Silent Scars: The Psychological and Physical Effects of Mass Atrocities on Women

Last fall, Mumtaaz Mahammud Hirsi was named the 2024-2025 Hrant Dink Memorial Human Rights Scholar. The Scholar works with HRP Director Carrie Booth Walling to conduct research on urgent and emergent human rights emergencies, including the commission of mass atrocity crimes. Hirsi presented her research, “Silent Scars: The Psychological and Physical Effects of Mass Atrocities on Women,” at the Spring 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Read about Hirsi’s research on the psychological and physical effects of mass atrocities on women. 

This project investigates the gendered impacts of mass atrocities, focusing on why and how women are targeted during conflict. The term mass atrocity is an inclusive term that refers to a variety of international crimes, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Drawing from case studies on Rwanda, Bosnia, the Rohingya, and Yazidi people, my research reveals consistent patterns of trauma and harm. The research highlights both psychological effects (PTSD, anxiety, and intergenerational trauma) and physical consequences (reproductive health complications and malnutrition). These findings underscore the importance of mental health care that prioritizes the voices and experiences of survivors. Such an approach is not only essential for individual healing but also plays a critical role in upholding human rights and informing policies that are responsive to the specific needs of women affected by conflict.

Introduction

Women are not accidental victims in mass atrocity crimes. They are deliberately targeted through strategic and systematic violence. Gendered harm is a consistent component of conflict. It is often overlooked but is key to understanding power, justice, and long-term trauma. 

Mass atrocities such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing are some of the most serious human rights violations. They differ in intent and scope, but all involve large-scale violence against civilians. Looking at how women are affected reveals deeper patterns of vulnerability, exploitation, and resilience.

How and Why are Women Targeted?

Women are targeted in mass atrocities not merely due to vulnerability, but because their bodies are exploited by perpetrators as instruments of war to inflict enduring trauma on communities. Sexual and physical violence are systematically employed to assert dominance, dismantle cultural identity, and destabilize societies. Entrenched norms of shame and silence further marginalize survivors and perpetuate impunity. The targeting of women takes many forms, including sexual violence, forced pregnancy and sterilization, forced displacement, human trafficking, and torture, mutilation, and physical abuse. My research examined four case studies of mass atrocity where women were targeted – Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s and genocides against the Rohingya and Yazidi peoples in the 2010s. 

Psychological Effects

Women survivors of mass atrocity crimes experience multiple psychological effects. These examples are drawn from my case studies.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Depression: 

PTSD and depression are common among survivors of war and conflict. A large-scale study assessing victims and their children 40 years postwar found that the intensity of a parent’s trauma exposure, rather than their formal PTSD diagnosis, was significantly associated with heightened psychological distress in their adult children (Castro-Vale et al., 2019). This finding suggests that the effects of trauma can be deeply intergenerational, with emotional and psychological burdens extending beyond the immediate survivor. PTSD can affect individuals by impairing their ability to regulate emotions, maintain relationships, and function daily. Within families, this can contribute to strained communication, emotional distancing, and an environment where trauma is unintentionally transmitted to the next generation.

Anxiety and Fear-Driven Behavioral Changes: Traumatic experiences often lead to lasting behavioral changes, with many women exhibiting signs of hypervigilance, avoidance, and heightened anxiety long after experiencing mass atrocities. Many report difficulties in sleeping, concentrating, or feeling safe, leading to withdrawal from community life and a pervasive sense of fear.  Trauma effectively impairs their ability to function normally. Some become socially incapacitated, unable to care for families or participate in community structures. These behavioral changes are often culturally misinterpreted or left untreated due to the lack of trauma-informed care adapted to local belief systems (Chhim, 2013; Hinton et al., 2011). 

Long-term Trauma and Intergenerational Psychological impact:  Children of trauma survivors exhibit attachment issues, emotional dysregulation, and difficulties coping with stress, further perpetuating the psychological consequences of historical violence (Baider et al., 2000; Lyons-Ruth et al., 2005).

Physical Effects

Women also experience harmful physical effects of mass atrocity. 

