The Blackbird Whistling, Or Just After

Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo [Part 3 - The Healing & What You Can Do to Help]

If you want an intimate glimpse into the lives of victimized women fighting to reclaim their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, start with Lumo - One Woman's Struggle to Heal in a Country Beset by War.

This documentary details the story of then 20 year-old Lumo Sinai who, like tens or hundreds of thousands of others, was violently gang-raped and left for dead by militants in the DRC.

The Goma Film Project gives the following synopsis:

Lumo is a feature-length documentary about a young Congolese woman on an uncertain path to recovery at a unique hospital for rape survivors.

The agonies of war torn Africa are deeply etched in the bodies of women. In eastern Congo, vying militias, armies and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror.

Recently engaged to a young man from her village, 20 year-old Lumo Sinai couldn’t wait to have children and start a family. But when she crossed paths with marauding soldiers who brutally attacked her, she was left with a fistula — a condition that has rendered her incontinent and threatens her ability to give birth in the future. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, Lumo found her way to the one place that may save her: a hospital for rape survivors set on the border with Rwanda.

Buoyed by the love of the hospital staff, and a formidable team of wise women known to all as “the Mamas,” Lumo and her friends keep the hope of one day resuming their former lives, thanks to an operation that can restore them fully to health. A feisty young woman with a red comb perpetually jutting from her hair, Lumo faces the challenge of recovery with remarkable courage and sass. As she and her friends recover from surgery, they pass the days by gossiping and sharing their dreams of one day finding love.

But when it looks like her operation may have failed, Lumo’s faith is thrown entirely into question.

On this uncertain road to recovery, Lumo shows that the solidarity of women can bind the most irreparable of wounds.

American filmmakers Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Nelson Walker III take a unique approach that grants them the unlikely trust and acceptance of these brutalized women. They encourage the women to pick up a camera and participate in the filming (not unlike Ann Jones providing women with a means of self-expression and independence through photography in Cote d'Ivoire).

The filmmakers held nightly screening sessions, which both amazed and inspired the community of healing women. They also gave the women freedom to film whenever they chose and ensured that whenever a woman preferred not to be filmed, anyone with a camera desisted immediately and without question.

The film is shot in an observational style with no additional narration; the women themselves tell the story.

The culmination of these choices produces a striking result. The women pay little attention to the camera and the viewer is left with the astonishing "fly on the wall" privilege of looking into these women's lives: their horrific tales, their broken bodies, their fight to reclaim a piece of happiness, of purpose, their laughter, their jokes, their support, their jealousies, their triumphs, and their despair.

The film follows the women through their process of healing, both physically and psychologically, but it is careful not to paint a fairytale of recovery. When women heal from successful fistula surgeries, they leave the safety of the hospital and re-enter a climate rife with sexual violence and instability. Many times a woman's rapists will still have control of her village when she returns. It is not uncommon for a woman to heal and return  months later with further injuries.

Few hospitals exist to help these women, and those that do are underfunded, under supplied, and understaffed.

At the  Panzi hospital in Bukavu, Dr. Denis Mukwege is the only physician in a facility of 300 beds, most of which are filled with women waiting surgery to repair traumatic fistulas. Ironically, the hospital was founded as an operating room and maternity ward to serve the many women in southern Bukavu who have no assess to obstetric care. It was soon apparent, however, that the greater need was care for the growing number of victims of sexual violence.

Eve Ensler, founder of v-day.org,  wrote an extensive piece about her visit to DRC and Panzi, published in (of all places) Glamour Magazine. She begins the article with

I have just returned from hell. I am trying for the life of me to figure out how to communicate what I have seen and heard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to Erika Beckman, project manager for PMU Interlife, in an email to Susannah at The Reverse Cowgirl

...we receive approx. 200 rape victims a month at the hospital. We have both in-patients (women with more severe wounds) who reside at the hospital, and out-patients (less severe wounds) that stay in our "transit homes" where they are taken care of in-between treatments at the hospital. All women that come here receive the treatment, operations and training for free. Their children they might have with them are also cared for, as well as accompanying relatives or neighbours.

Women stay here on average 30 days for treatment, many women need multiple operations to be rehabilitated, and many need to heal in between the operations too. During their stay here, the women are taught how to read and write, they are taught different handicrafts and how to be self-sustainable. They are also given legal counselling and guided by lawyers if they wish to press charges against their perpetrators. (Currently we have 14 cases pending, but sadly because of the weak judicial system in DR Congo, perpetrators are always let off the hook).

The best evidence of the importance we have on the raped women that we treat is that many have told me that they would not have survived if they did not come to Panzi. Many women are, as you can understand, suicidal after the rape, but here at Panzi, except for medical treatment, they are also given their value back by our excellent staff and fellow victims who support each other, sing together to relieve the pain, work together on handicrafts and laugh together. They are truly amazing at finding small things to be happy about in life and really encourage each other in this way. [Em.mine]

The Panzi hospital, in partnership with V-Day and Unicef, is raising funds for a City of Joy.

City of Joy will be a refuge for healed women, survivors of rape and torture who have been left without family and community.  City of Joy will offer a safe haven, providing educational and income-generating opportunities, and support women in becoming the next leaders of the DRC.

Donate through v-day here.

Lumo was filmed in the HEAL Africa Hospital in Goma. HEAL Africa (Health, Education, Community Action, and Leadership Development) started as a part of Doctors on Call to Service (DOCS) and is now run by Dr Jo Lusi and his wife Lyn. They work to train Congolese medical staff, counselors and activists on dealing with issues like gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS.

