An Exhibition in London's Imperial War Museum Breaks the Silence on Sexual Violence in Conflict
Everybody knows it happens; nobody talks about it. Sexual violence seems to be endemic to conflict and war. Men in uniform, with guns and a sense of entitlement, acting when formal and informal policing of conduct is absent, have at times been prone to perpetrate rape. It is, says Charu Lata Hogg – founder of the All Survivors Project which supports efforts to eradicate conflict-related sexual violence and support survivors – a reflection of 'toxic gender norms'.
The Imperial War Museum is currently hosting the first major exhibition in any western museum on sexual violence in conflict. It aims to break the silence and deepen understanding of this gendered aspect of war and civil upheaval. The museum has long had an admirable focus not simply on military strategy and the hardware of war, but its social aspects and the hardships inflicted on civilians.
'Sexual violence is a devastating aspect of conflict and very difficult to talk about,' says Upcraft. 'This silence creates significant barriers to recovery, justice and lasting change'.
Part of the purpose of the Imperial War Museum's new exhibition, 'Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict', is to contribute to the demands for change in the fight to banish sexual violence in conflict. Displays include testimony of survivors
It's not straightforward curating exhibits about an issue so intimate and concealed. As you can imagine, there aren't many artefacts which speak to the subject of sexual violence. So the displays are largely of documents, drawings, posters and art, along with testimony of survivors and the words of experts and activists.
These are often deeply unsettling. The Japanese army's forced conscription of 'comfort women' across south-east Asia during the Second World War, who were required to have sex with Japanese soldiers, is a deeply shocking example of wartime sexual slavery. But it is sadly not unique.
The Islamist militants of ISIS imposed sexual slavery on Yazidi women in Iraq a decade ago in what has to be described as an attempt at genocide against a minority community.
During the First World War, German soldiers perpetrated well-documented sexual violence against women in occupied Belgium. A generation later, the soldiers of the Soviet Red army stood accused of widespread rape as they pushed Hitler's troops back towards Berlin. While women have been the principal victims, men too have suffered sexual abuse and humiliation in war, as evidenced by the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib at the hands of members of the US military in 2004.
South Asia's painful experience of rape and abduction is not reflected in the exhibition to any great extent. But the scale of sexual violence in Bangladesh in 1971, and amid the communal violence and commotion which accompanied Partition in both Punjab and Bengal, are among the most terrible examples of men seeking to humiliate the 'other' – the enemy, the rival community, the contenders for land or status – or seeking revenge by violating the bodies of the 'other's' women.
The war in Ukraine has again made the issue of sexual violence in conflict tragically topical. President Zelensky has talked openly, and with deep anguish, about the rape of Ukrainian women by the Russian military.
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In the Gaza conflict, and in Sudan's civil war, we have also witnessed appalling incidents of rape and abduction. Awareness of the issue is increasing, but the prevalence is not diminishing.
This is a brave initiative by the Imperial War Museum. As the lead curator, Helen Upcraft, says: 'Survivors face immense challenges in sharing their stories, while the public lacks the knowledge or language to talk about these issues with confidence.'
Yet the exhibition feels a little tentative and tucked away. There is no curatorial centrepiece; no image, or item, which lingers in the mind; no abiding sense of shock and outrage.
As for addressing the scourge of sexual violence, Christina Lamb, a globetrotting correspondent who has written a powerful book about 'what war does to women', makes the most powerful point in one of the videos displayed. To tackle the problem, perpetrators need to face justice because at the moment there is 'no price to pay – [the rapists know] nothing's going to happen to them'.
Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict , a free exhibition, is at the Imperial War Museum, London, until November 2.
Andrew Whitehead is a former BBC India correspondent.
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