the society or the community where they live. This is the reason that the feminist
claims that rape survivors should speak out and not remain silent only then would the victims
will get the justice that they deserve, they should realize that every women who are a victim of
rape are not to be blamed. Survivors are considered to be shame to their family, this victim
blaming nature of the society makes the victim feel like it is their mistake, along with the trauma
of the rape they also have to deal with the shame that is induced by the family and the society.
Despite signing a peace treaty in the year 2003, the violence has not subsided in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (Canning 2014). The women of the area still remain vulnerable and they have
no solution to the problem of sexual violence that has been going in the country for decades.
This essay concludes that sexual violence occurs rampantly in the country of the
Democratic Republic of Combo. This has been going for a very long time, the men their think
that women are inferior to them and the women have also internalized this notion that they are
inferior and that they should remain less intelligent. The constitution of the country states that
men and women should have equal rights but in practice that is not the case, the country has been
facing a major crisis since the early 1990s. The war and the violence have also perpetrated
something called the rape war. The armed militias have used rape as the prime weapon that
causes problem. The victims of rape are usually blamed and they are shamed. The country has
not tries to do anything for the victims, they are only bothered with the way the country is looked
at by the outside world. The country is ignoring the plight of these women.

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