As seen in the film, they send one of the "Mamas" into the countryside with a truck, rounding up women with traumatic fistulas and transporting them to the hospital. Although women often have had no idea that help was available, they remain terrified and many need to be persuaded to make the journey to the hospital.

To help the women re-integrate into communities that had ostracized them, HEAL Africa sends the women home bearing valuable gifts such as seeds and a gardening hoe, or a pair of ducks or a goat. The women also return with new self-sustainment skills that increase their value to the village. Many become literate during their stay at the hospital.

Donate to HEAL Africa here, and they'll tell you what each dollar amount will buy. For example, $20 buys a sewing kit for a woman who has learned tailoring skills, $50 pays for tuition and supplies to send one child to primary school for a year, $300 pays for a woman's fistula surgery.

Donate. Write a letter to Congolese officials (v-day has a template). Link to a blog or article. TALK to people. Tell them what's going on and what they can do.

Act now. It's so easy for most of us. Just act.

Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo [Part 2 - The Savagery]

It is difficult to write this section because what I am about to describe is nearly unimaginable. But it is true and it is happening. Not to one woman. Not to ten, or one hundred, or one thousand. Not to ten thousand. It's happening to hundreds of thousands of women throughout the DRC. It is happening right now, this second, as you read this.

Women, children, babies. Raped, tortured, mutilated. Many times in front of their families. Many times for days on end. They are gang raped. They are raped with objects. Sticks. Rocks. Bayonets. Guns. They are raped with the sheer intent to destroy - body and soul. Women have had firearms discharged into their vaginas, blowing out their female anatomy, yet surviving. Girls under the age of three, women over eighty.

Women are left with wounds, infections, STDs, and traumatic fistulas. A traumatic fistula is a tear in the wall between the vagina and the bladder and/or the rectum, leaving the woman entirely incontinent.

Having been raped these women are frequently and "justifiably" abandoned by their husbands. Bearing the stench of incontinence, they are often ostracized by their villages. Unable to bear children, they lose their primary value as mother or wife.

Individual stories are nearly unbearable to hear. Congolese human rights activist Christine Schuler Deshchyver describes:

Babies. The last baby who was raped, it was in April. She was ten months old, so a very small baby. She was raped. The same gang raped the mother during two weeks. Then they came to Bukavu into my office. I wanted to bring the baby to the hospital, but she was so injured she died in my arms. Ten months—can you imagine that? And these people, these women in Congo, are just begging for life, not begging for money, just the right to live in their country safely.

The New York Times recently reported:

“I still have pain and feel chills,” said Kasindi Wabulasa, who was raped in February by five men. The men held an AK-47 rifle to her husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes, they would shoot him. When they were finished, Ms. Wabulasa said, they shot him anyway.

***

Honorata Barinjibanwa, 18, [...] said she was kidnapped from a village [...] raided in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said. [...] She is also pregnant.

The HRW  report cites a Congolese doctor in eastern DRC specialising in the treatment of rape victims:

"In peacetime, the demands on Congolese women are limitless; but in this war, the most insane fantasies have found their expression. When seven soldiers rape a women or little girl, and thrust a knife or fire shots into her vagina, for them the woman is no longer a human being, she is an object. And since there are no longer any laws or rules, combatants pour out their anger and their madness on to women and little girls."

Particularly horrifying is the indiscriminate targeting of victims. Even in times of war, certain standards of decency usually remain - at least in a percentage of the terrorizing population. But no code of ethics seems to stand in the DRC. According to an Amnesty International report:

All levels of the population in eastern DRC are affected by sexual violence. Survivors hail from all ethnic groups, all social strata and all age groups,(24), from rural and urban districts. Those raped may be seriously ill, physically or mentally disabled or pregnant. In some areas, rapes of men and boys are common. In the words of one rapist[...], "It makes no difference".

John Holmes, head of the U.N. Emergency Relief Operations described DRC's intensity and frequency of rape as "the worst in the world," explaining

It's the scale and brutality of it. It's the use of it as a weapon of terror. It's the way it's done publicly, for maximum humiliation.

Prevalence of Rape

In the first six months of 2007 the UN reported reported 4,500 instances of rape in the Southern Kivu province alone. However, only the most extreme cases are reported. Keep in mind that a woman who admits to being raped bears the stigma of it for the rest of her life. She exposes herself and her children to abandonment by her husband. If she is unmarried, admitting lost virginity makes it nearly impossible to find a husband, which is essentially the only way to make a place for herself in Congolese society.

Rapes are reported when a woman requires life-saving medical care and must admit what has happened in order to get it. That is, if she has manages to discover that medical help is available and to safely traverse many miles to arrive at one of the few hospitals able to treat her condition.

Therefore, the actual number of rape cases is much higher than 4,500 in six months. Holmes estimates that "many -- perhaps most -- attacks go unreported." Most? So the actual figure may be ten times higher, though probably more. And remember, we're only talking about South Kivu - a province with a population of 245,000. If we add in the population of surrounding rural communities, it's still less populated than, say, the city of Boston or Tuscon. Using the reported number of cases only, that would lead to 9,000 (90,000) women brutally mutilated, beaten, and raped in a single year. That's 750 (7,500) women every month. 173 (1,730) every week. 25 (250) per day. In an area with the population of Boston.

Information from the Stephen Lewis Foundation gives even higher figures:

In October, 2006, UN Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, reported that "In the eastern Congo, over 12,000 rapes of women and girls have been reported in the last six months."

