Fri May 18, 2012
Melanie Hoewer
Fighting Back for her Rights
By Melanie Hoewer, Mexico – October 2009
Exchanged for a cow – a customary dowry in an arranged marriage in some indigenous communities in Chiapas (Mexico) – 20 year old Maria was forbidden to return to her home. Beaten by her husband – another indigenous tradition used to “educate” women, Maria managed to escape her prison of abuse and join the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
When I first met Maria in 2005, I was coordinating a workshop for the peaceful transformation of conflict in Chiapas near the Zapatista community where Maria currently lives. Immediately impressed by her strength, outspokenness and determination – rather unusual for indigenous women who mostly appear to be quite timid – Maria now fought for change promoting respect both for her culture and her gender.
Maria’s situation is not unique. Historically, women have been exploited in regions of conflict, often violently abused and excluded from the equation of reconciliation. Moreover, when peaceful reconciliation is examined, it is largely through a male ethnic lens perpetrating gender inequity when it comes to paving the way for social justice and dignity.
Ironic that Maria and other women like her found refuge within a group of armed fighters. But an organisation of women within the EZLN has become dedicated to the development of equality, dignity and respect for all indigenous people.
In fact, female Zapatist leaders like Commander Ramona have worked hard to bring to light women’s triple oppression – as women, as poor and as indigenous. As a result, new feminist strength is beginning to emerge and women, like Maria are promoting change within their communities.
Although there is still a long way to go before full equality is achieved, women are experiencing new freedoms and respect as members of the Zapatista movement. Further, within the EZLN women feel protected and freely speak out on the issue of gender equality without fear of retribution of physical abuse and mistreatment, including rape.
More than one third of the EZLN members are female, many in leadership positions. The discourse of the EZLN defines everyone on equal footing no matter what their gender, colour, creed, ethnicity or political affiliation.
Additionally, with such codes of life as the Revolutionary Women’s Law, new opportunities for women are possible. ‘I heard about the Revolutionary Women’s Law [of the EZLN] and it was what I felt in my heart,” said Maria. “[This law] has encouraged me to get away from a life in misery. Yes I am an indigenous woman and yes I believe in our customs and traditions. Some of them are good like respect for land, our languages, our clothing and the traditional medicine. But others are bad, like forcing us to marry even if we don’t like the man. If we Zapatistas demand respect for our culture, we have to show that we respect ourselves and allow not only men, but also women to live a life in dignity. We are all different, but we should be treated equally as indigenous and as women.”
Maria’s story and those of other indigenous women and men with whom I spoke made it clear that the paradigm of social mobilisation and peace must include gender, ethnic and class identity as integral and interrelated parts contributing to the conflict.
While sexual violence against women and girls has become a key element on the international peace agenda there has nonetheless been a lack of understanding as to why sexual violence against women is still used in many parts of the world as a tactic of war to systematically humiliate, dominate and instil fear in members of a community or ethnic group. The lack of consideration of women’s security needs in post conflict planning and funding allocation was recently criticised in an UNIFEM report[1]. Indeed, there cannot be a holistic peace process if women’s issues of inequality are not addressed.
Some progress however, is being made. As a first step, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1325 (October 2000), followed by resolutions 1820 (June 2008) and 1888 (September 2009) which addressed peace and security issues, acknowledging that conflicts can no longer be viewed solely through the perspectives of men. In so doing the UN gave international visibility to the importance of gender and equality in conflicts situations.
The UN resolutions are mutually-reinforcing and complementary, as 1820 and 1888 strengthen an area where implementation of 1325 remains particularly weak –the prevention and response to sexual violence prevention. These resolutions also include monitoring and implementation mechanisms which are missing in the UNSCR 1325.
However resolution 1325 is important as it addresses issues of violence and inequality deeply embedded within the political and social structures of a society – behaviours that are manifested in sexual violence against women and also in the inability of women to do anything about it as they are not represented in political decision making processes.
For the Zapatista women like other women caught up in conflicts around the world, meaningful and sustainable change in political, social, economical and cultural structures can only occur when women are empowered to enjoy the same rights as men and are also equally represented in their communities, endowed with an important voice that is automatically protected from gender abuse retribution. Only in so doing will gender inequality experience change. The Zapatista slogan, ‘never a world without us’ must be a reality for all human beings – not only for indigenous or non-indigenous men, but also for indigenous and non-indigenous women.
Melanie Hower is an UCD Ad Astra Research Scholar in Conflict Resolution at the University College Dublin
[1] United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) 2009: “Funding for women’s needs within post- conflict needs assessment”
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