Women's Struggle for Justice
From left to right: Nadia Faucher, Inter Pares; Diana Avila, Asha El-Karib, Zipporah Sein, Sophie Havyarimana.
VOLUME 30, NUMBER 1, FEBRUARY 2008
On a warm evening last September, responding to Inter Pares' invitation, almost 400 people crowded into a community auditorium in Ottawa to hear four women's rights activists speak out about sexual violence.
The audience of men and women of all ages included university students, local human rights activists, and members of Ottawa's immigrant communities. Despite the topic, the hall was charged with an atmosphere of solidarity, and animated discussion followed well into the evening.
Our featured guests that night were Sophie Havyarimana of Burundi, Diana Avila of Peru, Zipporah Sein of Burma, and Asha El-Karib of Sudan. They were part of a group of fifteen women from around the world whom Inter Pares had invited to participate in a series of events spanning two weeks and four cities called Breaking the Silence: Women's Struggle for Justice. All of these women work with survivors of sexual violence in countries torn apart by armed conflict.
For many years, Inter Pares has worked in areas of armed conflict to support and accompany those most affected by violence. During armed conflicts, men's roles - as combatants, as casualties, as negotiators - tend to be the focus. Women's roles - as soldiers, as members of resistance movements, as political actors, and all too often as victims - are often obscured. In the shadows of war, the specific targeting of women through the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is usually invisible. When conflicts end, women continue to bear the scars of the brutality they have experienced, but rarely is this reality acknowledged. Indeed, given the stigma and shame that survivors experience, these crimes are often shrouded in secrecy and remain unpunished.
Our events in September provided an opportunity for women working on issues of sexual violence to share experiences and learn from one another, as well as to meet Canadians who are confronting violence against women and gender inequality. Participants came from Burundi, Sudan, Burma, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala, countries that have all been deeply affected by war. While they came from diverse places, the experiences they relayed in their conversations with government agencies, international organizations, community activists, and the general public here in Canada were virtually identical - horrific sexual crimes have been systematically inflicted on women, especially marginalized and rural women.
During our time together, we discussed the dilemmas, challenges and strategies common to our work. We spoke of how women survivors are organizing to demand an end to impunity for crimes against them, and the challenge of changing national legal systems so perpetrators of these crimes can be prosecuted. Our colleagues spoke of the profound respect they held for the survivors of these crimes, for their courage, dignity and resilience. We all shared the conclusion that the source of violence against women is not armed conflict itself, but a social order that devalues women.
In her presentation that evening in Ottawa, Asha El-Karib of Sudan spoke about violence against women in the Darfur region of her country. The scale and viciousness of this violence, she said, led her and her colleagues to reflect on why rape was being used as a weapon of war. "It is clear to us," Asha said, "that violence against women existed before the war. Violence has to do with the subordination of women, with women's inequality, with the perception that women are property." It is in this patriarchal reality, she said, that all violence against women is rooted.
Asha challenged the audience to break the silence about violence against women. "We need to ask ourselves whether by our silence and inaction, we are contributing to crimes of violence against women, not only in Sudan, in Burma, in Burundi, but also here in Canada." This Bulletin describes the work of some of the dedicated women who support and accompany survivors of violence, and our shared learning in the search for justice.
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| Reviewed February 5, 2008 |  |
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