Hard knock life

While, unfortunately, the use of child soldiers is not a new topic, one prominent element of this tragic story often goes untold: the role played by female child soldiers. According to Save the Children, some 40 percent of children involved in armed conflict, or 120,000 child soldiers, are girls. As with boys, the majority of girl soldiers are abducted or forcibly recruited into armed groups, which include government-backed paramilitaries, militias, self-defense forces, and government opposition or rebel factions that are divided along ideological, partisan, ethnic or religious lines. The use of children, especially girls, in armed conflict is attractive to recruiters for several reasons. Children are generally more vulnerable and subservient, making them easier to manipulate than adults. Once recruited, child soldiers are often forced to kill or rape - often other children or members of their own family - as a method of initiation and control. Child soldiers are also much less expensive than their adult counterparts, as they are paid and fed less; they are also less likely to be suspected of being militants. In addition, it is easy to train children to use modern weapons; light, user-friendly weapons and small arms like the M-16 and AK-47 require little instruction and are easy for children to use and carry. Clearly armed conflict compounds the difficulty of protecting all children, regardless of their sex; girls, many of whom are already living in patriarchal societies where they are marginalized socially and culturally and often experience sexual or physical abuse even in times of peace, face unique challenges. Girls often not only serve as active combatants, but also perform other military services, from intelligence and medical support to cleaning and cooking. Gender inequality follows girls into these roles, where many are raped, used as sex slaves to service troops and forced into pseudo-marriages with their rebel commanders.