the spectator | 29 february 2020 | http://www.spectator.co.uk 31DUMMY Main story web headline goes here. Try not to go past the vertical stripe or you risk being cut offA young Rohingya woman, one of hundreds raped by Myanmar armed forces, shelters at Leda,
an unregistered Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladeshdehumanisation of the enemy, which needs
to be heightened by a strong dose of fear
along with the hatred, is also another part of
the weapon of terror. But men’s motives to
rape in war obviously vary, from sheer sexu-
al opportunism to the fanatical compulsion
to hurt, humiliate, pollute, disfigure and even
kill their female victims. And as the Red
Army example showed, not all men become
rapists, even when they face no retribution.
Also, to refute the black and white approach,
Susan Brownmiller acknowledged in her
seminal work on the subject, Against Our
Will, there is even the ‘grey area of wartime
prostitution’, where men with food, as well
as guns, can exploit another form of power.
The very phrase ‘weapon of war’ also
unintentionally reinforces that old mistake
of including rape as a natural part of the
landscape of armed conflict. Unfortunate-
ly, as Lamb emphasises, in the few recent
cases where perpetrators have been broughtto trial, prosecutors tend to drop the rape
charges when they find it easier to convict
on the more general charge of terrorism.That is no comfort whatsoever to the women
who have had to summon up great courage
to appear as witnesses.
The vast majority of victims suffer
twice. Those who survive their ordeals
then have to face ostracism from their
own families and communities. They are
seen as polluted. Many commit suicide,
unable to cope with the contempt and
shame heaped upon them. Most of the rest,
whatever culture they come from, describe
feeling ‘dead inside’. It is very hard to enjoy
normal human relations after an assaultintended to dehumanise one. And how can
one trust anyone again when, in the case of
ethnic cleansing, former friendly neighbours
become savage aggressors? As Lamb argues,
the survivors are heroic. Mercifully for the
male reader, there are some heroes too on
their side of the fence, principally rescuers
and doctors.
It must also have taken courage to
research and write this book. When you
tackle such horrors, they have a way of com-
ing back to haunt you in the dark watches
of the night. In 1944, a traumatised Vasily
Grossman wrote, after producing the very
first report on the atrocities of the Treblinka
extermination camp: ‘It is the writer’s duty
to tell this terrible truth, and it is the civilian
duty of the reader to learn it.’
Christina Lamb has more than accom-
plished her duty. It is now our duty to face
this other ‘terrible truth’ — that of man’s
inhumanity to woman.When you tackle such horrors, they
have a way of coming back to haunt
you in the dark watches of the nightGETTY IMAGESBooks_29 Feb 2020_The Spectator 31 25/02/2020 14:39