Women Making a Difference

Statement by Israeli Women's Organizations

We women's organizations from a broad spectrum of political views demand an end to the bombing and other tools of death, and call for the immediate start of deliberations to talk peace and not make war. The dance of death and destruction must come to an end. We demand that war no longer be an option, nor violence a strategy,  nor killing an alternative. The society we want is one in which every individual can lead a life of security - personal, economic, and social.

1. "The bad news"

My lightening visit to the Wilton Park conference on "Women Targeted by Armed Conflict: What Role for Military Peacekeepers?" last Wednesday was a real eye-opener.

My activism began in 1985 with the feminist group Zena I drustvo (Woman and Society) in Belgrade. I was a co-founder of the SOS hotline for women and children victims of violence, of the Belgrade Women’s Lobby, of the Women’s Parliament – Belgrade, and of the Civic Resistance Movement. During the war, I was active with Belgrade’s Center for Anti-War Action.

In 1991, I was one of the founders of the feminist-pacifist group Women in Black. I have been a coordinator of and participant in the organisation’s anti-militarist, peace and feminist, actions, performances, gatherings, conferences, and seminars ever since. Women in Black, Belgrade has been demanding change in the current situations in Serbia and throughout the world by creating and participating in non-violent actions and activities against patriarchy, nationalism, militarism, and war and for the promotion of human rights, democracy, and non-violent conflict transformation. Our efforts to realise these goals include the following:

Some technical news. We are having trouble with the comments function on this blog. At present it is unmoderated, which means anyone can post a comment, anonymously, any time. Unfortunately this also allows "spammers" to automatically post large amounts of irrelevant material into this space, making the blog - and the openDemocracy site as a whole - unstable. So to prevent the site crashing, we are closing the comments temporarily, until we can reinstate them with pre-moderation, which will require comments to be approved before they appear, and thus stem the flow of spam.

Comments will be back in the new year - apologies to those of you who were hoping to read or make them before then.

This is my final post, I just wanted to thank you all for the wonderful work, for your enthusiasm, for your support.

I really enjoyed participating in this exciting project. It was enlightening, interesting, and I do hope it made a difference.

Thank you

 

Alexandra

Bernard Dreano has sent us what he calls “significant messages from people in the banlieues”. I’ve translated some of these messages, please read through as there is a very interesting text written by mothers of the children some of whom have been most involved in the riots

From the Communiqué du Mouvement de l’Immigration et des Banlieues
- a federation of local groups, whose origin goes back to the protest movements of the 80s, still very active in some of today’s trouble spots.

“ Those who don’t understand the causes of today’s riots are either blind , suffering from amnesia, or both. For the last 30 years the “banlieues” have been demanding justice. For at least 25 years riots, demonstrations, marches, public meetings, and cries of protest against a succession specific reforms have been voiced.

But these cries have been ignored or papered over. As always it is the silent sufferings of millions of families, of men, of women, which endure: they suffer daily a social violence far more wounding than a burnt car.

There will never be any peace in our neighbourhoods as long as there is no justice or real equality. No attempts at pacification, no curfew will prevent us from carrying on fighting for our rights, even when the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. “



An Appeal of the Mothers, from four well-known women of North African origin who are also mothers living in the banlieue…

We have listened to the President. We have followed closely the statements of the Prime Minister. We have been overwhelmed by the calls of crying mothers. Until now we haven’t said a word. And yet, we have things to say.

Because no matter where our partners are, no matter what they do, we, the mothers, keep making the breakfast… Since the dawn of this world, we have been healing the wounds. No matter what our memories are, our origins, our colour, our religion, our political orientation, we look after the entire human chain. We are at the crossroads of the interior and the exterior world. Our different status allows to hear what others can’t or won’t any longer. Today we call on everyone to take responsibility.

Dear children France is our country. Deep inside you know it. You feel like a foreigner, but in your home country. … You like the same music as your fellow pupils, you watch the same movies, and moreover you hope for the same future.
You have already dreamt about yourself as a minister, deputy, teacher, doctor, and we have already felt proud just thinking about it.

Today some of you who have seen their older brothers or fathers unemployed have gone out of control. But don’t destroy what gave you hope. Don’t burn what you adored. Don’t let the hate speeches get to you to destroy this country that we built together.

