The perpetual war on women’s lives continues unabated. The recent U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that allows protestors to continue to terrorize women
at abortion clinics and South Dakota’s ban on virtually all abortions (with
other states threatening to do the same) are the latest assaults on women’s
human rights in this country. In addition, almost immediately after signing
the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), President Bush
promptly turned around and submitted a budget that proposed cutting funds to
the vital services that are provided for by this important piece of
legislation.
The arrogant disregard for women’s human rights however is a global
phenomena. Hundreds of women die every year from AIDS the complications of
childbirth because there is no profit in helping them survive. Women
throughout the world are also victimized by a perpetual pandemic of sexual
violence including infanticide, female genital mutilation, rape and sexual
slavery.
And everywhere, women’s lives are used as the battlegrounds of men’s wars.
Several weeks ago, the human rights organization Madre reported that an
effort was being organized to create an underground railroad in Iraq for
women whose lives were in danger of honor killings and other kinds of
intimate assaults. Reporter Jill Carroll and aid worker Margaret Hassan have
been kidnapped (and in Hassan’s case subsequently killed) and Iraqi women
held in jail as leverage by groups of men to pressure other groups of men,
whether we call those groups sovereign nations, terrorists or freedom
fighters. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in captivity in Burma and the murders of
hundreds of women in Mexico and Guatemala go unsolved. In Darfur, women have
been subjected to unspeakable violence. The list is simply endless.
It has been said that the health of a society is measured by how it treats
its women. By that measure, our human society is very sick indeed.
At the same time, our planet has been plundered and assaulted beyond the
tipping point. Our children can barely breathe the polluted air. Our
rivers are fouled with pesticides and toxins. Genetically modified seed and
depleted uranium threaten us all. Fish are dying in the rising and warming
seas and soon the Arctic ice will be no more. The arrogant devastation of
our coastal areas, our plains and our mountains in the name of economic
progress turns natural disasters into horrific manmade catastrophes. And
just as in war, it is always the women and children who suffer the most
harm.
As the richest most powerful nation in the world, the U.S. bears significant
responsibility for the continued reign of terror against the earth and it’s
inhabitants. Because of our privileged position in the world, it is
incumbent upon U.S. women to take a stand against this madness.
Just as they did in ancient Greece, we must say that we will no longer
cooperate with the patriarchal madness that is killing us all. It is time
to stop participating in a system that is toxic and dysfunctional by its
very nature. Neither the planet or her inhabitants are ours to control, we
are part of a complex living whole. It is time for women to lead the way and
demand an end to the assault on our lives and that of our world.
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Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the
Founder of the Feminist Peace Network,
www.feministpeacenetwork.org. Her
work has been published in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad
including, Awakened Woman, Alternet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs, The
Progressive, Rain and Thunder, Z Magazine , Common Dreams and Information
Clearinghouse.
