"If you had a sister": A glimpse into the issue of "Comfort women" and "Jihadi Brides"

Trying to do a comparative study about women’s movement in East Asia and Middle East drew my attention to the issue of “Comfort Women”. Engaging with the testimonies, life stories and documentaries about women who are known as “Comfort Women” (some of who are already in their late 60s and 70s) was appealing, profoundly painful and raised several questions. It was easy to make links between the issue of “Comfort Women” and “Jihadi Bride” when I located myself as a researcher from Middle East. This essay is an attempt to understand what are the similarities and difference between the issue of “Jihadi Brides” and “Comfort Women” through their life experiences, testimonies, interviews and documentaries which have been available to me. The subject is significant because both group of women, who are from different culture and chronological period, have been subjected to sexual slavery to “comfort soldiers” at the time of war. This paper provides the definition and back ground of these two historical and legitimized experiences of “Sex slavery” and tries to compare these two issues through two approaches: understanding the male domination that subject women for the male interests in war incident and effort to identify the situation of women and girls who were subjected to sexual slavery in war condition. My hope in this paper is to attract the attention of women to their important role as mother, wife, daughter and sister in contributing to stop civil conflict and war