WOMEN AND WAR

Martin Luther once said, “War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity. It destroys religion, it destroys States, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.”

Yet, wherever we turn, we see war and war-like situations. Though one expects civilized nations to refrain from senseless brutality, the “savage” in man, surfaces in the heat of war, especially when no reciprocal action is expected from women who are at a physical disadvantage.

War makes beasts of men whether American, European, Asian or African. Violence overshadows humanity, and cruelty hinders peace. Under the pressure of prolonged conflict, men turn into avenging devils, with licence to kill, and no fear of retribution. Defenceless women become a major casualty of war.

History is rife with incidents of cruelty towards women. The atrocities of World War II perpetrated against Jewish women and children, the infamous extermination camps, the inhuman S-Wagon gas chambers, conjure up gory pictures of man's inhumanity to man.

The My Lai massacres of 1969, perpetrated by American forces in Vietnam, the Kosovo “midsummer nightmare” of Albanian women being brutalized by Serbian soldiers, the genocide of Hindu women in Bangladesh in 1971 by Pakistani soldiers, have been compared to the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

Cruelty comes in many forms – forced labour, starvation, homelessness, and as a result, disease, ill health, death, are some faces of cruelty. The Taliban, who deprived women of education and work, and forcibly imposed severe dress codes, incarcerating them within the four walls of their homes, also practised cruelty by stripping women of their rights.

Rape however, is the ultimate weapon used to destroy the dignity and spirit of women. Rape is believed to be “the right of the conqueror over the vanquished.” Top officials not only participate, but encourage their men to do likewise. The Generals believe that rape relieves pent-up aggressiveness, and gives the soldiers that heady feeling of power and superiority.

Rape is justified on two accounts. First, it establishes supremacy in times of war. To recall a few incidents – the rape of Belgian women in World War I, the rape of Nanking women by Japanese soldiers in 1937, and nearer home, the Bangladesh war in 1971, when hundreds of Bangladeshi girls were held in “Army brothels,” not only to work as servants, but to service the Pakistani soldiers several times a day. Abortions were countless, and pregnant women were cloistered in the camps. After raping them, the brutes would push their bayonets between the legs of the girls, to compound their misery.

Under the Pol Pot regime (1975-79) Cambodian women suffered similar indignities at the hands of the Khymer Rouge.

The second justification for rape is procreation. Even as early as the 8 th Century B.C, when Romulus wanted to populate the new State of Rome, he encouraged the rape of Sabine women, with a view to making them pregnant.

During World War II, Himmler's “Reproductive farms,” harvested a neat 50,000 children born to Gestapo men and pure Aryan girls, in their project of ‘Planned Eugenics.'

Similarly, the Serbian soldiers sired “Little Chechens.”

The Sri Lankan army not only resorted to genocide of Tamilian women, but many were gang-raped with the slogan, “We will kill all Tamil tigers, and fill the Tamil women with Sinhala lions.” Many times, pregnant women with “tiger cubs inside,” had their bellies slit wide open.

Widowhood is another tragic consequence of war. It is a grief that never ends. Many have no means of sustenance, and the burden of providing for their children becomes daunting. Poverty, exploitation, loss of status becomes their lot. Ignorance of procedures may delay receipt of pension and allowances. When monetary benefits arrive, there are greedy in-laws waiting in the wings for their share. Often, young widows are forced into marriage with the younger siblings of their husbands, so that their money is retained within the family.

In Kashmir , women are forced to transport weapons under their voluminous burqahs, and carry messages to other groups. They are compelled to provide food and shelter, and nurse injured militants. Many are brainwashed into supporting militancy through activities like spying, passing information, or even goading their husbands and sons to join the freedom struggle.

War unhinges many people leading to psychological problems. Fear, torture, sexual violence, bereavement and deprivation, cause severe depression, and psychosomatic illnesses. Young women develop suicidal tendencies. Inability to voice their fears or a sense of hopelessness, may lead to permanent mental instability.

As war of sorts is happening all the time in some part of the world, women cannot continue to remain helpless victims, convinced that their plight is a natural sequence to war. Many believe that women must also take up arms, and join in combat against their enemies. But what guarantee is there, that they will not become as heartless as their persecutors? The late Phoolan Devi's life demonstrates how the gun turned her into a murderess, taking ‘an eye for an eye,' and a life for a life. Many women who joined guerilla groups like the PWG in Andhra, came away, realizing the magnitude of evil inherent in the gun culture. Even women like Aasiyeh Andrabi and Farida in the Kashmir valley, who openly condone militancy, have yet to wield a gun.

Violence is alien to women's nature. However, it is prudent for women to learn measures of self-defence like karate or even how to use a firearm in an emergency.

In times of war, women doctors, nurses and paramedics, have ventured into forward areas, risking their own lives to render service to war casualties. Many have served in non-combatant areas like communications. The Women's Auxiliary Corps during World War II, rendered an important service to the war effort.

Civilian women have donated clothes, woollies, medicines and food packets too.

It is now incumbent on women to change the course of war, by raising their voices individually and collectively, against violence. Wherever there is evil and injustice, women should make it their responsibility to expose and condemn it, and insist on punishment of perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Small resistance groups in different areas, can bring to the notice of the Human Rights Commission or to Amnesty International, cases of violence, detention, imprisonment or execution without trial.

“When torture is prolonged, it kills the ‘human' in the torturer, and crushes the personality of the one tortured,” says Dr. Emilio Castro.

The Geneva Convention (1949) and Additional Protocol (1977), stress the principle of non-combatant immunity. This was reaffirmed in the General Assembly in 1970. The argument today is that in modern warfare, there is no distinction between civil and military.

Women must champion a new way of thinking, and be in the vanguard of peace efforts. They cannot passively accept indignities heaped on them in the name of war. They must form groups for confidence building, stimulate discussions and debates against war, encourage governments to settle disputes through dialogue and discussion, and rally for disarmament and destruction of all weapons. They should raise their voices in an unequivocal condemnation of war, and urge all nations to give peace a chance.

“War is essentially Man's work,” says Betty Williams, “Now move over. Women will ensure peace.”