75

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is nowadays labeled the “capital of rape.” Yet, the thousands of cases of rape committed by armed men who are otherwise unidentified have become an enigma that is difficult to interpret. In the east of the country, the community invites these women to close off their traumatic memory and, if impossible, to disappear, along with all evidence linked to the rape. For revealed religions as for traditional culture, women who have been raped are subjected to a gaze that judges, that condemns, that repels, and that tolerates nothing. Under these conditions, resilience can take shape through resignation, the result of divesting internalized cultural values. Culture remains the product of man, however, in the east of DRC, it is called on to evolve in order to learn how to name this scourge and thus change its perception of rape and rape victims.