The terrain of women’s bodies is seen as a battlefield over which the identities of the other can be destroyed. Rape at once pollutes and occupies the territory of the nation, transgresses its boundaries, defeats its protectors. Degrading the nation’s symbol of fertility and purity, it physically blocks its continuity and threatens its existence. Such rape thus promises to “cleanse” the territory of the other and make it ours. In a war in which major goals are articulated in terms of map-making, it follows a frighteningly logical strategy. (..) As symbols of national tragedy and reasons for national revenge, women who were brutally raped in the Bosnian war have continued to suffer more abuse in the service of nationhood. These women, whose suffering was so well documented by the press, became pawns in the power struggles of national politicians and strategists. Collectivized as raped Croatian, Muslim, or Serbian women, their individual stories were merely offered as examples of damage to the nation. Yet, the Croatian press publicized rapes of Muslim women much more than it did those of Croatian women, perhaps to keep the image of “their” women chaste or uncontaminated. (..)
During 1992 and 1993, local political activists and journalists went looking for raped women who would tell their stories. Foreign journalists joined in as well. One of the jokes circulating among residents and volunteers in refugee camps in Croatia and Serbia was as follows. “What does a journalist ask when he comes to a camp?” Answer: “Is there anyone here who was raped and speaks English?