Meanings of Mass Rape During the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: Understanding Intersectionality Through Survivor Testimonies

Abstract: Women were targeted for rape during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda because of their gender and ethnicity. Gendered and ethnic violence became intertwined in Hutu extremist propaganda, as it sexualized Tutsi women, instigated ethnic hatred, and incited men to commit rape on a massive scale. Rape as genocide was used as a weapon to annihilate Tutsi women physically, psychologically, socially, and economically. Many survivors were rendered infertile due to damaged reproductive organs or mutilated genitals and disconnected from their bodies due to psychological trauma. Those who were raped encountered severe stigmatization and marginalization: they were deemed unsuitable for marriage, were abandoned by their fiancés or husbands, and were ostracized by their communities. This rendered survivors extremely vulnerable economically, as by law, women are unable to own houses or possess land. Rape was used to reduce the Tutsi population through the transmission of AIDS, infertility issues, pregnancies as ethnic cleansing, and the breakdown of families, communities, and cultural practices. Rape is extremely taboo in Rwanda, and cultural and linguistic considerations add an extra layer of difficulty that survivors must navigate in order to tell their stories.