I want to thank you very much, Dr. Zawati, for explaining to us what is going on and the manner in which sexual violence is being used against women in Syria.
I wanted to point out that the first documented evidence of sexual violence in war was the rape of the Sabine women, right? I think this is not something new. We're all asking the questions about whether this is something that we learn lessons from, from eastern Europe or Bosnia, but this has been something that has gone on since documented time. Women have been subjected to sexual violence in every war. It didn't matter whether it was their own women or who propagated the crime, whether it was the soldiers, the state, whoever.
The big question I want to ask you is this: this has been going on now for millennia, so when are we going to do something about it? That's the first question. The second question is, what are we going to do?
For the women themselves, as you say, as victims, cultural and religious reasons are not reasons to deny human rights. Women are being subjugated in any kind of culture, so that they have no power whatsoever and they feel victimized, afraid, and ashamed. The reason rape is so successful is it creates shame in the communities because, as you very well say, these women can no longer live in those communities and hold their heads high. Their own communities ostracize them and kick them out.
We now find today international criminal elements are also preying on these women as they flee as refugees. To young girls they are saying, “You don't have anybody. People have all shunned you and left you alone; therefore we can give you work. We can help you to get money if you become part of organized prostitution and trafficking.” This is a whole broader concern.
For me, it's based on the very fact that women are not empowered, and that women's rights—imagine, in 1995 we finally agreed that women's rights were human rights in Beijing. The fact is when women have absolutely no voice, why would international organizations and states do anything about it when women are second-class citizens?
How do we empower women so that this is prevented, and women are strong within their communities so they're not seen as victims? How do we help women in conflict and in post-conflict situations be rehabilitated and be part of rebuilding a society so that they can be part of that society with a certain amount of power?
That's the question we need to be asking, because this has been going on forever. Syria is just another example. We just use this one as a fact and we're shocked by it all, but it's been going on for so long, and it is to the shame of all of us, states, human beings, communities, that we allow this to go on, that we have allowed this to be perpetuated for so long.
How do you see women being given the power pre-war, pre-conflict, in the midst of conflict, and post-conflict? How do you see that happening? I think that would diminish this whole problem of women being subjugated.