Caught in the Crossfire

• "My baby was feeling every explosion"
• "I had no idea where or how I was going to deliver my baby"
• "I have made the most difficult decision in my life. I am leaving with my kids, without my husband"
• "I simply don’t want to die at 24"

The quotes above are from women in Gaza, reported during the Israel-Palestine war that started on October 7, 2023. The ruthless bombing of homes, schools, shelters, and even hospitals made news incessantly. Videos of children stuck in the rubble, toddlers traumatised in hospital beds due to the sound of bombs and collapsing buildings, and mothers crying inconsolably over the dead bodies of their babies flooded the internet.
World leaders have not called for ceasefires, and as a result, Gaza and its population continue to burn. The ongoing war might just be another conflict for the world, but it serves as another testament to the fact that when nations go to war, women and children suffer the most.

With the medical sector suffering greatly, pregnant women were forced to opt for C-section deliveries without anaesthesia. Healthcare officials were spotted performing complicated procedures under the light of a torch or flashlights of phones.
The United Nations Population Fund, formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) reported that a woman was forced to leave the hospital merely three hours after giving birth so that the bed could be emptied and healthcare experts could attend to other critical patients.

The gender disparity of suffering isn’t restricted to the Gaza conflict. For centuries, whenever calamities have struck, women have been reduced to mere numbers. Reportage rarely covered how these calamities leave a long-lasting impact on their physical, emotional, sexual, reproductive, and mental health. The crisis ending doesn’t end their sufferings, as poverty, gender-based crimes and overwhelming family responsibilities follow. HerZindagi set out to trace the gender bias in the aftermath of wars, riots, and natural calamities. While calamities spell doom for everyone, why has it historically been several folds worse for women? We spoke to a historian, sociologist, refugee rights activist, journalist, and refugee activist to find out.

Tracing the History Of Women’s Suffering In Crises

Speaking to HerZindagi, Brajesh Kumar said, “The practice of Jauhar began after these invasions became more frequent and as a result of war and war crimes.” He explained, “When Rajput kings lost battles, their wives, children, sisters, and other women living in their palace and kingdoms were captured, enslaved, and raped by the Islamic rulers.” To protect their honour, women used to practise Jauhar in which they willingly burned themselves alive on a common pyre created in a secluded space of the palace called Jauhar-tal. A prominent story of Queen Padmavati jumping into a burning pyre along with her attendants to protect themselves from being captured by Alauddin Khalji and other men in his kingdom is quite famous in history.

The India-Pakistan partition of 1947 was no different. According to reports, around 75,000-100,000 women were kidnapped, forced to marry, and raped.

Bina D’Costa’s book, ‘Nation Building, Gender, and War Crimes in South Asia’, mentioned that as a response to atrocities against the Sikh and Hindu women in West Punjab, men in East Punjab charged Muslim men, women, and children. “A large number of Muslim girls have been forcibly married, mostly to Sikhs. In certain villages, the Muslim population has been either wholly or mainly wiped out,” read an excerpt.

In the Manipur conflict, violence broke out between the two ethnic communities, the Meitei people and the Kuki-Zo tribal community on May 3, 2023. A video of two Kuki women being stripped, paraded naked, slapped, and sexually harassed by Meitei men went viral in July 2023.

While videos from the conflict zone show men clashing with arms, and voluntarily engaging in combat, the ones involving women show a gross violation of their bodies.

According to The Hindu report published on December 20, 2023, at least 60,000 people have been displaced and 200 people have been killed since the conflict between the two communities broke out. Five cases of crimes against women during Manipur violence were handed over to CBI, by the Manipur Women’s Commission. The MWC also reported 59 cases surrounding crimes against women from September 2022 till September 2023 while the state remained embroiled in ethnic violence.

Why Women Are Negatively Impacted During Wars And Riots

Historically, women have suffered more during wars, battles, and riots because the patriarchal construct of our society deprives them of equality and equity. While explaining the context of gender disparity, Professor Kumar said, “Pregnancy, dependency of children on mothers, and a few other physical and biological restrictions prevented women from being a part of the production of goods.” He went on to explain that ever since the human race was introduced to the concept of a family, a woman’s role was confined to the boundaries of the household, while the man was responsible for earning a livelihood and safeguarding his family members.

The financial dependency of women led to them being viewed as fragile individuals whom men must shield. Perpetrators of violence, however, began to look at them as ‘weapons of war’, a segment which can be harnessed to turn tides of battles in their favour.

“When wars happen between communities or countries, men fight at the forefront. They either want to capture or destroy the property owned by enemies. They target women of the family because they are also considered as the property of men,” said Dr A L Sharada, sociologist and CEO of Population First, a social impact organisation, while speaking to HerZindagi.

