Women's Views on News |
- We will remember them
- Seven miles of pink wool for peace
- Write one line to help women
- Full access, full choice family planning
| Posted: 08 Nov 2013 08:15 AM PST
The first artificial white poppies appeared in 1933 on what was then called Armistice Day but started being called Remembrance Day after the Second World War. They were sold by the Co-operative Women’s Guild. Founded in 1883, after 1918 ‘the Guild’ became more involved in peace activism, concentrating especially on the social and political conditions that encouraged or gave rise to war, as well as opposition to the arms trade. This white poppy was not – and has never been – intended as an insult to those who died in the First World War – a war in which many of the white poppy supporters lost husbands, brothers, sons and lovers. The white poppy was – and is – a challenge to the continuing drive to war. The idea of decoupling Armistice Day, the red poppy and later Remembrance Day from their military culture dates back to 1926, just a few years after the British Legion was persuaded to try using the red poppy as a fundraising tool in Britain. American soldiers started off the red poppy connection with the First World War. They had arranged for artificial poppies to be made by women in war-ravaged northern France; the funds raised from selling the poppies were for children who had suffered because of the war. Many of the British men returning home from the First World War, the Great Gar, the war to end all wars, were wounded or disabled or suffering the effects of gas and shell-shock. Many were physically or mentally unable to work; many others found that there were no jobs anyway. So ex-servicemen’s societies united in 1921 to form the British Legion. A Frenchwoman who was helping to organise the production of artificial poppies in France suggested that the British Legion might like to sell them to raise money. The 1.5 million they made for 11 November 1921 sold out almost at once. The British Legion then decided to set up its own poppy factory. It is now a very large, corporate-style charity, and the Poppy Appeal a main source of income. This year, girl band The Saturdays launched the British Legion's Poppy Day appeal at a glitzy concert with their song Notorious – with lyrics including: 'I've been a bad girl / I'm a bad girl / I'm notorious' and ‘I’m the head of game here / Pleasure and the pain, yeah’ and not much more – as a cloud of poppies fell from the ceiling and the crowd cheered. And this year leading arms manufacturer BAE announced on its website that it contributes to the work of The Royal British Legion, and it sponsors the British Forces Foundation which stages morale boosting concerts and events for servicemen and women and UK4U –a charity which gives Christmas gift boxes to UK forces serving away from home. And this year the Poppy appeal slogan is ‘Shoulder to Shoulder with all who serve’ which is not about remembering the dead. It is about supporting the armed forces. The First World War was the last major war in Europe when the bulk of casualties were military. Now the vast majority of victims of war are civilians, but they are largely ignored. Not even counted by the combatant sides. Last year’s figures reckoned that the total number of civilians who have lost their lives in the armed conflict in Afghanistan over the past six years came to 14,728. British troop deaths reached 445 in mid October this year. The number of deaths caused by the Iraq war has been a source of intense controversy, as Al Jazeera reported. The latest and perhaps most rigorous survey, which was released last month, puts the figure at close to 500,000. The researchers estimated that 60 percent of those deaths were violent, with the remaining 40 percent occurring because of the health-infrastructure issues that arose as a result of the invasion. In 1933 women who had lost husbands, brothers and sons in the First World War did not want to see Armistice Day used to make war acceptable. And in 2013 a growing number of people are concerned about the poppy’s association with military power and the justification of war. In 1933 the first white poppies appeared. Women today still have cause to wear them.  |
| Seven miles of pink wool for peace Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:40 AM PST
Or, as she puts it, in launching a crazy and rather wonderful direct action protest involving 7 miles of pink wool’. Back in October 2012 she hatched a plan with Angie Zelter from Action AWE to get a huge crowd of knitters and crocheters together to knit a massive, and she means SUPER LONG, knitted Peace Scarf to run between the Women's Peace Camp at Aldermaston and Burghfield, the other Nuclear Weapons Establishment site in Berkshire. It will, she says, be one big old woolly protest against the UK's ongoing involvement with nuclear weapons, and the money our government is intending to spend in 2016. And that is what she intends to do. And she need gazillions of women, men, children, pets, to dust down their needles and hooks and get cracking with her. Yes, you did see 7 miles. Crazy huh? Then on 16 August 2014 we can all unroll this beautiful woolly scarf, and have a day of fun and funky guerrilla wool-fare as we yarn bomb the route between these two sites. More of that to come in a bit. So are you in? Are you? Please see the 'How to Join In' page, and if you are up for it, drop her a line to say 'howdy'. Her details are on the contact page. After its airing, the scarf can be taken down and re-purposed into blankets for local hospices, emergency areas and war zones. Nothing wasted. Here is her "Why?": The UK government is going to spend over £80 billion on renewing the Trident Nuclear warhead – yes, you did read that right. That's a lot of money at a time of financial austerity and recession. And you know what? The world has a global arms trade worth USD1.74 trillion. That’s a lot of money that could be spent elsewhere. And the US military is the biggest single user of petrol, and that is why it has the biggest carbon footprint. Now, it doesn't seem to her like rocket science that we could invest in people instead, and move from a war economy to a green economy. Cut the military, and address the root causes of violence, wars and terrorism. Alright, so we are not all front-liners – but knitters can be a feisty bunch; what we need now is action and hands. By picking up our needles and crochet hooks we are directly engaging in the idea of protest and having a voice. Saying "listen up people, this is NOT what I want. Let's change it".  |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2013 04:19 AM PST
