Can shame stop rape in Congo?

Goma, Congo, Aug. 11, 2009 | ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images   Yesterday I highlighted a phrase used by Secretary Clinton on Monday: “mark of shame.” She used that phrase when discussing the use of rape as a weapon of war in eastern Congo, saying of sexual violence: It should be a mark of shame anywhere, in ...

By , copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009.
582309_090812_CongoShadow2.jpg
582309_090812_CongoShadow2.jpg

 

Goma, Congo, Aug. 11, 2009 | ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Goma, Congo, Aug. 11, 2009 | ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
 

Yesterday I highlighted a phrase used by Secretary Clinton on Monday: “mark of shame.” She used that phrase when discussing the use of rape as a weapon of war in eastern Congo, saying of sexual violence:

It should be a mark of shame anywhere, in any country. I hope that that will become a real cause here in Kinshasa that will sweep across the country.”

The phrase caught my attention because shame is often the emotion that rape victims feel, even though it’s the perpetrators who ought to be ashamed. John Boonstra over at U.N. Dispatch noticed the reversal of meaning, too. He did write, however, that it would be difficult to use shame as an emotion to “galvanize” a movement to reform the country’s policies and change cultural attitudes that stigmatize rape victims.

To feel shame, you have to feel like you’ve lost the respect of someone who’s opinion you value. In the case of sexual violence in Congo, Congolese would have to feel ashamed in front of the international community or their own local communities. International condemnation doesn’t seen to have shamed the Congolese government into eradicating the problem. And how do you change local communities so it’s the perpetrators who are stigmatized, not the victims and their families?

My hunch is that — just as in Western countries — it’s going to take the collective action of women speaking out, a free press that names (and thereby shames) rapists, and other grass-roots efforts to shift shame from victims to perpetrators. And to get all this, you need, among other things, women’s education, women’s rights, and women who reach high-profile positions in politics, business, academia, religion, and other spheres of society.

Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.