But Jean-Marie Guenhenno knows that the number of rapes that go unreported as usually ten or twenty times higher than those that come to official attention, and vastly higher still during a war. [Em. mine]

Who is raping the women? Who isn't.

Although much focus is placed on the Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutus who perpetrated the 1994 genocide), virtually every militant group is a danger to women. Perpetrators also include the Congolese army and any of dozens of armed civilian factions. Even UN peace keepers have been cited as some of the worst offenders.  Activist Christine Schuler Deschryver explains:

All of them are raping women. It is a country sport. Any person in uniform is an enemy to women.

Next: Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo [Part 3 -- The Healing]

"Like Rwanda, but Worse" - Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo [PART ONE: History of the Conflict]

Women in the People's Democratic of Congo have been enduring barbaric sexual atrocities during the country's violent civil unrest for more than a decade. Yet the western world seems to hardly have noticed. This is the first in an ongoing series documenting the situation in a country where women and children are inhumanly brutalized, where even the most unimaginable forms of rape have become common weapons of war.

Many are questioning how this level of sexual violence grew to such dramatic proportions. Although atrocities and rape in wartime are common, U.N. leaders consider the intensity and prevalence of horrors in the Congo to be "the worst in the world."

It's interesting to note that, according to a recent NY Times article

Many Congolese aid workers denied that the problem was cultural and insisted that the widespread rapes were not the product of something ingrained in the way men treated women in Congolese society. “If that were the case, this would have showed up long ago,” said Wilhelmine Ntakebuka, who coordinates a sexual violence program in Bukavu.

Contrarily, an Amnesty International  report asserts that it is precisely women's lower societal status that allows for this type of targeting in wartime.

"When you lift the stone of sexual violence, you will find another stone of the treatment of women more generally, which is effectively slavery. Women do everything: they walk miles for food or water, they care for the children, they cook, they clean, they cultivate the land and they earn the family income… That is the female condition in the Congo. "

 -- Expatriate woman psychologist working in DRC, interviewed by AI

In the very least, Congolese law leaves nowhere for these women to turn as crimes of rape, torture, mutilation, kidnapping, and sexual slavery are committed with nearly 100% impunity.

A 2002 HRW report summarizes women's status in Congolese society.

Even before the war in Congo, women and girls were second class citizens. The law as well as social norms defined the role of women and girls as subordinate to men. Although women are often a major-if not the major-source of support for the family, the Congolese Family Code requires them to obey their husbands who are recognized as the head of the household.

Women and girls are also subordinate by custom and practice. A woman's status depends on being married and girls tend to marry at a young age. It is generally considered more important to educate boys than girls[...] Literacy statistics for Congo (also) show gender-specific discrimination.

Male household heads often settle violent crimes against women and girls outside the courts. Some have "resolved" rape cases by accepting a money payment from the perpetrator or his family or by arranging to have the perpetrator marry the victim. [...]

Women and girls who are raped suffer significant loss of social status[...] In cases of the death of women and girls by murder or negligence, the family of the victim sometimes agrees to accept the equivalent of a woman's bride price as compensation and does not pursue the case further.

Congolese views about women and the issue of sexual violence were clearly demonstrated in 2005 when UNICEF spearheaded the first march against sexual violence in the boarder city of Goma. Hundreds of brutalized women donned black head scarves and nervously took to the streets. In a PBS interview, American filmmaker Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt describes the event:

...the march ended up being more chaotic than we imagined because every one of the bystanders, male or female, heckled the women marching. Their position was, "Why are you doing this? This is stupid. What is sexual violence?" On an official level, there aren't any adequate laws against rape, and no one has been convicted of rape in 40 years, other than three or four people who were not soldiers.

Let's take a quick look at how the climate in the Congo escalated to create an atmosphere conducive to these horrors.

Rwandan Atrocities Bleed Across Boarders

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been torn by conflict almost since its origins. Although women have long suffered pervasive injustice in this climate, sexual violence crescendoed to horrific levels and epidemic proportions in the wake of civil violence that was instigated by the atrocities in neighboring Rwanda.

(If you need a refresher on the Rwandan genocide, go here, here, or here. Read this. Watch this.)

For three months in the spring and summer of 1994, a rush of Rwandan Tutsi refugees fled to Zaire to escape mass genocide at the hands of the Rwandan Hutus. Under government directive the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) slaughtered over 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children before being overthrown by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPP). By 1996, a large number of RPF members, (known also as Interahamwe)  fled the new government and  crossed the boarder as well. Human Rights Watch  summarizes:

The government responsible for the genocide then led more than a million Hutu into exile in Congo, then Zaire, where civilian refugees and the military together established themselves in camps along the border. Under the direction of the defeated political and military leaders, soldiers and militia reorganized and rearmed within the refugee population, preparing for new attacks on Rwanda.

In late 1996 the Rwandan government sent its troops into the Congo, asserting the need to impede preparations for attacks on Rwanda as well as any obligation to protect the Banyamulenge, Congolese of the Tutsi ethnic group, who were being threatened by local and national Congolese political authorities.

The Rwandan soldiers together with combatants of the Allied Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo...a hastily organized coalition of Congolese forces, attacked the camps and killed tens of thousands of Rwandans, many of them unarmed civilian refugees. Hundreds of thousands of refugees then returned to Rwanda, some of them voluntarily, some of them forced to do so by Rwandan government troops. Some two hundred thousand Rwandans fled westward through the forests.

Many of the civilians were massacred in the following months by RPA or AFDL troops but several thousand ex-FAR and militia members regrouped to resume fighting the Rwandan government forces in Congo and later in Rwanda.