This would mean giving up. This would mean cowardice.

This would only validate the theories of those who want to draw borders between human beings, whether through politics or through religion.
Dear Messrs.Politicians, France is our country. We have deserved our place in it as mush as any others. Our ancestors belong to French history. We are not foreigners.

Don’t try justifying our children’s behaviour by culture or religion. You know our children have the same values as yours. The only difference is that they’re treated differently.

Revolt means hope. These cries in our “cities” are asking for help: don’t ignore them.


Yamina Benguigui, movie director
Alima Boumédiene-Thiery, senator
Dounia Bouzar, sociologist
Sapho, singer

Dear readers and bloggers. Here is my last daily link post.
 
I thought I would leave you with two links which I hope will continue the debate between you all.
 
I first thought that some of you might be very interested in the discussion between Judith Butler and Jacqueline Rose on ‘Fear of the Other’ in the Israeli-Palestine conflict:

And in this study on Women, politics and democratic prospects in Latin America by M.Buvinic and V. Roza, produced by: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB / IADB) (2004)

 

Have we ever stopped to consider where we would be without 1325? I know the existence of this one piece of paper has done little if anything for the IDP women in Darfur or even Colombia. And I'm not one to make excuses for the dearth of women SRSGs or lack of support for women peace activists in Somalia, Sudan or Iraq.  It is pathetic and shameful that the very same governments that endorsed 1325 whole heartedly and whose representatives are thrilled to be showered with accolades and thanks of the women's movement, have done so very little to set the example in their own back yard and institutions. And, quite frankly, it's even more shameful that we even had to go to the lengths we did, to get a resolution in the name of women, peace and security.  After all, if the UN and its bits, the member states and their bits - were doing their job - just doing their job - we wouldn't need a resolution about women. But they don't do their job, and they don't set the examples. So we needed a resolution to make the issues mandatory, and to give us all a hook, a frame, a blueprint for what we wanted to achieve... 1325 implementation has been slow and frustrating - but without this framework, without the mandatory nature of the resolution, we would be even more invisible, even more confined to the margins, and still shouting into the wind.
 
 
Someone asked me the other day, why the focus on women? why so exclusive? why not include human rights groups and others? My answer was simple... I don't think we would have ever had a hope of getting a resolution passed on the mandatory participation of civil society or human rights groups in peace processes. They are perceived as being too threatening. Women on the other hand...are not so threatening, not so serious, not something to quibble about (except if you are Russia).  But as usual, we turned our weakness into our strength. The result is that the women's resolution gets through - but broader civil society is still pressing its nose against the window... those of you at the July conflict prevention conference in New York, could not have failed to notice that Kofi Annan couldn't even make a 5 minute opening speech.
 
1325 is a trojan horse. The council passed it, without (or maybe some did) recognising its revolutionary nature...  if and when it is implemented  is the gateway for major transformation in peace and security dealings.It does after all call not only for support to women, but also 'indigenous conflict resolution processes' -  It opens the door to participatory processes and places human security firmly at the core of post conflict reconstruction.  Surely that agenda isn't just a women's agenda.

Dear Fellow bloggers
Well, suddenly we find ourselves at the end of this wonderful experiment and I like many of you  am going to miss looking to see what  new wisdom was  posted  each day. I am most grateful to Rosemary and all the team at Open Democracy for all the work that goes on behind scenes…it all looks so smooth…but takes a tremendous co-ordination and work to get it all together, so thanks.
I don’t even know if this blog will find a home as I have, unusually for me, not posted all week as I have been away preparing for the Dalai Lama’s upcoming visit to Belfast.
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The theme of his visit is ‘The Spiritual Dimension of Peace' and  it occurred to me that we have discussed virtually every angle of  peacebuilding in the course of our blogging but  not touched on this side of ourselves.

 Have we been avoiding the subject I wonder because it is closely linked to religion, so often the cause of conflict, or is it just that it is difficult to describe so easily neglected in the bigger scheme of things?

This is rather a rambling post; I’ve got so much more to say and only today left to post to this blog (and now I’m posting a day late, on Saturday, because of various problems yesterday, when I wrote this). Please bear with me.

