Women of Colour Often Ignored in the Fight Against Rape

Does UN Women’s figure of ‘one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence’ include the majority of women and girls in the world who are of colour and grassroots, and the millions risking their lives to flee war? From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti, from Iraq to Uganda, from India to Peru, our struggle to end rape is largely invisible. – Cristel Amiss

In the Morning Star’s double page spread on international anti-rape struggles, Cristel Amiss of the Black Women’s Rape Action Project writes on the battles faced by women of colour the world over.

The inhumane treatment experienced by women of colour in the UK and abroad, and a few of the many extraordinary efforts taken to challenge this brutality, are outlined. As Cristel notes, the struggles women of colour are forced to endure are too often ignored in establishment conversations about rape- from the UN’s directives to end violence against women to William Hague and Angelina Jolie’s ‘anti-rape summit’.