Status of Women Health in Rwanda: A study
Reported, December 12, 2011
Prior to the genocide, health care for women in Rwanda was abysmal. Sixty-three percent of deaths among women in 1993 (the year before the genocide) were related to their reproductive system. Maternal mortality was alarming due to insufficient maternal health care, lack of family planning facilities and inadequate medical technology. Malnutrition was very high.
These were the conditions before the genocide. Women’s health has only deteriorated precipitously after the genocide. As a result of the wide-spread sexual assault:
The incidence of rape has increased, though it is difficult to tell how much,
Young girls who were raped are at high risk for vesico-vaginal and recto-vaginal fistulas and future uterine problems,
Women and girls who were sexually tortured and mutilated face complications associated with vaginal scarring likely to affect their ability to have children or have normal sex in the future,
Many women became pregnant. The already high maternal death rate is augmented by complications associated with self-induced abortions of the unwanted pregnancies. Because abortion is illegal, women who do take the risk of aborting the babies are unlikely to seek medical help when serious complications result.
Tragically, because of the stigma and threat of ostracization, women are hesitant to seek the medical help they desperately need.
Additionally, the dangers of malnutrition, lack of access to healthy water and inadequate medical care has also increased. Women who are displaced from their property and who have lost their husbands and farmers are often forced to live as vagrants while caring for children who might also have contracted deadly diseases from the violence.
CHILDREN OF RAPE
Many women choose not to abort the children resulting from rape (an estimated 2000 to 5000 have given birth to these children, according to medical authorities). These children, often referred to as unwanted children, or children of the Interahamwe are often rejected, especially by the mother’s family.
One Hutu woman, Rose, describes her reaction and the reaction of her family to her rape induced pregnancy:
Later, I found out that I was pregnant and I was unhappy. I thought about having an abortion, but I was afraid of dying. I knew that I was going to have an unwanted child and that I was not able to look after a baby. But I didn’t want to behave like an Interahamwe and abandon my baby. So, I have kept my baby. He is now one year and four months. Almost all my family members have refused to accept the babyit is a child of an Interahamwe. They have told me that they do not want a child of wicked people. They always tell me that when my baby grows up that they will not give him a parcel of land. I don’t know what is going to happen to him.”
Rwandan women faced systematic discrimination and poor healthcare before the genocide. However, since the genocide, the situation of women has become desperate. Interviews of rape survivors reveal continuing discrimination, high rates of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, little access to healthcare and rampant poverty. All of this is compounded by the shame of surviving sexual torture.
Authors:Human Rights Watch Human Rights Advocacy Group
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