Sexual Violence & Rumors: Dilemma of Women & Organizations in Anti-ELAB Movement

• In Event: The Role of Masculinity in Conflict, War, and Militarism

Abstract

Women have extensively participated in, mobilized and organized protests to advocate civil rights and the rights of women, from gender-based movements to mass popular movements to resist repressed and authoritarian regimes. Sexual violence against women (and men) has been exposed during protests and demonstrations. For instance, in Arab Spring in the 2010s, Yemeni and Tunisian female protesters encountered sexual assaults by assailants. Hundreds of sexual assault cases on female protesters were recorded in Egypt during the Arab Spring. On top of physical and sexual violence, verbal sexual violence is also a weapon against and stigmatizes protesters. Tunisian female protesters and reporters were labelled as 'whores’ by the police force. Similar to the case of Arab Spring, female protesters in the anti-extradition movement in 2019 were targeted for sexual violence by the police force during and after arrest compared to their male counterparts. News and information about sexual harassment and assault, inappropriate strip search and rape etc., were widely disseminated in the movement.

Scholarship debates how sexual violence becomes a weapon in conflicts and wars. 'Rape as a weapon' is a prevalent discourse that analyses military terrorizing and attacking enemy civilians in the war period. Nevertheless, limited literature addresses sexual violence against women (and men) in protests and demonstrations. This paper acknowledges borrowing a conceptual idea of politically motivated sexual violence (PMSV) developed by Tadros in 2013 to examine the case of the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong. PMSV refers to any sexual violent acts motivated (un)intentionally to obtain or maintain political power by authoritarian regimes. This research probes into two research questions: how do protesters and feminist organizations tackle PMSV in the anti-extradition movement when it was caused by the police force's power abuse? And how do they situate themselves against PMSV when mis- and disinformation were disseminated in the movement?

Despite #MeToo encouraging victims to voice their experiences, literature criticized its alignment with feminine victimhood from the West. White, middle-class women, particularly celebrities, are privileged to speak to the public. This rarely happens in protests and demonstrations in repressed and authoritarian regimes. This paper argues that PMSV victims decided not to report cases of sexual violence due to the authority becoming a perpetrator in the anti-extradition movement. Protesters lost trust and faith in the existing legal system. Their reporting on PMSV turns into testimonies that prove their participation in the movement and increase their political risks. In the absence of first-person testimonies, feminist organizations cannot fact-check if PMSV happened and can merely offer little help to victims and protesters. It also leads to a 'misunderstanding' between protesters and feminist organizations. This paper fills the literature gap on the manipulation of PMSV disseminating mis- and disinformation in protests by the repressed regime to repress, threaten and stop protests and movements.

After an introduction to the news and information regarding sexual violence in the anti-extradition movement, the concerns and vulnerabilities of women and feminist organizations will be discussed. This is followed by an analysis of how trust influences the pursuit of justice against sexual violence in a mass popular movement under a repressed regime. This paper interviews with individual protesters and feminist organizations between 2022 and 2023 to examine their struggles in trusting peers, civil society organizations and the legal system when PMSV happened in the movement. Thematic analysis is employed to discuss the hope(less) and help(less) of protesters and feminist organizations when they combat PMSV.

In short, this paper contributes to the literature debate on gender and social movements from an epistemological approach in several ways. First, examining the PMSV on protesters explores how protesters deal with anxiety and struggle between being potential victims and continue involving in the movement. It renders a profound discussion on why protesters continuously participate in a mass popular movement despite threats by the police force's power abuse under a repressed regime. Second, it addresses women and civil society rarely pursue sexual justice under repressed regimes in the age of mis- and disinformation because of the absence of trust, truth and an effective legal system. Testimonies on PMSV transform into evidence to accuse victims of participating in protests and leading to potential political risks. Victims can only seek sexual justice under limited alternatives when the authority becomes an assailant.

Author

• Fiona Hoi-yan Wong, University of Edinburgh