Women and Political Torture:

Although women and children represent 80% of persons who flee their countries for reasons of persecution as refugees, scant attention has been given women in the literature describing severe human rights abuses, including torture. Torture is an extreme form of trauma that involves the strategic destruction of the human being. The torturer uses every aspect of the person's being. In the case of women, their own femaleness is used as a weapon. This paper focuses on special issues faced by women who are survivors of torture. The author directed the first center in the United States providing a multidisciplinary care for survivors of political torture.