Women and War

One of the reasons Madison Women for Peace formed in March 2003 was because we recognized that women are specifically affected by war. They are targeted with rape, physical assault, domestic violence (which increases in war-torn countries), forced displacement, even murder. They struggle to keep the family together and the children fed, even in the face of grinding poverty and often without help from male family members, who are fighting or in hiding.

At the same time, the stories and faces of women and children affected by war usually go unheard and unseen. But the evidence mounts:

• One conclusion of a recent Lancet study, based on interviews of nearly one thousand households across Iraq, was that some 100,000 more Iraqis have died since the U.S.-led invasion than would be predicted from pre-invasion mortality rates. That figure did attract some media attention. Less well covered was the conclusion that, "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths." Or that, "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children."
  
• One report from Fallujah, Iraq - not independently confirmed - is that a mass grave dug by neighboring villagers contains "the bodies of 73 women and children who were burnt to death by a U.S. bombing attack."
  
• In Afghanistan, "where many men have been killed in more than two decades of war, at least 30 percent of all ... households are headed solely by women, according to UNICEF." Finding a job, when unemployment is estimated to be 70 percent, would be hard for anyone, but women are heavily discriminated against. "To survive and keep their families afloat, [Afghan women] depend on donations from charitable organizations, small business loans and the contributions of their children, many of whom are pulled from school to work street jobs."
  
• In Haiti, another in a continuing series of surges of violence directed against ousted president Aristide claimed the lives of as many as 12 people today. "A Reuters correspondent saw six bodies, including those of two women." Funny how the United States was interested enough in Haiti to support pushing Aristide out of power in February, but we seem to have forgotten about the country now. Some commentators have suggested that Bush's win on November 2 is being interpreted by the unelected Haitian government as a license to continue the repression and killing: "You've also got the morally repugnant elite, the 150 families who have golfing buddies in the Republican party, who are now emboldened by Bush's election."

We must continue to tell these stories, to look for our sisters' faces, and to demand justice and peace in all of our names.