The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony on December 10 in Stockholm won the attention of the world as usual. This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nadia Murad and Dennis Mukwege “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

It is a monumental moment for women. Though sexual violence has been a prevalent aspect of war throughout history, the phrase “rape as a weapon of war” has only become widely used by researchers, policymakers and media analysts during the 1990s. And it is in recent years that sexual violence has become a prominent issue on the agenda of both the United Nations and numerous human rights organizations.

Under this circumstance, it is no surprise that the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Murad and Mukweg. Both winners have contributed to ending sexual violence against women and brought this issue in the spotlight of international society through their efforts. 

Murad, a survivor of the war-time sexual violence by ISIS, uses her only weapon – “speaking out” – to tell her story to help her native sisters and the countless rape victims around the world. Mukweg, a male gynecologist, has treated and helped thousands of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who suffered from sexual violence during the country's conflict.

The prize itself is recognition of both the winners' efforts and the urgency to solve the problem of sexual violence. But when the curtains are off, there is still a long and arduous road to a world free of rape victims.

More voices from survivors of war-time sexual violence should be heard by the whole world. “Telling the story” is Murad's weapon and luckily the memory and trauma she recounts has been heard. In her first public speech at a UN forum, she emphasized that she was "only one of the hundreds of thousands of Yazidi victims." Hopefully, her courage could inspire more victims to speak out against sexual violence and human trafficking.

A great majority of Chinese may not be unfamiliar with the word “comfort women," a euphemism for the girls and women kidnapped and forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during World War II from the nearby Asian countries. According to the Research Center for Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University among some 400,000 “comfort women,” nearly half were Chinese.

These “comfort women” are the same sex slaves like Murad who have been sexually abused and imprisoned. It seems that there is a lack of concern on their conditions and their traumatized memories. The low box office achievement of the documentaries about “comfort women” in China such as “Twenty-Two” and “Great Cold” may be a proof to some extent.

The unremitting and all-round support to the survivors of war-time sexual violence is greatly needed. Their suffering is not only physical, but also psychological. They carry the weight of the trauma from both their own tragic experiences and the violence they have witnessed towards their friends and family. 

It should be noted that even in areas that enjoy peace, sexual violence against women as a form of gender-based violence should also be taken seriously. Rape and abuse is a direct way of exerting power to bodies in the cruelest way.  It is of profound importance to look at how the gendered social structures which relegate women to second place keep them on the vulnerable place. Even if there were no wars in the world, sexual violence or gender-based violence against women may remain in the long run. 

(Cover Photo: Iraqi Yazidi-Kurdish human rights activist and co-laureate of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Nadia Murad gives her lecture after accepting her prize during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony 2018 on December 10, 2018 at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway./VCG Photo)