Kumar, the professor, added, “It is often seen that if a mob of men targets women of the rival community, their enemies feel ashamed, helpless, and aren’t able to retaliate.”

Ownership of assets plays a big role too.

“Across countries, women are also far less likely to have formal legal ownership over homes, land, and other productive assets,” explained Kanta Singh, Deputy Representative, UN Women India. “As a result, economic losses faced by women are often not adequately accounted for in either disaster risk reduction planning, or crisis response, whether in the form of risk insurance, recovery programmes such as programmes for housing reconstruction, or compensation for livelihood and asset loss, and their vulnerabilities become exacerbated when crisis disrupts their existing socioeconomic networks.”

She added that a 2019 report by UN Women, Unicef, and partners, found huge gaps in disaggregated quantitative data at a global level, with a near total absence of sex and age disaggregated impact data in global disaster impact databases. These data gaps pointed to planning gaps, that severely exacerbate existing gender inequality.

Biological conditions like pregnancy and periods make women more vulnerable because they require different sorts of support from not just their families but their surroundings as well.

Women’s Education Affected First When Conflicts Occur

Gender-based crimes during wars and riots have not only been documented in India but globally. Reports have shown lack of education and access to healthcare facilities in conflicted areas further push women into poverty and force them to live in unhygienic conditions.
According to a report published in Their World on October 11, 2017, girls living in conflicted zones are 90% likely to drop out of school. In September 2017, UNICEF published a report highlighting that 27 million children living in the conflicted zone were missing from schools.

Girls Out Of Schools In Conflicted Areas

If we study the history of Afghanistan since conflicts began in the 1970s, the instability in the country has ruined the lives of countless women. From being a country where women had autonomy, it is now a land where women cannot walk freely without a burqa and the company of their husband, son, brother, or father.

The books written by Afghan-American novelists like Khaled Hosseini and Nadia Hashimi showcase stories of how parents willingly and unwillingly got their teenage daughters married to three to four times older men to protect them from Talibani men. Many survived domestic violence, abuse, and marital rape, while others succumbed to atrocities committed against them.

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan again in 2021, they reportedly prohibited girls from entering schools and universities. At present, women have reportedly been curbed from going to salons, amusement parks, gyms, etc. They have also been banned from showing their faces in public or pursuing higher education in subjects like economics, engineering, journalism, and other subjects.

Saba*, an Afghan refugee who migrated to India in 2016, told HerZindagi, “They (the Taliban) do not consider women as humans. Women don’t exist for them.”

When Saba came to India, the initial days were hard for her and her family because they did not know the language. “My mind was trying to adjust,” she added while comparing conditions in India and Afghanistan. “For example, during Indian weddings, people burst patakha (firecrackers), and the sound they make used to scare us because we used to worry if it was a bomb explosion.”

After almost eight years, she has adjusted quite well and loves that she can move around freely and be financially independent. However, Saba would love to return to her home country if and when things get better because she believes, “You do not have the same opportunities in a foreign country as you get in your native place.”

Many reports from the Ukraine-Russia conflicts indicate a similar pattern in which millions of women and girls are suffering due to loss of livelihood, increased risks of sexual abuse, and exponentially elevating levels of poverty

Impact of Natural Calamities on Women

Gender bias not only exists among man-made calamities but also in natural disasters. The biggest example was Covid-19 induced pandemic that swept the world in 2020.

According to the report published by the CARE in November 2021, there was a disparity in the number of women who got vaccinated against Covid-19 compared to women. The report studied the data of 24 countries of which 22 showed a steep difference between the number of men and women who were likely to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.

Gender Disparity Between Men And Women Who Got At Least One Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine

In a report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), between April and May 2020, the National Commission for Women (NCW) received 3027 complaints across 22 listed categories of crimes against women of which 1428 (47.2%) were recorded cases of domestic and intimate partner violence.

A 2021 study by the World Bank pointed out that though natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, and droughts are gender-neutral, their impact is biased because the struggle for any human starts after they have survived the catastrophe.

Chandrani Sinha, climate change and environment journalist, shared her experience of extensively covering frequent floods in Assam.

The journalist further noted that poor sanitation facilities and lack of hygiene facilities also lead to Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) among women. Furthermore, pregnant women suffer with health risks due to increased complications during childbirth and lack of prenatal care.

In 2022, when flash floods washed away villages in Pakistan, women feared their lives due to lack of sanitation facilities which forced them to venture into woods, bushes, and flood water to relieve themselves due to which many of them developed skin infections and rashes.

Reportedly, many women used to drink less water so they didn’t feel the urge to urinate during the day. It also helped them protect themselves from physical and sexual assaults from male perpetrators living in the vicinity. The National Public Radio (NPR) reported that many women used washed rags and veils during periods since they did not have access to sanitary napkins.

