Rape as religious terrorism and genocide the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan

This study focuses on mass rape during war and genocide, utilizing a synthesized model that conceptualizes rape as religious terrorism. The model is demonstrated at the micro level with the case study of the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan; focused on the dehumanization of Bengalis, and the havoc wreaked by this process on Bengali women during the war. The model explains rape as terrorism, that is, a form of performance violence carried out by men seeking empowerment. Rapists are terrorists; in this case, men are engaged in a cosmic war with women, who are considered the evildoers. Rape becomes a tool for good in this paradigm. Rapists seek empowerment and de-humiliation--the restoration of honor--for themselves and men in general. Applying a synthesized model to this ongoing global gendered conflict sheds light on how religion has been instrumental in both aiding and hindering women's plight, specifically when it comes to sexual violence