Here is another piece of Women On The Rise journalism, with an
imposing date. Relax, just
ovaries are mentioned this time.
- KWC
Women
Will Have to Save the World
Marlene Nadle, Pacific News Service,
September 11, 2003
President
Bush may not face much opposition in Congress to his plan for perpetual
preemptive war, but he better watch out for the women. Angry over the swagger of violence
coming out of the White House, disgusted by the bring-'em-on itch for a fight
as the solution to political problems, women around the globe are organizing
in new ways.
These
gender activists are on the Internet, in the streets, packed into rooms
forming more groups and pushing resolutions through the United Nations. Some
are setting up an Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad, and others are building
a transnational movement. They even have their first martyr in Rachel Corrie,
the young American who was killed trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from
destroying Palestinian homes.
The
surge of women's activism is happening now partly as a response to 9/11. That
event accelerated the growth of new groups like England's Global Women's Strike and Central Asia's
Worldwide Sisterhood Against Terrorism and
War.
Explaining
her own reaction to that trauma and the macho strut of both bin Laden and
Bush, Code Pink founder Medea
Benjamin says, "I had feelings and fears I never had in all my years of
organizing. The male aggressive voice was so very dominant. We needed to
strengthen the voices opposed to that. Mobilizing women was one way to do it."
Her reaction to violent solutions is shared by Indian writer Arundhati Roy who
calls bin Laden Bush's "dark doppelganger."
The
new organizing is more than an attack on personalities. As Jasmina Tesanovic,
a member of Women in Black in Serbia, says, "My enemy is no longer a bad hero,
or a politician, or a person in power, but the culture that makes such
primitive people possible and empowers them." The organizing is part of a
culture war to end the love of military glory, power, dominance and hierarchy
often taught as part of male traditions. New Profile, a women's group in
Israel, demands a complete reevaluation of its country's "military
consciousness."
To
counter a male habit of imposing power and dominance in postwar periods women
diplomats and non-government organizations pressured the United Nations to
pass Resolution 1325, calling
for women's full participation in nation building. Now, Iraqi women are
organizing to stop Bush from running their country as a Boy's Club. They are
being supported and advised by the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Network of Kosovo Women, Women to Women International, PeaceWomen, and a deluge of visiting
groups.
This
international alliance is aiding Iraqi women's own efforts to protest violent
rapes, honor killings and the rise of fanatics. "We fear the threat of
fundamentalist religious movements which an occupying army inspires," the
Iraqi Women's League said in a
recent statement.
The
activists count on women in postwar and prewar situations to argue for
political solutions to macho face-offs. They encourage them to use their
social training in settling issues with words, cooperation, and even empathy
for enemies.
There
are no illusions about ovaries making all women good and peaceful. Instead,
Ann Snitow of the Network of East-West Women urges women to acknowledge their
past complicity with men's wars. Few expect Bush National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice to give up her allegiance to traditional male stomp-and-rule
values. But men who share their alternate vision are welcome in the movement.
The
women may be waging a culture war, but that doesn't mean they can't do
down-and-dirty politics with Bush. In an incident that's an early warning
about the 2004 elections, a group of women greeted a fundraising George W.
Bush in Los Angeles recently with a 40-foot pink rejection slip that read:
"You're Fired!"
More
significant is the change in young women who haven't been voting. In a recent
article in a weekly magazine on youth voting, 23-year-old Chantel Azadeh said,
"The last two years have done a number on a lot of people's minds. This
election I plan on getting involved. I think it's crucial that we get Bush out
of the White House." An MTV survey showed only 41 percent of the young are
planning to vote for Bush.
The
president's ominous mutterings about nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea
are enough to keep gender activism going. Ditto the economic attack on women's
domestic needs in America and in countries that are its once and future
allies. Niki Adams of London's Global
Women's Strike is helping to organize a demand for a Women's Budget in 24 countries where her
group has members including, the United States.
"Our
slogan is 'Invest in caring, not in killing'," she says. Even Madonna has
joined the post-9/11 resistance with her new music video "American Life" which
satirizes the military superhero. Driven by dread, the women activists will
continue to multiply. They are haunted by nightmare images of where the punch
and counterpunch of superpower and terrorist, occupier and occupied, will
lead.
"This
is a desperate moment in our history," says playwright Karen Malpede, who only
half-jokingly adds, "I guess women will have to save the world."