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Winning Hearts and Minds |
Children play on a burnt-out Russian-made tank
on the road to Shelab, in Eritrea -
a memorial to the end of Eritrea's liberation struggle with Ethiopia. Photo © Crispin Hughes
a memorial to the end of Eritrea's liberation struggle with Ethiopia. Photo © Crispin Hughes
UK - One half of the population, here and in the Middle East, are barely involved when it comes either to causing terror or preventing it. 97 per cent of bombers and suicide bombers are male, as are over 90 per cent of those conducting the so-called "war on terror".
Maybe it is time to consider what women would do. In fact, the British government has signed up to United Nations Resolution 1325, which is a worldwide agreement that will include women in the prevention and the resolving of violence. Why? Because all over the world women have shown that they are good at it.
In 1992, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, a Muslim woman from the borders of Kenya and Somalia, managed to stop a clan war that had cost 1,500 lives, by getting together with women from the opposing clan. This was not sewing circle stuff. She said: "If a member of my clan kills a member of your family, will you still work with me for peace? If you can't say yes, don't join." They were so successful in solving disputes that the Kenyan President gave her an office in Nairobi and she now teaches her methods in other parts of Africa.
In Northern Ireland the Women's Peace Party played a significant part in the Good Friday Agreement. Jo Berry, the daughter of a Tory MP killed in the Brighton bombing, sought out the man who planted the bomb when he came out of jail in 1999. They went through a gradual process of reconciliation and she now works with him, helping other victims and perpetrators of political violence to find peace.
Dr Sima Semar, now Minister for Human Rights in Afghanistan, has for years systematically set up education and health centres for Afghani women and girls, knowing that they hold the key to peace. Her offices have twice been blown up, but she says she is too busy to be afraid and just continues her work. When five warring clans in Somalia were unable to reach any agreement, Somali women asked to participate in the negotiations and were turned down. So, under the leadership of Asha Haji Elmi, and the women's network Save Somali Women and Children, they formed themselves into the sixth clan. They have since made a significant contribution to building peace in Somalia.
And so on, but invisibly. There are, it is thought, thousands of women's peace initiatives springing up at grassroots level in the world’s tougher corners, and the London-based organisation Peace Direct is setting out to document just how many there are.
This is not to say that men are no good at peace-building; many have been spectacularly successful. It is simply that when it comes to terror, the female way of doing things, which can be done effectively by either sex, is under used. The female way tends to invest more time in listening to human needs, values the making of connections, and favours the use of respect, rather than the use of force.
"Hearts and Minds" by Scilla Ellworthy and Gabrielle Rifkind is available from:
Demos, 136 Tooley Street,
London, SE21 2TU. Tel: 0845 458 5949
Website: www.demos.co.uk
Website: www.peacedirect.org
Story from Positive News UK
Maybe it is time to consider what women would do. In fact, the British government has signed up to United Nations Resolution 1325, which is a worldwide agreement that will include women in the prevention and the resolving of violence. Why? Because all over the world women have shown that they are good at it.
In 1992, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, a Muslim woman from the borders of Kenya and Somalia, managed to stop a clan war that had cost 1,500 lives, by getting together with women from the opposing clan. This was not sewing circle stuff. She said: "If a member of my clan kills a member of your family, will you still work with me for peace? If you can't say yes, don't join." They were so successful in solving disputes that the Kenyan President gave her an office in Nairobi and she now teaches her methods in other parts of Africa.
In Northern Ireland the Women's Peace Party played a significant part in the Good Friday Agreement. Jo Berry, the daughter of a Tory MP killed in the Brighton bombing, sought out the man who planted the bomb when he came out of jail in 1999. They went through a gradual process of reconciliation and she now works with him, helping other victims and perpetrators of political violence to find peace.
Dr Sima Semar, now Minister for Human Rights in Afghanistan, has for years systematically set up education and health centres for Afghani women and girls, knowing that they hold the key to peace. Her offices have twice been blown up, but she says she is too busy to be afraid and just continues her work. When five warring clans in Somalia were unable to reach any agreement, Somali women asked to participate in the negotiations and were turned down. So, under the leadership of Asha Haji Elmi, and the women's network Save Somali Women and Children, they formed themselves into the sixth clan. They have since made a significant contribution to building peace in Somalia.
And so on, but invisibly. There are, it is thought, thousands of women's peace initiatives springing up at grassroots level in the world’s tougher corners, and the London-based organisation Peace Direct is setting out to document just how many there are.
This is not to say that men are no good at peace-building; many have been spectacularly successful. It is simply that when it comes to terror, the female way of doing things, which can be done effectively by either sex, is under used. The female way tends to invest more time in listening to human needs, values the making of connections, and favours the use of respect, rather than the use of force.
"Hearts and Minds" by Scilla Ellworthy and Gabrielle Rifkind is available from:
Demos, 136 Tooley Street,
London, SE21 2TU. Tel: 0845 458 5949
Website: www.demos.co.uk
Website: www.peacedirect.org
Story from Positive News UK
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