The Voices and Faces Project is a national documentary initiative and non-profit organization created to bring the names, faces and stories of sexual violence and trafficking survivors to the attention of the public.
Last year, 3,191 military sexual assaults were reported and the Pentagon estimates the actual number was about 19,000.
They’re sweeping the problem under the rug may be by labeling the survivors as “crazy” and booting them from military.
Servicewomen come forward after being assaulted, their complaints are ignored, and then they’re diagnosed with a personality disorder and discharged.
From 2001 to 2010, the military discharged more than 31,000 service members because of personality disorder–and a disproportionate number of them were women.
A personality disorder is a long-standing mental health problem but none of the women profiled in the article had such a history.
And since the military considers a personality disorder to be a pre-existing condition, victims don’t get veterans benefits for it as they would if it were a “service-related disability.” They also lose their education benefits under the GI Bill. So basically, women who served in the military, were assaulted by their fellow soldiers, betrayed again by a military hierarchy that ignored the crime, are now being told that they’re out of a job and can’t even get help for the trauma they’ve suffered because they were crazy all along.
“If a girl is raped, she may be blamed and beaten by family members. If she gets pregnant, she misses one year of school and may not be able to go back. Even if she doesn’t [fall pregnant], she’s already a different person. The trauma makes it difficult for her to concentrate on school work.”