Maria’s posting brings home the point that peace-building is often most effective when engaged in by those who have suffered most. I am reminded that not a single combat veteran I have ever spoken with calls himself or herself “pro-war.” And as we are all very aware, the peace-building process must include men and women equally. But we must think long-term — toward, as Maria points out, a sustainable peace — and that means we have to begin by educating children early as to why gender equity, justice, and nonviolence are the preferred means to a sustainable, judicious, peaceful, prosperous world.

We linked to a notice of the upcoming exciting Women's Peace Building Cyber-Dialogues on October 21. Mavic has written to us with a brief report-back from that event:

"As part of the 5th anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security, the International Women's Tribune Centre in collaboration with Isis-WICCE convened a Peace-Building CyberDialogue on UNSCR 1325. Envisioned as a global town hall meeting, this 'real time' discussion with voice and web camera facilities, connected women working on peace-building issues at the national and community levels with gender advocates, policy makers and diplomats meeting at the UN as well as with women attending the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) International Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.
 
Women gathered in Nepal, the Philippines, Timor Leste, Uganda and Zimbabwe as well as in Bangkok, Thailand and New York, USA to discuss their experiences with using UNSCR 1325, including ways to use the resolution to strengthen women's participation in key decision-making bodies that deal with peace and security issues and the issues that they want to bring to the attention of decision makers. Participants in New York included Rachel Mayanja, the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. Ms. Mayanja noted the women's concerns and suggestions and took their messages to the Open Debate of the UN Security Council, which took place immediately following the CyberDialogue.
 
Peace activists from Burma and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as advocates from Canada who came for the UN Security Council Meeting in New York also joined the peace-building cyberdialogues.
 
Some of the key points that participants in the cyberdialogues raised were:

-        the need to ensure that women understand SCR 1325 and along with this, their need to be trained to gain skills in negotiation and in understanding and analyzing conflict - so that they can participate more effectively in discussions and negotiations on peace and security issues  

-        the need to educate the general public to develop a broad constituency of people who are aware of the issues [arising from conflict and those that bring about conflict] and how these can impact on their daily lives

 

For many of you, Senator Mobina Jaffer, Chair of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security will need no introduction. Others may like to read my profile of her in today’s article. She was one of many people I went to see to try and understand how to assess the success of Resolution 1325 to date. I met someone who was always looking forward to the next day’s opportunities, whatever had happened yesterday. So I asked her for a message for the Women Making a Difference bloggers, and I think she was just the person to ask. This was her message to you all:

“I have spent some time reading the posts in this blog and I am energised by the passion and in many cases, frustration shared about the international results to date of resolution 1325.
 
I too am frustrated.  I want to see change happen now.  I don’t want to have to travel back to places like Darfur and witness the scars, both physical and emotional. I know that as impatient as I am to see change, my sisters in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, the DRC and Iraq are even more impatient. They know what the cost of war and the value of real peace are where they are actively involved in decision-making.
 
Don’t give up. Don’t be overwhelmed by the obstacles that are faced as we move this important issue forward. It is only through the collaboration and partnership of our sisters around the globe that the commitments in 1325 will be fully realised. Change is taking place, we are moving forward. Our efforts are paying off so please stay strong. The work of one woman is like a stone dropped into the water. The ripples cast go on and on.”

Women and Traditions
An intra-Arab dialogue around the current role of women in peace building and conflict resolution in the Middle-East hosted in Damascus, Syria.
 

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Liberia's 'Iron Lady' claims win (news.bbc.co.uk, 11/11/05))
Is she going to make a difference?

 

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Bahrain feminists prepare for protest (feministing.com, 08/11/05)
The family Law in Bahrain has been rejected because it does not advocate the Shariah’s laws. Feminists have decided to protest against this rejection.

On this day we here in the UK use to remember those who died in the 1st and 2nd World Wars and the last day of this discussion I thought I would try to share a few personal thoughts on gender and peacebuilding in this complex world we live in.

 I was moved by the words of the newly wed man in Jordan after the suicide attack on his wedding this week - he lost his father and his father-in-law on his wedding day and his words were - "This is not what we call Islam, this is not how Muslem's behave". The response from the Jordainian public has also been a further reflection of his words. This man in the face of such personal and devestating tradgedy was able to say quite clearly and powerfully violence and killing is not the way to get accross the message.