During this time, the Zairian government was toppled by a rebellion and a man named Kabila came to power and reinstated the country's former name - the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the instability following the coup, Kabila began to lose favor and troops from neighboring Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad, and the Sudan quickly became involved in an effort to encourage stability.

As of 2004 nearly four million people perished in the conflict and a 2006 Economist article considers this period to be "the bloodiest since World War II."

In 2001 Kabila was assassinated and replaced in power by his son. Since then there have been two rounds of general elections, but little has been done to stabilize the country's rampant and savage violence. Varying factions fight each other and the government, and ethnic contentions conflate the violence.

Congolese citizens are left trying to survive amid a state of near constant destruction and uncertainty. Rebels take control of villages, or simply destroy them by killing the men, raping or kidnapping the women, and burning the village to the ground.

Over one million Congolese are displaced, especially in the eastern part of the country where the Interahamwe militant faction "Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda" is particularly active. Starvation and disease are rampant.

In this environment of political and economic struggle, racial hatred, and lawlessness, one across-the-board "enemy" stands above them all - women.

Next: Rape as a Weapon of War in the Congo [Part 2 - The Savagery]

 

Women in War Zones - Ann Jones Blogs "16 Days" from Cote d'Ivoire

Check out the fabulous writer/photographer/activist Ann Jones as she blogs for 16-Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (Nov 25 - Dec 10). She's in the Cote d'Ivoire  with the International Rescue Committee in an effort to "give women in war zones the opportunity to speak, loudly and clearly."

The IRC hopes to encourage national reconciliation by working in three different areas, serving three different populations with different needs. But what all three sites have in common is strong programs in “Violences Basees sur le Genre”—Gender-Based Violence.

Why? The answer is painfully simple. In any war, women and children are the principal victims. Offer any humanitarian program to assist people violated, deprived, damaged, or displaced by war and you find yourself serving women and their children, all of whom, in one way or another, have been victims of the violence of war and of additional violence done to them as women.

She will blog once a day through December 10th. Check it out. And don't miss the post where she teaches the women how to use digital cameras.

Then I send the teams out to take photos. They huddle to consult with each other about the cameras. Is it this button, or that? How hard must I push?

The first team finds a subject. One woman holds the camera firmly, as I’ve taught them, and points it. All heads converge at the viewing screen. What next? A teammate reaches over the camera-holder’s shoulder to depress the shutter button. An icon appears on the screen to indicate whether the subject is in focus. “It’s green! It’s green!” say the team mates. “Push! Push!” The button-pusher’s finger comes down. “Click!” The women scream. They jump up and down. They throw their arms around each other while the camerawoman holds the tiny camera aloft for safekeeping.

Priceless.

*** Further Reading ***
CÔTE D'IVOIRE - Targeting women: The forgotten victims of the conflict

The IRC - How You Can Help

Ann Jones Bio

"Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." World AIDS Day 2007

Living in the United States today, it might seem like the ravages of HIV infection and AIDS are largely contained. After all, it's treatable, preventable, and I don't know anyone dying from it...

...yet today still 70% of (HIV) infected people don’t have access to life saving therapies. Many still face stigma, economic deprivation and rejection because of their infection. Many still don’t have access to basic information or simple interventions that will reduce risk. This is not the time for complacency nor apathy. It is the time for compassionate leadership that recognises that the voiceless are often those who suffer most- who can they turn to if their leaders do not listen and heed their cries.
--Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M Tutu

The truth is every day 6,000 people die from AIDS. Of the 33 million people infected with HIV, more than 25 million of them are in Africa. 2.3 million are children, although children under five years of age who lose a parent to AIDS, have a lower survival rate due to poverty and abandonment issues.

Maybe you've been tested for HIV, but try this AIDS test, and in the very first question you'll learn that AIDS claims as many lives as American fatalities in the Vietnam War - every single week.

Here's some perspective - to date AIDS has killed the equivalent of the populations of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin combined. Think of the entire population of your child's school. The population of your home town. The nearest city. Every single person dead. Now think of five cities. Twenty cities. A state. Three states. Three states. 25 million people.

Now remember that 33 million people are currently infected and nearly two-thirds of these are not receiving treatment. How many more statefuls of people need to die before we, as individuals, do something to help? Maybe you're already helping. But if you're not - why are you waiting?

Donate here, or here, or here.   Raise Money.    Do EBay.  Volunteer.     Buy stuff.     Walk.

It may be tempting to view AIDS as less of a threat than it once was. While technically true, it's still killing at an alarming, and in many areas, growing rate.

2007 marks the first World AIDS Day able to celebrate real progress against the disease. The global total had been holding at about 40 million in the late nineties and since then the rate of new infections has also decreased. Antiretroviral drugs have been largely successful in treating HIV and efforts to bring medicines to developing nations are beginning to pay off.

Nevertheless, despite these advances, experts warn that, though we've won some battles, we're still losing the war. According to an AFP article

"Despite substantial progress against AIDS worldwide, we are still losing ground," says James Shelton of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in a commentary appearing today in The Lancet, a London medical journal. Despite progress in the drug rollout, treatment is still only available to about 10 per cent of those in need, notes Shelton. In developing countries, "the number of new infections continues to dwarf the numbers who start antiretroviral therapy in developing countries", he says. [Em. mine]

*** More info - ways to help ***

Global Health Reporting - Comprehensive list of AIDS organizations.

Avert - US AIDS organizations, by state.

