Women's League of Burma: Confronting the Continuum of Violence
When Tay Tay, coordinator of the Women Against Violence program of the Women's League of Burma (WLB), returned to her home in exile in Thailand last September, she, along with the rest of the world, watched in horror as a nonviolent popular uprising in Burma was brutally suppressed. The people of Burma have lived under a military dictatorship for over four decades, one that has used particularly brutal tactics in its war against Burma's ethnic peoples. For thousands of rural women, this has meant being subjected to a systematic campaign of sexual violence by the state. It has meant living with that pain and trauma, with little means of support and no access to justice.
In response to this situation, members of Tay Tay's organization, an umbrella organization of exiled women's groups from Burma, have been documenting the prevalence of state-sponsored sexual violence. With the help of courageous survivors who dare to speak out, members of WLB have produced detailed reports on the regime's systematic and strategic use of rape as a weapon of war. The junta's denial of these facts has been vehement.
Through community exchanges and women's meetings, WLB creates safe spaces for women to build trust, allowing them to speak of what is happening in their own lives in refugee camps and migrant communities. For WLB, it has become clear that violence, including sexual violence, is not confined to situations of armed conflict; it exists in women's very homes and communities. Addressing the complexity of domestic violence in addition to state-sanctioned violence against women has been a new challenge for WLB. During her visit to Ottawa, Tay Tay noted that "it is sometimes easier to name the state as the 'enemy' than it is to confront violence that is closer to home." However, for WLB to address the reality of women's lives, it is necessary to acknowledge all aspects of violence.
Inter Pares supports WLB's Women Against Violence program in India, Thailand, and China, which assists women from Burma to speak out on issues of violence. WLB provides practical support to women who have experienced violence through medical services, basic needs and shelter, psychosocial support, and help for women to access local legal aid networks. WLB's training program includes topics such as counselling, trafficking, and feminist approaches to documenting human rights abuses. WLB also continues to support documentation efforts on state-sponsored sexual violence inside Burma.
WLB's work is an inspiring example of what can be achieved when women come together to act in order to challenge the violence that affects women all over the world.
Promoting Women's Rights in Sudan
Painting done by a Sudanese artist as part of a display about violence against women.
When Asha El-Karib and Fahima Hashim returned to Khartoum after their visit to Canada last September, they were returning to the harsh daily realities of women in Sudan, a country where pervasive gender inequality has been exacerbated by decades of conflict and militarization. Yet they were also returning to the people with whom they are building a movement to challenge this situation, enriched by their various encounters with Inter Pares colleagues from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Canada.
Asha and Fahima are relentlessly challenging how women in Sudan are treated as second-class citizens. Their experiences in Canada energized and inspired them to continue confronting the widespread denial that violence against women, especially sexual violence, exists in Sudan.
The global outcry against the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war in Darfur has brought more pressure on the Sudanese government and the international community to address the situation. However, Sudanese women's organizations, who are working to heal communities torn apart by armed confrontation, still face incredible obstacles when trying to work with women affected by sexual violence in camps around Khartoum, or in the other regions of Sudan where conflict still reigns.
For these Sudanese organizations, promoting women's rights and gender equality is a means to challenge the current social order in their country. Sexuality is taboo, which prevents women and girls from questioning, much less challenging, how society encourages them to be sexual objects. Popular songs and poems reinforce the idea that women and girls are the physical property of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. The relationship between rape and sexuality is so distorted within Sudan's interpretation of Sharia law that women who dare to report their rape are prosecuted for adultery. But Asha, Fahima and their colleagues share the view that sexual violence against women and girls - which includes the systematic use of rape, but also forced early marriage, domestic abuse, and female genital mutilation - is not an inherent part of their society. Cultural practices in Sudan have changed over time, and can continue to be transformed.
Asha's organization, the Gender Centre for Research and Training, and Fahima's organization, the Salmmah Women's Resource Centre, have joined with other Sudanese organizations to break the silence on violence against women. Despite the risks, they are making women's realities visible by producing video documentaries and publishing articles in the national and international media. They are also working with women leaders from Darfur and other regions to ensure that their concerns and voices are heard in peace negotiations.
Inter Pares is honoured to be able to work with Fahima, Asha and many other activists in Sudan, who are courageously speaking out to transform their own country and society.
Click here to listen to a radio interview with Asha El-Karib in which she talks about the challenges women activists face in Sudan.
| Reviewed February 5, 2008 |  |
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