Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls- Bosnia Delegation

There is a war going on, and it has been waging for centuries. A war which is happening on our streets, in our workplaces and in people's homes. A war that many want to ignore. It is the violence, abuse, exploitation, rape, violation and torture of women and girls. Austerity, economic decline and deprivation, can all exasperate what is a global pandemic. However, for me what is worse is when it is used as a weapon during conflict. We have over time heard stories of some of the most brutal and horrifying acts one human could inflict upon another but sexual violence is for me the cruelest.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to do some extensive work raising awareness about the genocide that took place in Srebrenica in Bosnia. The use of rape as a tool of war was, I feel the most difficult to stomach. Learning that up to 50,000 majority Bosniak (Muslim) women and girls were systematically raped by Bosnian Serbs during the conflict was a grim reality check. If this wasn't horrifying enough, to hear how "rape camps" were set up for women and girls and how women they were then subjected to sexual slavery and raped repeatedly by groups of men daily, still makes me nauseously dizzy.

Despite working as a volunteer counsellor supporting survivors of sexual abuse and rape, hearing about such cases is really difficult to comprehend. The amount a women goes through emotionally, physically, psychologically and mentally from the sheer violation of rape, or any experience of sexual violence even once is too much to put here. So imagining women having to suffer the utter humiliation of having to experience it repeatedly for a long duration of time is painful to even try and consider.

Therefore, with the support of Amelia Handy from Remembering Srebrenica, myself, with a group from the Women of Faith and Katie Rose Elizabeth Parker with a group from Luna Women's Foundation will be taking an all female delegation out to Bosnia in January 2016. This diverse group of community workers, film-makers, activist, writers, mothers, daughters and sisters, hope to learn lessons not only on the grave genocide that took place, but also focus specifically on the violence that took place against women, with the hope to hear first hand stories from survivors.

Today, on the UN International Day for Eliminating Violence Against Women ‪#‎IDEVAW2015‬ we must pledge not to remain numb, deaf or blind to what happened only 20 years ago on European soil. This trip is going to have its own challenges and there is still much work to do before we embark, but we hope to share the lessons we learn, and if permitted to bring you the untold stories. God Willing.

Aisha Mirza