The Department of Veterans Affairs’ new research findings indicate that half of women sent to Iraq and Afghanistan report that they were sexually harassed by male officers and the ratio of one to four were sexually assaulted. The new study that is based on anonymous surveys of female servicemen deployed to war indicate the unceasing number of female sexual assaults against women in war zones.

In February this year, around 20,000 women serving in Afghanistan reported sexual harassment. VA’s PTSD Center deputy director Amy Street stated that the findings show the traumatic strains beyond combat of troops both male and female.

Representative Jackie Speier, who pushed to investigate the cases more promptly, says that women have no safe spots during wartime because the military culture of male dominance has not changed even with the new rules and regulations by secretaries and generals. The sexism has not been scrubbed out of the military. Even with new reforms, the military cannot completely erase this particular culture.

Military academy reports show that from 65 in 2011, numbers of sexual misconduct by instructors have increased by 80 in 2012. Cases of sexual assault by instructors in Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and a brigadier General’s trial for sexual misconduct with lower ranking servicewomen have also received the Pentagon’s attention.

Source: USA Today