 

 

 

What's Wrong With This Picture? - AI's New FGM Campaign

Came across info on this on Feministing and Salon. A Swedish ad firm came up with a new campaign for Amnesty International against female genital mutilation.  I'm surprised by how many people consider this a great ad campaign. Yes, the images are beautiful and striking, but they are also completely ineffective.

I responded on a couple boards with the following:

Neither the images nor the text come close...

I'm really disappointed in this campaign. Neither the images not the text come close to conveying, or even suggesting, what really happens to these girls.

First of all, they deceptively convey only one part of one type of FGM. (The other part would have been cutting off a good chunk of "petals" before sewing.)

Consequently, the rose isn't DAMAGED at all! It's not MUTILATED. It's a lovely image of a rose that has been sewn in the middle. In fact, the rose is so unblemished it appears that the stitches could be removed and it would bounce back into its former perfection. The text doesn't describe what female genital mutilation really is and it doesn't suggest the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of the act.

Given that the actuality of this horror is beyond what anyone unacquainted with it could or would imagine without being explicitly told, this is just too vague to be of any consequence. FGM is so unpleasant to contemplate and so removed from most of our everyday lives that the only way to get someone to fully experience the stomach-turning, chill-inducing discomfort of recognizing what it really is, is to be BLATANT.

And, I'm sorry but in the pink image the "clitoris" is healthy and thriving and absolutely untouched.

Too artistic. Too (thriving, unblemished) beautiful. Too vague.

What do you think?

...Coming up next "Female Genital Mutilation and Male Circumcision - Why They Don't Equate"

Scientists Plead -- "No More Ab-Only Funding!"

President Bush has proposed increasing funding for abstinence-only education to $204 million in 2008, despite the fact that the programs promote marriage as the only acceptable family structure, stigmatize and encourage silence in sexually abused youth, deny information to sexually active youth, and ostracize and condemns LGBT youth based on views that are entirely religious in origin. (This is not to mention all the studies, surveys, and reports that follow, which demonstrate the danger and sheer ineffectiveness of the AOE programs...)

In fact, abstinence-only programs have such freedom with the federal dollar that they recently broadened their target base to include all unmarried adults under the age of thirty! The escalating nature of this climate prompted a group of scientists to rally against Bush's proposal with a hard-hitting, fact-filled response backed with plenty of scientific documentation.

Earlier this week, professionals from institutions such as Columbia, Yale, and the University of California sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to discontinue federal funding for abstinence-only education. The letter went on to cite the mountain of recent documentation demonstrating the inefficacy and potential damage of these programs. They note the condemnation of abstinence-only teachings by the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

The opinions of these organizations is further enforced by recent Congressional testimony from former Surgeon General Richard Carmona:  

Dr. Carmona's testimony confirms the political motivations behind abstinence funding and the failure to address issues of efficacy and scientific accuracy. He suggested that ideology and theology have taken priority over women's health in the current administration. Dr. Carmona reported that the Bush administration "did not want to hear the science but wanted to, if you will, ‘preach abstinence,' which I felt was scientifically incorrect."

The letter  highlights “multiple deficiencies” in ab-only ed and expresses “surprise and dismay” that Congress proposes to “extend and even increase” funding abstinence-only education programs.   They attach various national and international studies and surveys, which fortify their position, including those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By design, abstinence programs restrict information about condoms and contraception - information that may be critical to protecting the health of young people and to preventing unplanned pregnancy, HIV infection, and infection with other sexually transmitted organisms. They ignore the health needs of sexually active youth and youth who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning for counseling, health care services, and risk reduction education. Withholding lifesaving information from young people is contrary to the standards of medical ethics and to many international human rights conventions. 

The letter goes on to show that little evidence supports the efficacy of these programs to promote abstinence or reduce pregnancy and STDs in teens, while strong evidence suggests

…that many comprehensive sexuality education programs, which include information on both abstinence and contraception, do help young people delay initiation of intercourse.

AOE did succeed in heightening teenagers' doubts that condoms were effective in preventing HIV or other STDs. (Presumably decreasing the likelihood they will be used for this purpose once the boy or girl becomes sexually active.)

Virginity pledges were shown to temporarily delay the onset of sexual activity, but once these teens did begin to have sex they were much less likely to use condoms or seek reproductive health care of any sort.

Abstinence-until-marriage programs, which recently extended to target unmarried adults up to 29 years of age, presented an increasingly unrealistic goal as the average age of the onset sexual activity has lowered to 17, while the average age Americans get married is around 26 and continues to rise.

The letter also cites the 2004 Congressional Report , headed by Rep. Henry Waxman, that found disturbing inaccuracies in ab-only educational materials. 

The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform - Minority Staff found that 11 of the 13 most frequently used curricula contained false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health - including inaccurate information about contraceptive effectiveness, purported health risks of abortion, and other scientific errors. Recent reviews of these abstinence curricula from Santelli and colleagues at Columbia University have found similar inaccuracies, particularly misinformation about the efficacy of condoms and contraception.

At the very minimum, the report can be summarized as finding that AOE programs typically

• grossly underestimate the effectiveness of condoms and other contraceptives in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs);
• make false claims about the physical and psychological risks of abortion;
• offer misinformation on the incidence and transmission of STIs;
• replace scientific facts with religious views and moral judgments; and
• distort medical evidence and basic scientific facts.

Lets look at this in a little more detail. The Washington Post reported:

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.

In addition, the report found education materials that asserted

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."
• HIV can be spread via sweat and tears.
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse. (Actually, it's less than 3% when used consistently and correctly, as much as 14% with incorrect or inconsistent use)

One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion.