Gender Disparity Between Men And Women Who Got At Least One Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr Sharada explained how intersectionalities leave women of underprivileged caste, class, and race to suffer the worst. She said that communal riots would not affect someone living in plush apartments or posh gated communities more than someone who is living in an area where violence or clashes break out in the name of religion. It is also one of the reasons why we can no longer use ‘women and children’ as an extended term for survivors of humanitarian crises.
In some cases, generations can be affected as communities and families rebuild their future from scratch. She suggested that taking into account the requirements of various sections of society can help NGOs and government authorities prepare for a better response in case of man-made or natural calamities.

Beyond Survival, The Struggle Continues for Women

The struggles of survivors do not end with the crisis ending. The fight continues as forced displacements leave survivors fighting for basic amenities and rights.

Priyali Sur, Founder and Executive Director of The Azadi Project, has worked with women refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Europe, Syria, and Ukraine. While speaking to HerZindagi she said, “All of them are talented. The fact that they left behind their homes because they were forced to flee due to conflict or persecution shows me how courageous they are.”

They left because they wanted a better future for their children. They know that their children cannot have education in war-tone countries, where they are persecuted,” Sur added “ They do not want (to witness) discrimination. They do not want their children to be subjected to war or die in a conflict,” Sur emphasised. She added that they suffer mental trauma. Despite that, Sur has never met any refugee women who said that they would not want to go back to their homeland if situations improve.

“What is worse is that the situation and surroundings in many refugee camps do not help them overcome their trauma. It (in fact) triggers mental trauma,” she added.

Sur has worked with Rohingya refugee women settled in refugee camps in New Delhi. Narrating a story of a young woman, a mother of two children trying to finish her education, she said that she had to flee Myanmar because her family and village were under attack. “These people live in crowded and cramped conditions, small little hutments almost sticking to each other and covered with plastic sheets,” Sur said while describing settlements of Rohingya refugees in the capital.

She has witnessed frequent fire breakouts in these settlements. A young refugee told Sur that fire, chaos, and people running around remind her of all the atrocities and struggles during the conflict. Sur shared that the woman has attempted suicide multiple times and has spent months in a mental hospital.

While working with refugees from Afghanistan settled in Greece, Sur shared that she visited one of the camps, which was home to 20,000 displaced people while it only could contain 5000 refugees. She shared an incident of a woman who used to use toilets only at night fearing attack from men and it led her to suffer from acute UTI.

A report published by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) said that women make up 80% of refugees around the world. They live in overcrowded camps with inadequate healthcare and sanitary facilities where safety and security are unavailable. Fazal Abdali, refugee rights lawyer and activist while speaking to HerZindagi, said that it adds to the inherited risks refugee women come across, including challenges related to their reproductive health and maternal care amid scarcity of food and clean water supply. They also struggle to access legal aid.

They are so vulnerable that they seek support from anyone who can help them. Sur said that it gives smugglers and traffickers a chance to exploit them in the name of offering them a safe place to stay. “I have heard women being raped by smugglers and attacked by traffickers whom they paid a hefty amount just to reach their destination safely.”

Sur stressed the need to create a safe passage for refugee women that does not exist because host countries and communities do not want them. Countries need to establish coordination for this.

Abdali added that the rights of refugee women, like the right to life and security, prohibition of discrimination, protection from gender-based violence, access to healthcare, access to education, and family reunification are covered under national and international human rights laws. While these rights are listed on paper, accessing them in a conflicted area can be challenging.
Sur said that LGBTQIA+ is another marginalised community that bears the brunt of conflicts because of an added level of stigma.

What Should We Do To Prepare Better?

The lack of support systems and facilities for women post calamities hinges on their needs not being taken seriously enough.

“We need to have women at the table when we talk about rebuilding after a war,” said Priyali Sur, after having extensively worked with refugees. “Women (and children) are disproportionately impacted during war and conflict and we need to have their first-hand perspective to make policies around rebuilding and rehabilitation.”

Sinha, the environment journalist, said that in such disastrous situations, the authorities must prioritise establishing women-friendly spaces with hygienic sanitation facilities along with privacy and security.

She added a few other things that NGOs and government organisations can do include:

• Distributing hygiene kits comprising essentials like sanitary napkins and tampons.
• Engaging local communities and women’s organisations to get all hands on deck for survivors with specific needs.
• Ensuring women are a part of the decision-making process.
• Collaborating efforts of NGOs, government bodies, and communities to create a supportive environment and address gender disparities ‘exacerbated by natural disasters that foster resilience among women and young girls.

While we cannot avoid wars, natural calamities, and riots, we can prepare better to face them.