Light Shed on Sexual Violence

A representative for the Iraqi History Project Etelle R. Higonnet drew attention to the under-reported phenomenon of sexual violence in Iraq yesterday during a lecture at Harvard Law School.

As analysis director for the project, Higonnet called this widespread human rights violation “one of the most revolutionary, interesting and unknown things” in Iraq and said it was a significant aspect of the nation’s past and present struggle.

The project, created and funded by the International Human Rights Law Institute at Depaul University, has gathered over 10,000 testimonies from victims, perpetrators and witnesses of sexual violence in Iraq in the last two and a half years, according to Higonnet.

Most of the testimonies gathered attest to a wide array of sexual violence against men and women under Saddam Hussein as well as the Ba’ath party. The violence ranged from the threat of rape to sexual harassment by party officials, sexual enslavement to gang rape, and to forced nudity which Higonnet called a staple of detention facilities.

Higonnet said the data depict the culture of misogyny and terror that prevailed during Hussein’s “development of a professional class of torturers in a systematic, pyramidally structured society.” The goal of this sexual violence was to suppress dissension through targeting culturally sensitive ideas of honor and respect.

After the 2003 U.S. invasion, Higonnet said she believes sexual violence has become less patterned but its occurrence is still a problem for Iraq.

A number of Law School students interested in human rights issues facing Iraq attended the lecture.

“I have always wondered what it is really like over there. What we hear from the media is usually from a military point of view and I’d like to hear a different account of the story,” third year Law student Ella A. Shenhav said.

Higonnet, who is on a four-day leave from her position in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, called the project a qualitative rather than quantitative data collection effort aimed at providing a forum for victims to speak about their experiences with this taboo subject and at leveraging their stories to create a political space to advocate change.

“We are a small team and we need the faculty and students of academic institutions like Harvard to be researchers, web designers, pro bono translators and lawyers,” said Higonnet, who is the daughter of French history professor Patrice L. Higonnet ’58.

According to Higonnet, drawing upon this kind of talent will help develop reparations policies and change cultural and governmental systems in countries such as Iraq.