Another curriculum tells youth that a long list of personal problems — including isolation, jealousy, poverty, heartbreak, substance abuse, unstable longterm commitments, sexual violence, embarrassment, depression, personal disappointment, feelings of being used, loss of honesty, loneliness, and suicide — “can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage.”

Similarly, other curricula teach that mental health problems are a consequence of sexual activity, without considering the evidence that these problems might themselves cause premature sexual activity, or that they might have a common origin.

 Gender roles got roped into the fray, with materials that often

present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for "admiration" and "sexual fulfillment" compared with a woman's need for "financial support."

Another cirriculum instructs: “Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on their relationships. Men’s happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments.”

One book in the "Choosing Best" series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. "Moral of the story," notes the popular text: "Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

As you might imagine, abstinence groups were displeased with the report and found all sorts of ways to call it inaccurate, especially since the teaching materials are all still in place. Choosing the Best responded to the fairytale criticism by explaining that the story

is designed to illustrate the differences in communication style between men and women. In addition to missing the point of the story, Waxman fails to mention that this program is for older teens, deals with “Making Marriage Work” and presents widely accepted, mainstream relational principles that encourage the development of listening and appreciation skills in a marriage relationship.

I guess the Choosing Best people consider this perfect justification for a federally-funded youth-targeted parable -- taking fault not for critics' interpretation of the message, which they uphold, but jumping to clarify the story's "age-appropriateness" for teens and supposedly sound application to marriage.

Just for good measure, here are a few tidbits from a Seicus Fact Sheet "In Their Own Words: What Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Say"

* “There are always risks associated with it [premarital sex], even dangerous, life-threatening risks such as HIV/AIDS. Using contraceptives does not change this for teenagers.” - FACTS Middle School, Student Handbook, p. 50

* "...students who do not choose to exercise self-control to remain abstinent  are not likely to exercise self-control in the use of a contraceptive device.” - Game Plan, Coach’s Clipboard, p. 27

* “AIDS can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.” - Reasonable Reasons to Wait, Teacher’s guide, Unit 5, pg. 19

* “A guy who wants to respect girls is distracted by sexy clothes and remembers her for one thing. Is it fair that guys are turned on by their senses and women by their hearts?” -  Sex Respect, Student Workbook, p. 94

* “One thing that sex education and the media fail to communicate is the power of sex. Spies, who are trained not to give away government secrets, even lose their sensibilities and give in to the power of sex, often because of what a woman is wearing.” (SPIES?!) - WAIT Training, Workshop Manual, p. 86

* “These are simply natural consequences. For example, if you eat spoiled food, you will get sick. If you jump from a tall building, you will be hurt or killed. If you spend more money than you make, your enslavement to debt affects you and those whom you love. If you have sex outside of marriage, there are consequences for you, your partner and society.” - Sex Respect, Student Workbook, p. 11

Seen enough? Let's move on...

It gets even worse when our Christian Conservative abstinence "values" actually hamper the country from effectively saving lives in other countries that we've agreed to help. The letter to Pelosi cites the grotesque findings of the Government Accountability Office, which reported that  AIDS–ravaged countries qualify for US aid only if they spend one-third of the donated resources on abstinence-only education. This was mandated without  regard to overriding health and  poverty issues, deeply embedded cultural and religious differences, and rampant gender inequality which can eliminate a female's option to abstain.

As a result, thousands needlessly fall ill in the absence of pervasive condom education and dispersion because  we'd rather impose our Puritanical views of abstinence-over-information, in which most of our own citizens don't believe. This restriction also greatly impedes our ability help the sick and dying, as it doesn't allow funds to be allocated based on areas of need - at least not 33.3% of them.

Whether the letter will do any good or not remains to be seen. It would certainly seem that some response is called for. Read the letter for yourself with links to all the studies cited at RHRealitycheck.org.

*** More info (if you really need it)
Physicians Oppose Inaccurate and Dangerous Abstinence-only Sexuality Education in Texas Textbooks

The Case Against Abstinence-Only Sex Education (article w/Shelby Knox on BeliefNet)

PBS Documentary: The Education of Shelby Knox

A self-described "good Southern Baptist girl," 15-year-old Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas has pledged abstinence until marriage. But she becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex ed when she finds that Lubbock, where high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the state.

Five Years of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education: Assessing the Impact

MSNBC:  

    Doctors denounce abstinence-only education

    Abstinence-only sex ed defies common sense: Education  policy spreads ignorance, sends confusing message to teens

Abstinence-Only Goes Beyond Teens

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

NoMoreMoney.org (for Abstinence Until Marriage Programs)
    *  In Their Own Words: What Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Say
    * Harmful Consequences Abstinence Only Doesn't Work

US Immigration Appeals Equates Forced Marriage and Perpetuated Female Genital Mutilation with "Family Tradition" - (ICE Pt. 4)

The US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently ruled against a young woman's request for asylum from Mali, where she had been genitally mutilated. A return to Mali would mean a forced marriage to her cousin and the likely mutilation of her daughters. The NY Times reports

“While we do not discount the respondent’s concerns,” Mr. Filppu continued, “we do not see how the reluctant acceptance of family tradition over personal preference can form the basis” for allowing Ms. Traore to stay in the United States.

Family tradition over personal preference? They presume her suffering is over because the act of mutilation has already occurred. It is clear they do not, nor have they truly attempted to, understand this matter. This despite reasoning laid out by a Circuit Court in 2005.

