Women contributed greatly to Eritrea. They were not rewarded for their efforts. 

Gender equality was constructed by EPLF in part through the erasure of the feminine.²⁶ This is reflected in the photographs of fighters that illustrate news articles and EPLF publications: women and men dress alike in khaki and rubber sandals and wear their hair “Afro” style. Indeed, one foreign visitor to the field reported difficulty distinguishing women from men.²⁷ Says one ex-fighter, “I never knew myself as a woman. I thought of myself as a man. I faced the same problems as men.”²⁸ The construction of women as not only equal to men but as male equivalents meant, however, that some profound issues of gender relations were not so much transformed by EPLF’s cultural revolution as repressed and rendered invisible.²⁹ 
 

Today, the Eritrean National Service (ENS) poses a unique threat to women in terms of abuse. 

 Survivors of military service say those who refused sexual relations to a military leader endured punishments such as being locked in shipping containers and underground cells, exposure to extremely hot temperatures, beaten, tortured, denied leave, deprived of food, suspension from trees, sent to dangerous locations such as the front line, and other cruel and unusual punishments. 

Strong social stigma makes life difficult for rape victims. 

Fleeing is incredibly dangerous. 

"Because she is US born... I really thought the government of the United States would scream bloody murder but no one is speaking for her. It's very, very disappointing. She is a United States citizen but because she grew up in Eritrea and because her parents are Eritreans, then I guess she is not fully American," he says.

The detention centers are horrific places. In the following clip, witnesses for the UN Human Rights Council share the torture they encountered: 

Detention is just one of many things to fear when fleeing Eritrea. Women must avoid or survive harsh conditions, human trafficking, kidnapping, rape, refugee camps, and harassment from the government. When I spoke with a woman who fled Eritrea as a teenager during Ethiopia's occupation, she explained the hardship of leaving her home. She left Eritrea with a friend by walking for two weeks to Sudan. She considered herself lucky because they did not encounter major trouble along the way, like attacks by hyenas.

Various reports share the fates of those who were not as lucky. Refugees, particularly female refugees, are vulnerable to kidnapping and human trafficking. In her article "Captured, raped, ransomed: the kidnappers preying on Eritrean refugees", Sally Hayden recounted the story of two teenage girls who had a terrifying experience when crossing the border into Sudan. When they crossed the border the girls were tricked, kidnapped, and held for ransom. 

For six weeks, Ella was locked in a room in her captor’s family home, a “nice house, with electricity and lights”. Both girls were raped. The ransom set was half a million Eritrean nakfa, or more than $33,000 (£23,852).

“I thought they would kill me,” says Ella. Each day, men would beat and assault her with a plastic stick. They would also press a phone to her ear, so her family could hear her pain. She’d try not to cry or whimper, which made the men hit her harder.

This is common practice for kidnappers; they call the victims family as they attack or rape them. Kidnappers also commonly increase the amount of ransom they demand, making it nearly impossible for families to save their loved ones. The American Team for Displaced Eritreans shares the stories of kidnapping victims on their website, eritreanrefugees.org. Read the following account by a victim they interviewed: 

E. Tesfay – Age 26  

Two girls in our group were gang-raped; one became pregnant; one had her breasts burned. Eight of the 24 died from torture – I saw them die, and I was forced to sleep next to their corpses. Seven who couldn’t pay were sold to other traffickers. The ten others, including myself, agreed to and were able to pay. Some of my relatives in Eritrea raised money from neighbors and friends – everyone they knew helped, even by selling their houses. But then our captors demanded an additional $33,000 from each of us. So we decided to try an escape, because we knew we would die anyway. We cut our chains with a hard stone, then we escaped through the metal walls of the shed in which we were held. 

Upon crossing the Eritrean border, many women end up in refugee camps and/or continue the dangerous journey to Europe. 

There are many female activists calling for change in Eritrea.