Long perceived as an inevitable consequence of the chaos of wars, rape is actually used as a weapon in its own right and is embedded in virilist military doctrines. How has it been used in contemporary conflicts? How can we fight against its use?
In the collective imagination, war inevitably brings chaos, brutality, and a loss of respect for any norm. Rape, therefore, is seen as an inevitable consequence, a masculine overflow amidst disorder. This deeply rooted representation, however, is based on a specific cultural construction: that of a conquering and uncontrollable male sexuality where the possession of the female body becomes a reward.
Yet, the idea of rape inherent to war does not stand up to historical analysis or facts. Since ancient Rome, military conquest has generally been accompanied by complete ownership that also includes bodies. The rules of war dictate that the men of besieged cities be massacred, while women—sometimes children—suffer the outrage of rape, considered the female equivalent of the death of fighters.
From the 1930-1945 period, Japan’s imperialist expansion saw the establishment of a system of military prostitution euphemistically named “comfort women” (ianfu). This system, strictly regulated by the military authorities and presented as aiming to prevent excesses, actually involves the sexual enslavement of thousands of women, subjected to daily medical and logistical surveillance.
Starting in the 1990s, a dual phenomenon transformed the understanding of sexual violence in times of war. On one hand, contemporary conflicts reveal a new role assigned to rape. It is no longer just a means of military conquest, but a mechanism of targeted destruction aimed at a group as a whole, as evidenced by the conflict in Rwanda and the war in former Yugoslavia. On the other hand, these practices are no longer exclusive to regular armies: they have become a common practice of armed groups, paramilitaries, or terrorists facilitated by impunity, the breakdown of command structures, and the spread of radical ideologies. This evolution is accompanied by new visibility, driven by feminist mobilizations, gender studies, the work of NGOs, media coverage of conflicts, and victims’ testimonies, breaking the silence and revealing the systemic scale of sexual violence.
To understand this complex reality and its multiple manifestations, it is necessary first to clarify what is meant by conflict-related sexual violence. The United Nations define these acts as “acts or patterns of rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, committed against women, men, girls, or boys.”