In 2005 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals  granted asylum to Somali-born Khadija Mohamed under the finding that female genital mutilation constitutes ongoing persecution. ICE and the BIA had both previously ruled against asylum for Mohammed. In it's considerations regarding her claim the court found the following:

The court first considered whether female genital mutilation constitutes “persecution.”  The court rejected the government’s contention that the practice cannot be a basis for a claim of past persecution because it is “widely accepted and widely-practiced.”  Rather, the court concluded that “the extremely painful, physically invasive, psychologically damaging and permanently disfiguring process of genital mutilation undoubtedly rises to the level of persecution” under U.S. asylum law. 

(In a footnote, the court noted the practice of many courts and the BIA of referring to female genital mutilation by the initials “FGM.”  The court declined to adopt this practice and used the complete expression throughout its opinion, noting that use of the initials “serves only to dull the senses and minimize the barbaric nature of the practice.”)

BIA documentation also consistently misspelled Muhammed's name. 

The court determined that Muhammed suffered from inadequate legal counsel during her petitions and found her original case ruling "nonsensical", although it stopped short of reprimanding BIA.

BIA's stringency on this matter is perplexing considering that it recognizes the ongoing persecution of those living with forced sterilization. In fact, in forced-sterilization cases the BIA grants asylum to both sterilized parties and their spouses. (If it's an unmarried couple or same sex relationship of course, rules don't apply.) Yet, it continues to deny that the aftermath of female genital mutilation constitutes persecution. Instead, the Traore ruling likens the suffering of genital mutilation to that of losing a limb, and finds the assured mutilation of Traore's future daughters to be of no consequence to the ruling. 

Taore has since filed a motion to reconsider, although it sounds like her only chance is to follow Muhammed's lead to hire a private attorney and appeal in court.

There is a disconnect here, where people don't truly understand what happens to these girls, in Mali as young as five. They mistakenly, or conveniently think this is an issue similar to circumcision. It's not. If a small bit of skin on the labia were removed and healed with few repercussions, that would be similar.

First of all, the procedure is done with a serrated knife (or sharpened rock), no sterilization, and no anesthesia. Her clitoris is sawed off, her vulva and sometimes her entire labia is cut off. Sometimes her openings are sewn painfully shut making normal urination and menstruation agonizing. Many girls die from hemorrhaging and life-long infections are routine.

Often, a husband must first cut open his bride where she has healed shut so that he may penetrate her for the first time. This is done quickly, with a small knife, in the marriage bed.

The discrepancy in the BIA's rulings on sterilization verses female genital mutilation illustrates the view that the ability to procreate is a woman's highest value. Still.

If it were a man's penis being removed, or sawed off to a stub so he could still procreate but sex was agonizing and everyday bodily activities invitations to pain, infection, illness, and death, I can guarantee there would be no dispute on this issue.

***

The World Health Organization on Female Genital Mutilation

ICE Forcibly Drugs Deportees - (ICE PART THREE)

In October 2007, charges were brought against the US agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for forcibly injecting deportees with psychotropic medications. According to a recent CNN article immigrants Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia and Amadou Diouf of Senegal were injected with the drugs against their will, and are now a part of class-action lawsuit seeking to stop the practice.

The men’s attorney, Ahilan Arulanantham stated

It would be torture to give a powerful anti-psychotic drug to somebody who isn't even mentally ill. ... But here, it's happening on U.S. soil to an immigrant the government is trying to deport."

Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, law and ethics at Columbia University, reviewed the case and said

That is the sort of thing that would be subject to a malpractice claim in the civilian world."

ICE head Julie Myers admits the practice, known as a "medical escort" was used in 1,073 deportations since 2003.  From October 2006 to April 2007 56 deportees received psychotropic medications. The agency has denied Arulanantham’s requests to release the identities of injected individuals.

Myers says that 33 of the admitted 56 drugged deportees received medication "because of combative behavior with the imminent risk of danger to others and/or self." She does not specify why the 23 non-combative individuals were injected. If they had psychiatric need for the medication they would have been on a schedule of oral administration, although given ICE’s failure to provide even life-saving drugs to detainees, it’s difficult to understand how this would have come about.

Both Soeoth and Diou deny combative behavior, claims that are backed-up by ICE paperwork on the deportations.

Soeoth, a Christian minister fleeing persecution, spent 27 months in detention awaiting deportation after his bid for political asylum was rejected.

He was injected with  Haldol (anti-psychotic) and Cogentin(anti-tremor, Parkinsons drug) even though (ICE) records show he has no history of mental illness.

Diouf was wrestled to the ground and injected while trying to show authorities his stay of deportation document. According to the AP, he says he suffered “extreme dizziness, paranoia and sleeplessness for two days before the medication wore off."

Why would they even have access to these drugs? People who need life-saving drugs can't get them yet deportees are rendered docile with the inappropriate use of psychotropics?

What physician is authorizing this? Cogentin is proscribed with Haldol to counteract Haldol's long-term side-effect of uncontrollable twitching, especially in the facial muscles. It is difficult to imagine why they would pair the two for a one-time dose, unless they know next to nothing about the drugs. And what ever happened to Valium? Clozapine? Or any of a handful of other drugs appropriate to the task?

Again, these people are peaceably asking for our help and they're being regarded as convicted criminals. In fact, convicted criminals receive markedly better medical care than innocent immigrants.

