Wartime Rape: A Historical and Psychological Perspective of Sexual Violence against Women in Armed Conflicts

The analysis of sexual violence against women during armed conflicts must first realize the interrelation between militarism and patriarchy. This interrelation then gives birth to the question of how the society has come to accept and normalize patriarchal values. It is through a constructive inspection of the patriarchal approach of religious texts and philosophical ideologies at various points in history that one can arrive at a psychological understanding of sexual violence against women as not mere sexual violence but as a consequence of assuming patriarchy as natural.