Women bear the brunt of war; they must be allowed to lead the charge for enduring peace
Women as ever bear the brunt of war. We’ve seen them having to flee their homes and country in the weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where, by 24 September 2023, at least 2,707 Ukrainian women and 555 children had been killed. This is a tragic death toll but, even worse, are the figures for the Gaza conflict: of a reported 30,000 fatalities, 70% have been women and children and more than 3,000 women have been widowed.
Women are left to cope with what war and destruction throw at them. Their remarkable means of doing so may not make headlines, but could potentially be the basis for sustainable peace and reconstruction.
Women: resilient, strong and nurturing
Renita Holmes, one of the BBC’s ‘100 women’ of 2023, is a campaigner for housing rights for marginalised communities in climate-impacted Florida and director of the consultancy practice OUR Homes. (Find her here under ‘Politics and Advocacy’.) Women, she says, have attributes of particular value in a troubled world:
“We are resilient, strong, made to nurture; we take action and we take care.”
A diverse group of women around the world show this to be true, for example, another woman on the BBC’s list, Olena Rozvadovska, co-founder of Voices of Children, a charity that provides psychological support to traumatised children. The same qualities are shown in action in the work of Summia Tora. Originally from Afghanistan, she became a child refugee in Pakistan. Following academic study in the US and the UK, she went on to found the Dosti Network, which supports and empowers Afghan families – those who have moved abroad as well as those who have stayed – in the wake of the Taliban takeover of the country. She has worked with the UN and World Bank, and the Malala Fund championing access to education with a specific focus on refugees and women and girls in emergency contexts.
Women’s collaborative approach
A further notable aspect of the work of women activists is the extent to which it is collaborative rather than divisive. Yael Braudo-Bahat, a Peace activist from Israel, is co-director of Women Wage Peace(WWP). Established in 2014 and now with over 500,000 members, for the last two years WWP has collaborated with a Palestinian sister group Women of the Sun. Braudo-Bahat says she owes much to her mentor, the prominent peace activist and WWP co-founder Vivian Silver, who dedicated her life to fostering understanding and equality between Israelis and Palestinians. Silver was killed in the Hamas attack on 7 October, three days after a big demonstration had taken place with Women Of the Sun, urging the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to negotiate a peaceful solution to the ongoing dispute about the territory.
The feeling of many Israeli and Palestinian women, evident in this joint demonstration, that they are in fact on the same side in advocating for peace, is under-reported. Remarkably, as Michael Shuval’s report for the BBC makes clear, even after the loss of Silver and other friends in the Hamas attack, Braudo-Bahat continues to feel the answer lies in forging stronger links with Palestinian women. As she says:
“Both of us feel the sorrow of the other because we are on the same side. We are mothers. We are women. We want a better future for everyone here in this region.”
Women: powerful agents for social change but “nearly always absent from the decision-making”
In the heated aftermath of the Hamas attack, a group of Jewish and Muslim women met together in the “safe space” of Westminster Abbey. As reported in The Guardian by Remona Aly, this was characterised by mutual compassion and empathy, “a precondition”, as she says, “of the kind of wise, pragmatic leadership we are all desperate for.” And yet, she notes, women’s voices are rarely heard in any negotiating process. Between 1992 and 2019, women constituted only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators and 6% of signatories in peace processes around the world.
This is lamentable. Women are powerful agents for social change. Responding to Aly’s article, Harfiyah Ball Haleem gives as an example the importance of women’s voices in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement.
As described by Carola Addington, it is also a refusal to recognise the contribution of women to the promotion of human rights, tolerance and peace over many decades. The Black Sash movement founded in South Africa and the Women in Black network, jointly founded by Israeli and Palestinian women in 1988, are notable in this respect. Women in Black continues to work here and internationally, holding vigils calling for peace, justice and sustainable security in the Middle East, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan and indeed wherever there is conflict. Meanwhile, here in Britain, the friendship organisation Nisa-Nashim, set up to bring together Jewish and Muslim women, has as its ambitious aim “to inspire and lead social change.”
To bring about peace: empower girls and young women
Palestinian Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish was brought up in Jalalia refugee camp after he and his family had been displaced from their family home. He studied in a UN school then studied to become a doctor working in Gaza and Israel. On 6 January 2009, during Israel’s 2008-2009 war on Gaza, his three eldest daughters and nieces were killed when their home was ripped apart by Israeli shells. His book, I Shall Not Hate, is a moving account of a man’s courage as he picks up the pieces of this tragedy and tries to find meaning.
In memory of his daughters, Dr Abuelaish started The Daughters for Life Foundation, which provides scholarships and awards to enable Middle Eastern girls to pursue their education. The underlying belief on which the foundation is based is that “lasting peace in the Middle East depends on the empowerment of girls and young women through education, which will allow them to become agents of change for the betterment of life throughout the Middle East.” In 2010, for his work on peace and reconciliation, Izzeldin Abuelaish was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The World Bank is also a strong advocate of investing in girls’ education, with a five-year study providing evidence that educating women and girls is an important factor in the avoidance of conflict.
It may come as a surprise to non-Muslim readers that equality of education is also promoted in the Quran:
“The acquisition of knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim, whether male or female.”
International Women’s Day – time to stand up and be counted
War, described by Carola Addington as an expression of “patriarchal violence and militarism,” hurts ordinary men and women alike. It is waged by despots and autocrats and governments desperately clinging to power, forcing our sons, brothers, fathers and also our young women to fight on their behalf.
We have wonderful role models opposing this view of the world, most recently Yulia Navalnaya, who is bravely continuing the struggle begun by her husband, but we must all stand up and be counted. Voters in America will have to decide what side they are on, with female voters likely to make the difference. Similarly in Britain when our election comes around.
As International Women’s Day approaches, I am optimistic and hopeful that women’s voices will be heard and that the qualities of compassion, empathy, collaboration and fairness will be given their rightful place in negotiating a peaceful world. For everyone’s sake.
