By Lauren Wolfe/Director — July 25, 2014
Men came while she was working in her field. Twice. Like so many women I met a few months ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the woman telling her story explained how men wearing uniforms appeared as she worked her land and dragged her to a tree and tied her to it, raping her, cutting her, terrifying her. They wanted her money and they wanted her gone from her field. They wanted her land because land is one of the most precious commodities in DRC, where 71 percent of citizens are living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. But they also wanted to terrify her, because fear is one of the ways in which militias exert power and claim dominance, ultimately laying claim to power house by house, field by field, woman by woman.