Yesterday, one of our readers sent us the following message and link:

“Dear friends
please read this when you have the time. Its about terrorism and the politics of violence, and (I think)  has something to do with your interests. If you agree, please put the link on your website, or pass it on... “

http://www.himalmag.com/2005/september/cover_story.html

Well, I for one, do agree. It’s great to to be offered something to read on our last official day of blogging on UN Resolution 1325 that opens up an even wider historical debate on violence that could keep us going for months!

Have a look at the speeches given in the open debate organised for 1325 5th anniversary.

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"As the fifth anniversary of Resolution 1325 is marked, women in conflict areas still have a lot of work ahead" (Juliana Omale, eastandard.net, 28/10/05)
Five years after the implementation of 1325, progress has been made, but much work still needs to be done.

Dear Sarah and wonderful colleagues at Open Democracy.
 
Greetings from Durban, South Africa.
 
Please I wish to express my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the blog. I must admit this was my first experience and I enjoyed it tremendously. I learnt a lot from various conflict issues for women in other parts of the globe. Interestingly, most of the delicate issues we experience as women are very similar and hopefully we can share strategies for successful interventions from our various contexts. So please could you provide the list of blog members with their contact details, possibly their email contacts so that we can keep in touch with each other beyond the blog. Possibly we can also link them to our networks in their specific parts of the world.

Today, I received a hasty message from Dyab Abou Jahjah, head of the Arab European League, a movement which started in Belgium and spread to the Netherlands and France. I interviewed him for openDemocracy and occasionally after that, he came into our discussion forums. I remember him telling us about his most recent book, which has some themes that might interest Women Making a Difference bloggers. He wrote:

“Honestly, I am disgusted by extremists on both sides. More and more I am aware of the necessity of a democratic alternative, a radical democratic alternative. This society as it is today, locally and globally, is going nowhere.

I am writing a book now that is focused on the Arab world and Islam. I will be looking at history, and advocating a new Arab nationalist left project for the future. I will consider Islam and call for reformism, a protestant Islam, an Islam that gives religion back to the people - taking religion away from the multitude of churches and popes.

I will be defending the right of religious practice like the hijab out of a democratic analysis, but I will be attacking the hijab itself and proving that it is no Islamic obligation but rather a social-stratification tradition that turned theological. I recently said in an interview that the veil is not an Islamic obligation, that I will educate my daughter not to wear one, but that if one woman “believed” that it is part of “her” religion in her own interpretation of that religion that that woman has the democratic right to practice “her” religion as “she” understands it and not as I do. Now that I am expressing these views, fundamentalists and extremists on both sides attack me. But I think that this is the price to pay and it is one I am happy to pay.

I am glad to exchange ideas and views, in openDemocracy and elsewhere. Please let me know what you think of all this.”

Today he wrote to say that events in France are hectic at the moment, but that we might like to have a look at a recent comment piece by him on that subject.

Women under Fire (amnesty.org)
Through this short movie, Amnesty International addresses the problem of arms an violence against women.

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The Impact of Guns on Women's Lives (7/03/05, amnesty.ca)
The Amnesty International Canadian website publishes the report on armed violence against women.

I have always found it painful to watch riots. Why are energetic young people so angry? The rioters in France appear to be immigrants from former French colonies. Most of them are French citizens but many of them do not appear to feel they are accepted as nationals. Integration or the lack of it is what defines the challenge for many governments. Today's nation states, especially those in the West, are more porous and mixed than ever before, and have become multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. This is bound to alter one's sense of national identity. The trouble is citizenship may no longer coincide with that identity. Governments do realize this, hence there are assimilation programmes for immigrants with various degrees of success. I suspect these riots are a reminder to the Europeans that they need to do much more to reconcile differences with their non-European citizens. In China, the rising number of unrests have to do with unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities. It is just as painful to see young people being denied a full education and know that in the years to come, they will fall further back in the development trajectory. How can we get mothers to unite, who can speak to the world on the needs of the young so that we do not disappoint them?

On the 5th anniversary of the 1325 UN Resolution, calling for women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security, it has been hugely important to debate actual improvements and changes. Highlighting enduring obstacles has served as a reminder of the need to continue fighting for the participation of women in peace-building.

One obstacle this blog has not yet covered in detail is the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings. As victims of trafficking are mainly women, the silence around the issue could be seen as an expression of a lack of gender sensitivity in some quarters.