Who is Worthy of Redress?: Recognizing Sexual Violence Injustice Against Women of Color as Uniquely Redress-Worthy—Illuminated by a Case Study on Kenya’s Mau Mau Women and Their Unique Harms

Until recently, reconciliation initiatives tended to ignore specialized harms of sexual violence suffered by women. At the urging of gender scholars and advocates, reconciliation initiatives started acknowledging the unique nature of sexual violence harms to women and began tailoring remedies to address these specialized harms. Yet, though a step in the right direction, even those forward-looking gender-sensitive initiatives have not specifically and forthrightly recognized the unique sexual violence harms to women of color. Race and gender place women of color at the bottom of the social hierarchy, making them particularly vulnerable to sexual violence as part of mass injustice and later often rendering their injuries nearly invisible in the redress process. Yet their severe sexual violence harms are unique, ranging from irreparable reproductive damage, broken relationships, and economic hardship to stigma, isolation, and shame. Why do those fashioning redress tend to largely overlook or ignore these unique sexual violence harms to women of color? This Article responds to this pressing question and modestly refines the recently developed intersectional race-gender redress analysis. It clarifies societal constructions of gender by focusing on one aspect as it intersects with race—sexual violence. The Article calls for a particularized intersectional racegender redress analysis to recognize sexual violence against women of color as uniquely worthy of redress. Through a case study on Kenya’s Mau Mau women and their unique harms, the Article employs this refined redress analysis and encourages scholars, frontline advocates, policymakers, and survivors and their families to strive for more comprehensive and enduring social healing “by doing justice” for both individual women of color and the polity itself. In doing so, it emphasizes that unveiling and making explicit any implicit intersectional racegender redress bias might significantly begin changing societal notions about who is worthy of redress. ABSTRACT 269 INTRODUCTION 270 269 INTRODUCTION 270 I. REDRESS FOR HISTORIC INJUSTICE 278 II. WHAT’S MISSING?: MAU MAU WOMEN’S UNIQUE HARMS IN REDRESS ...... 281 A. A Brief Historical Background of Mau Mau Women’s Experiences 282 B. Mau Mau Women’s Devalued Sexual Violence Harms 284 1. Post-Colonial Silencing 284 2. Public Discourse 286 3. Court Documents 288 4. An Out-of-Court Settlement 290 KENYA 234 (2005) (quoting Muringo Njooro, a Mau Mau woman survivor). PETTIT_TO PRODUCTION (EIC) 199 EDITED (DO NOT DELETE) 7/25/2015 11:31 AM 270 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE III. WHY ARE THEY MISSING?: THE UNDERPINNINGS AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF INTERSECTIONAL RACE-GENDER REDRESS THEORY 291 A. Gender-Sensitive Redress Theory 293 1. The Emergence of Gender-Sensitive Redress Theory 293 2. Sexual Violence Against Women in Redress Initiatives 295 B. Cutting-Edge Intersectional Race-Gender Redress Approaches .... 300 1. Intersectionality Theory 300 2. Intersectional Race-Gender Redress 302 C. What Happened to the Women of Color?: Implicit Intersectional Redress Bias Rendering Nearly Invisible Sexual Violence Injustice Against Women of Color 303 1. Mayan Women and Guatemalan Redress Efforts 304 2. Korean Comfort Women and Current Redress Efforts 305 3. Jeju Women and Jeju 4.3 Reconciliation 305 D. What Happened to Mau Mau Women?: An Intersectional RaceGender Redress Case Study to Illuminate Implicit Redress Bias .. 308 1. Where is the Racism? 308 2. Where is the Sexism? 310 3. Where are the Multidimensional Harms? 312 IV. WHAT’S NEXT?: REFINING INTERSECTIONAL RACE-GENDER REDRESS THEORY TO RECOGNIZE SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OF COLOR AS ESPECIALLY WORTHY OF REDRESS 313 A. Recognition of Sexual Violence Injustice Against Women of Color—Empathizing with Those Suffering 314 1. Recognition of Historic Sexual Violence Harms 314 2. Recognition of Persisting Harms 317 B. Recognition of Sexual Violence Injustice Against Women of Color—Critical Interrogation of the Discursive and Structural Aspects of Suppression 319 1. Discursive Strategy: Stock Stories Legitimizing the Injustice 319 2. Structural Aspects: Organizational Structures Embodying Oppressive Practices and Policies Contributing to Sexual Violence Against Women of Color 320 CONCLUSION: LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE COMPREHENSIVE REDRESS ....... 322