Kamala Sarup: Women Hate War

Women hate war because they know the cost of the bloody war. There are a number of kinds of terrorists violence where women are victims because they are women. Women also have been targets of particular types of criminal violence. Because women have been suffering abuses such as rape, forced pregnancy and abortion. Even women, constituting more than half of the world's population, are marginalized, violated and abused.

Women always feel insecure because they always have to bear a disproportionate burden of war and they have painful experience arising from the uncontrolled flows of arms. When there is lawlessness in society, women's lives are torn apart. From the Balkans to Burundi, Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka and Nepal, women are the worst victims of domestic war. Any war lead to violence and women and girls are affected by terrorists armed groups in various ways.

Women and girls are facing discrimination. Women have to deal with violent situation, sexual situation, trafficking and poverty. Women are also account for the most number of civilian casualties in war. There are many legal provisions that directly discriminate women. Although the law strongly advocates equity in principle, but women have not yet experienced that sense of equality. They are still treated as second-class citizens and the on-going war making worst the situation.

It is the war and terrorists violence that has forced women and children in particular to pay a terrible price for the situation of insecurity and violence.

Thousands of women have died and many more have been injured or left homeless during the war. War has cost over a millions women lives. Innocent women have been the most affected victims. War has been marked by an extraordinary level of brutal human rights abuses, including pre-natal sex selection in favour of male babies, female infanticide and trafficking of women prostitution. A majority of women are legally, politically, economically, socially and culturally marginalised.

Forceful recruitment of young women in the terrorists group is another serious issue. Women are being victimized worldwide. Women are being forced to carry guns and satisfy the sexual appetites of the terrorists and insurgents. The majority of internal refugees are women and children.

Governments have not been able to maintain peace, safeguard the lives of women and children and control the violence,and killings. Even now, governments have not yet been able to develop to protect women. It is sad to know that women's hopes for peace turned to a mirage. The government have failed to maintain law and order or to eliminate terrorism and poverty.

The lack of women in politics has a profound impact on the style and content of policies, which can lead to situations of war. Policies and programmes need to be sensitive to the quality of life and security of women.

Terrorists actions increasingly turned anti-women. Thousands women have been killed in recent years, and thousands more have been kidnapped for ransom. Small girls, some as young as thirteen or fourteen, have been recruited into the irregular forces - guerrillas and paramilitaries - that play a primary role in the war. Since the start of the war women's trafficking is on the rise. Most of the women who could not stand the harassment, and the economic hardships, moved towards big cities and become prostitute.

Women's roles in and contributions to conflict resolution are ignored. Socially, there is significant poverty, broken homes and families, displacement and insecurity, psychological effects included depression, disorders. If women are to play an equal part for maintaining security and peace, they must be empowered politically and economically. They must be empowered at all levels of decision-making, both at the pre-conflict stage as well as at the point of peacekeeping, peace-building, reconciliation and reconstruction. All of these are fundamentals to the whole approach when it comes to war resolution.

Women have proved instrumental in building bridges rather than walls.

(Kamala Sarup is an editor of http://peacejournalism.com/ )

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