Genocide

The article, Gender and Genocide in Rwanda, by Adam Jones, the topic of gendercide is discussed.  The term gendercide is different from genocide; gendercide is the mass killing of a specific gender, in this case, the Tutsis male population. The Rwanda gendercide was a unique circumstance because boys and men were targeted and women were not, in fact, women were sometime the agents of gendercide. This is rare because women are often seen as vulnerable and peaceful and to have the women being the ones who are helping in the mass killings has been rarely, if at all, seen in history. When the Rwanda gendercide was first starting to take place, the United Nations and other International Organizations did not speculate that the Hutu were at first, targeting the male population of Tutsis. If so they might have tries to evacuate the male Tutsis population from Rwanda. This might have been ideal for International Organizations to do this but that does not mean that even if they new gerndercide was being committed, they would have done anything differently. The Rwanda gendercide is seen as a failure towards the United Nations because they were slow to respond to the situation and not very successful in helping the Tutsis populations escape the horrors that were occurring.

            Women were not just agents of gendercide but they also tried desperately to try and save their sons form the Hutu. In desperation to protect them, the women tried to dress up the younger boys as girls in an attempt to save their children from being killed (p. 205).  The distress and horror that the Tutsis population must have gone through during this time is unimaginable. Their children and family were not just killed but the Tutsis women were also raped. The Hutu wanted to impregnate the Tutsis women, so they could increase the Hutu population and demolish the Tutsis population. The replications that the Hutu put on Rwanda are still affecting Rwanda today. The male population in Rwanda is still significantly low today and as a result there is more women representation in parliament then in most countries in Africa.

Jones, Adam. “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda”. Gender Inclusive: Essays on violence, men, and feminist international relations. Great Britain, 2009