Immigrant Detainees Denied Adequate, Life-Saving Medical Care - (ICE PART TWO)

At least 200,000 men, women, and children are currently being detained in the US, and not a single one of them has been convicted of a crime. In fact, many have sought refuge in the US from torture, the ravages of war, or religious persecution. Many await hearings to determine if asylum will be granted. having nowhere else to turn, and heartened by our founding principals of individual liberty and justice, they have put their trust in the United States of America. Unfortunately, for too many, detainment in the US provides a new environment of helplessness and suffering.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is under recent scrutiny following a spate of horrific reports that detainees have been denied adequate medical care. Charges include denying detainees medication for the treatment of long-standing conditions such as cancer, high-blood pressure, and AIDS, as well the refusal to acknowledge and/or treat infections and other ailments incurred or discovered while in detention. 62 people have died while being detained in the US since 2004, many as a result of ICE's gross medical negligence. These deaths had remained concealed from the public until the ACLU petitioned ICE to release the information in June 2007.

The DHS inspector general conducted a review of five immigrant detainee centers and, as reported in the Washington Post,

Auditors found rodent and bug infestations, out-of-date law libraries, limited access to legal aid services, irregular medical care, undercooked chicken and filthy food trays.

In July the ACLU briefed Congress on the conditions faced by detainees and called for improved and standardized medical practices in the detainment and deportment of immigrants. They addressed the problem of the system itself:

Nearly 300,000 men, women, and children are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) each year, the majority of whom have no criminal history whatsoever. Thousands arrived on our shores fleeing persecution and torture, only to be locked up like criminals in one of over 400 detention facilities around the country. Congress must ensure that detained immigrants receive treatment that reflects America's fundamental values.

Detained Immigrants Are Uniquely Vulnerable to Abuse and Poor Treatment
Survivors of torture, asylum-seekers, families with small children and individuals with serious mental health and medical conditions such as HIV/AIDS, are routinely locked up in jails or under jail-like conditions. Studies conducted by the bipartisan Commission on International Religious Freedom, New York University's Bellevue Program, and Physicians for Human Rights have demonstrated that, even in well-run jails, detention itself poses a serious threat to the psychological health of the detainees. Without the right to appointed counsel and often detained in remote locations, detainees are unable to exercise fully what rights they do have.

There are no binding uniform detention standards that ensure the humane treatment of detainees. Detainees, including children, are often subjected to arbitrary punishment, including strip-searching shackling; solitary confinement; neglect of basic medical and hygienic needs; denial of outdoor recreation; lack of access to phones, mail and legal resources; and verbal, physical and even sexual abuse. 

It is the arbitrary nature of punishment and medical care that allows the abuses of power and medical neglect that have led to injury, disease, and death within detainee facilities.

Four months later, virtually nothing has been done to rectify these issues. In October 2007, the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship,Refugees, Border Security, and International Law heard testimony in the hearing: “Detention and Removal: Immigration Detainee Medical Care".

Allen S. Keller, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, testified:

In June 2003, the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture and Physicians for Human
Rights issued a report “From Persecution to Prison: The Health Consequences of Detention for Asylum Seekers.” In this study we interviewed 70 asylum seekers held in immigration
detention.

We documented both high levels of psychological distress, which worsened during
the course of detention, and inadequate or non-existent mental health services. We also
documented difficulties accessing medical and dental services for painful and sometimes
dangerous health problems. Unfortunately, recent reports...demonstrate that the problems we identified with regards to accessing health care in immigration detention have not been corrected.

Keller points out that these immigrants come to the United States looking to build new lives and are often shocked to find themselves in prison with little idea how long they will be incarcerated. Most often immigrants are detained for months or years, during which they are denied basic rights and adequate care.

Keller documents specific cases such as:

• One detainee reported that while attending a peaceful demonstration in his country of origin, he suffered a gunshot wound to the groin. While in detention, his groin pain worsened. He reported being told that he would have to wait until he was released to have the bullet removed, but he remained in detention for 2½ years.
• A lump on the wrist was a source of pain and frustration for one detainee for several months. In his country, he previously had minor surgery to remove a lump on his wrist,
which resulted from his hands had been tied with rope while being beaten. After fleeing
his country, while in immigration detention, the growth recurred, even larger and more
painful. He was told he would have to wait for release to receive surgery for the condition. After 5 months in detention he was granted asylum and released.

All of the testimonies are well worth the read, especially that of 35-year old Fransisco Castenada, who was denied care for a cancerous legion on his penis. A biopsy of the legion was deemed "elective surgery" and he was denied further treatment. Castenada was released after ten months of agony, whereupon an oncologist told him he needed the surgical removal of his penis and aggressive chemotherapy. Immediately. Even still, the cancer had spread over those months to his lymph nodes and stomach and he does not expect to survive more than a few years.

Also, author Edwidge Danticat gives a moving account of her uncle's death while in detention.

Check them out, you can even audio stream.

The response from ICE workers in facilities where care has been denied typically attribute the situation to lack of funds funds for medicine.

Which is strange considering ICE funds the drugs it administers forcibly detainees.

NEXT: Part Three - ICE Forcibly Drugs Deportees

Further Reading:

Victoria Arellano: Shackled and Denied Life-Saving Medicine This immigrant was HIV-positive and denied medications that could have kept her healthy. She was dying of respiratory failure and finally attached to a respirator, where through her last days she remained shackled to the bed.

Open Letter to Julie Myers about the treatment of Ms. Arellano, signed by nearly 100 activist groups and CC'ed to 27 members of congress and homeland Chief Michael Chertoff.

Our Curious Immigration Laws - Comprehensive blog by Sonia Ansari, an immigration and citizenship attorney from Austin.