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WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN 2000 Women call attention to plight
July 30, 2000 "I hear the soft murmur of women, their words of joy and tenderness. I
hear the sigh of women and their muffled groans. I hear the cry of women,
their rage and their revolt, their victory cries of exhilaration. I hear
the fear of women, fear of threatening laneways, fear of violent homes. I
hear women's songs of hope, their voices harmonious and strong, their
laughter overcomes, bursts forth, flourishes."
These words are taken from A Bread and Roses Celebration, for the World
March of Women, being held this October.
The World March is a historic world-wide, grassroots campaign calling the
world's attention to women's poverty, violence against women and the
structures that keep them poor, excluded and violated.
Women from 153 countries, organized in 4,190 groups, have joined the call
for change.
Most of the issues enunciated in March's manifesto resonate with the
social teachings of the Church, as we observe in official church documents
a positive attitude toward the emancipation of women and support for their
demands for dignity and equality, in both the public and private spheres of
life.
We also find the question of the place of women is directly related to
that of justice and the building of a more humane world.
Women are both the beneficiaries of this search for justice and active
participants in the transformation of an unjust world.
However, there are some real, or at least perceived, troublesome planks
in the march's agenda. One of these is the meaning of "a woman's right to
control her body and reproductive function." This is a loaded political
expression! For some, it is code for abortion or access to abortion.
Others understand it to encompass a broad set of concerns of women for an
end to forced sterilizations, genital mutilation and forced marriage. For
many, the first meaning is totally unacceptable, while we enthusiastically
endorse the second understanding.
Another section has to do with lesbians and gays. As I read this section,
it does not call for approval of lesbian and gay sexual activities, which
would be problematic.
However, there are demands that people never be stoned, jailed, refused
housing or work, or asylum if they are refugees, or denied any other human
right because of their sexual orientation. this is consistent Catholic
social teaching.
While wrestling with these issues, and sometimes with those holding
opposite views, I had the opportunity to listen to two African women,
MarieAnge Lukiana and Elise Muhimizi from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, who stopped in Canada on their way home from the recent UN
Conference, Beijing +5, held in New York.
As they described their life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I
furiously tried to take notes as they shared their experiences. The rebels
now control most of the country. Tens of thousands have been displaced
internally and hundreds of thousands have sought refuge elsewhere. Women
are raped systematically. Often their husbands will not have them back and
they are left alone and pregnant. Many consider suicide. This too is a form
of genocide.
There have been instances of women buried alive. Women flee in the night
in the face of advancing armies with nothing but the clothes on their back.
Children are lost along the way. They arrive at rivers and can't swim. The
advancing soldiers not only rape the women, they set fire to the villages
and destroy everything in their path.
"That's why I stopped my studies and changed my career," Elise said. "I
saw the need to organize women to stop all of this."
She is now national co-ordinator of Conafed, a coalition of 300 NGOs
which promotes women's legal equality and advocates for peace and
educational and economic training opportunities.
MarieAnge, co-ordinator of the Cause commune, a group that lobbies for
justice and represents 250 women's groups to deal with human needs where
there is no functioning government, explained 70% of the women are
illiterate. But that does not mean they're not strong leaders, wise women,
able to speak well and promote change.
Zeroing in on the meaning of the World March of Women, MarieAnge said:
"For us, it's the fight against poverty among women.
War is everything that makes this worse.
"War is the root of all our problems right now," she said. "We have
called for a rally for October, but the president of the Republic has
criticized us. He has challenged why we are speaking out. But with
three-quarters of the country taken over by fighting, the government has
failed. And women will find new ways to have an even larger voice.
"Some of us have already been imprisoned for acting for peace. We won't
make it without the international solidarity."
Elise explained the importance of the March in a different way. "We women
talk about social need, but the U.S. talks about economic interests. We
denounce foreign armies fighting on our territories," she said.
"But the world doesn't denounce this. We need stronger education of the
North American people. Your people don't know about atrocities. We women do
not count ethnicity, whether Hutu or Tutsi. We have suffered so many
massacres. We are not a violent people. We hate violence. It is the
systematic destruction of African societies. Nothing can happen without
peace. Poverty can't be conquered without peace."
At the end of the day, what I found most amazing and refreshing was that
these women never raised the abortion question, nor did they get into the
gay-lesbian debate.
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