Malnutrition: Pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly vulnerable due to increased nutritional needs. Malnutrition in these stages can result in life-threatening conditions such as anemia, obstructed labor, postpartum hemorrhage, and increased maternal mortality. 

Sexual and Reproductive Health: Women face heightened risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, due to rape and lack of post-assault medical care. Forced pregnancies can lead to life-threatening complications such as unsafe abortions, trauma-induced miscarriage, and obstructed labor. Many women also suffer long-term effects like infertility, caused by untreated STIs, physical trauma, or repeated sexual assaults. 

Injuries from Torture and Physical Violence: Women often endure extreme physical violence and torture, resulting in serious, long-term injuries. Beatings, mutilation, burns, and blunt force trauma can lead to broken bones, internal organ damage, chronic pain, and permanent disabilities. In many cases, physical violence is specifically targeted at reproductive organs, causing gynecological trauma such as uterine rupture, fistulas, or pelvic fractures.  

How Psychological and Physical Effects Persist: Examples from the Case Studies

The Bosnian War (1992–1995) weaponized sexual violence as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign, with 20,000 to 50,000 Bosniak women targeted (Amnesty International, 2022). Years later, 28.3% of Bosnian refugee women in Sweden showed PTSD symptoms and were nearly ten times more likely to experience depression than native-born women (Sundquist et al., 2005).

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide led to the mass killing of 800,000 civilians, with women facing widespread sexual and physical violence. Seventeen years later, 26.5% of Rwandan women still reported major depression, 21.8% faced suicide risk, and 19.6% experienced PTSD (Rugema et al., 2015). Intimate partner violence remains a major contributor, increasing the risk of these disorders by over four times.

The Yazidi Genocide (2014) involved the mass abduction, rape, and enslavement of Yazidi women and girls by ISIS, targeting them for their religious identity. Among displaced Yazidi mothers, 39% reported severe PTSD symptoms with little to no posttraumatic growth, especially those facing poverty, low education, and health complications during childbirth (Ghafouri et al., 2024).

The Rohingya Genocide (2017) forced over 750,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar amid military-led campaigns of mass killing, arson, and sexual violence—acts the UN deems ethnic cleansing (Anwary, 2021). Survivors face high rates of PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideation, yet mental health services remain underused due to cultural stigma, language barriers, and lack of culturally sensitive care (Tay et al., 2019).

Implications

Women are the backbones of their communities: The psychological and physical consequences of mass atrocities on women are not confined to the individual. These harms reverberate through families, generations, and entire communities, leading to prolonged social fragmentation, collective grief, and intergenerational trauma.

This is not just history, it is happening now:  It's urgent that we are attentive to the lessons of past conflicts and apply those lessons to conflicts that are happening today. In the Israel–Palestine region today, women are facing the compounded trauma of Mass Atrocities. These realities parallel the experiences of survivors in Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq, and Myanmar, proving that gendered violence in conflict is not a relic of history, it is an urgent, ongoing crisis demanding an immediate international response.

International laws and governments are failing to protect women: Current international law and humanitarian frameworks remain insufficient in protecting women during and after mass atrocities. Stronger, enforceable policies are needed, ones that prosecute perpetrators of gendered violence as war criminals and provide comprehensive, long-term support to survivors. Governments often fail to enforce existing laws, allowing cycles of violence to continue. Greater accountability and political will are needed to ensure these laws are actually put into action.

Mumtaaz Hirsi is a sophomore majoring in psychology with minors in African American studies, global studies, and public health. She is the Human Rights Program’s 2024-2025 Hrant Dink Memorial Human Rights Scholar – an annual award whose purpose is to promote research on human rights and the consequences of inhumanity that derives from deep ethnic, national, racial, gender, and religious divides in honor of the Armenian Turkish journalist and human rights activist, Hrant Dink. Hirisi is also a member of the HRP Undergraduate Working Group.

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Anwary, A. (2021). Sexual violence against women as a weapon of Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. The International Journal of Human Rights, 26(3), 400–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2021.1931136 

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