Every year during November and December Amnesty International (AI) asks people to join their Write for Rights campaign. They ask you to write a letter to send a message of hope to someone suffering human rights abuses. Just one line will do, and they even suggest what you can say. They also ask you to write to Presidents, police chiefs and prison governors, as these people do take note when they receive hundreds of appeals to release a prisoner, stop the harassment of an activist or change an unjust law. And they have set up a template for you to base your letter on. This year AI has focussed on thirteen cases, and six of these are women or women's groups. 1. Fifteen years ago Mary Akrami and a group of pioneering women's rights activists set up the Afghan Women Skills Development Centre (AWSDC) to tackle violence and inequality and bring about positive change for women in Afghanistan. AWSDC provides training for police officers to sensitise them to working with female survivors of violence, works with traditional and religious groups to raise awareness about women's rights issues in communities, and runs several shelters. In a country where violence against women is endemic and those responsible rarely face justice, shelters like those run by AWSDC play a critical role in providing survivors with protection and support to help them rebuild their lives. But AWSDC staff carry out this important work at great personal risk and face threats, intimidation and attacks. To download their casesheet and address labels, click here. 2. Kalpana Chakma was the organising secretary of the Hill Women's Federation, which campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in Bangladesh. In the early hours of 12 June 1996, Kalpana and two of her brothers were abducted from their home by plain-clothed security officers. Her brothers managed to escape and identified the three assailants. However, the police did not take note of the names of the assailants, and they were not investigated or added to the case files. Kalpana, 23 at the time of the incident, has never been found. It is believed that her abduction may have been linked to her support for a political candidate representing the interests of indigenous peoples. A Bangladeshi court recently demanded a new investigation report into the case with vital information such as the names of the accused assailants included. However, the deadline has passed and no new report has been submitted. To download this casesheet and address labels, click here. 3. Laísa Santos Sampaio, a member of a group that promotes sustainable development in Nova Ipixuna municipality in Pará state, in Brazil, has been the target of persistent death threats since 2011. In May 2011 her sister and brother-in-law, both prominent environmental campaigners, were shot dead by contract killers. Two men were convicted in April 2013, but a third man who allegedly ordered the killings was acquitted and lives in the same community as Laísa. Other individuals closely associated with the three are also present in the community, and Laísa believes they are responsible for the threats she received. Laísa is one of the most high-profile critics of illegal logging and charcoal burning in her region, but receives little or no protection from the authorities. She currently remains outside her community for safety reasons. To download her casesheet and address labels, click here. 4. In February 2011, moments after dropping off her children at school, Miriam Isaura López Vargas was grabbed by two men wearing balaclavas. She was tied up, blindfolded and driven to a military barracks in the Mexican city of Tijuana. For the following week she was raped repeatedly by soldiers, who tortured her until she signed a statement falsely implicating herself in drug offences. She was sent to prison to await trial, but was released without charge seven months later. Although Miriam has identified some of the perpetrators and their accomplices, no-one has been brought to justice for the torture and sexual violence she suffered. To download her casesheet and address labels, click here. 5. Yorm Bopha, a passionate campaigner for her community at Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh, has been imprisoned since September 2012 following an unfair trial. Yorm and other local women had led a peaceful protest to mark the anniversary of a forced eviction in their community in which houses were destroyed. She was subsequently accused of planning an assault on two men and, despite the lack of any credible evidence, given a three-year sentence. We consider her a prisoner of conscience, jailed on fabricated charges because of her peaceful activism defending the right to housing and freedom of expression. With her husband unable to work because of ill health, Yorm's family has financial problems and can no longer afford to send their son to school. To download her casesheet and address labels, click here. 6. Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) was formed in 2003 to provide women with a united voice against the social, economic and human rights conditions in Zimbabwe. Since then WOZA members have been arrested, harassed and severely beaten by the police on many occasions simply for exercising their right to peaceful protest. Pregnant women and mothers with babies and young children have been among those detained. Jenni Williams, WOZA's founder and national coordinator, has been arrested over 50 times. Despite the risks, WOZA members continue to stand up for human rights. Every Valentine's Day they hand out roses with a message that sums up their ethos: 'The power of love can conquer the love of power'. To download their casesheet and address labels, click here. And then there is Nabi Saleh. The 550 people living in Nabi Saleh village face frequent violent repression from the Israeli army. Since 2009 the villagers have held weekly peaceful protests against Israel's military occupation and the illegal settlement of Halamish, which has taken over most of their farmland. Despite court orders, the settlers have also turned the village water spring into a tourist attraction, which the Nabi Saleh residents are prevented from using. The Israeli army responds to the villagers' peaceful protests with excessive and unnecessary force. They have killed two protesters and injured hundreds, including women and children, by firing live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas canisters. The Israeli security forces regularly raid the village, searching houses and arresting people, including children, late at night. To download their casesheet and address labels, click here. Thank you.  |
| Full access, full choice family planning Posted: 08 Nov 2013 01:09 AM PST
Approximately 287,000 women die every year from problems caused by childbirth – and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation estimates that approximately 1 in 4 of those women could be saved if they had access to contraception. More than 200 million couples in the developing world are unable to control the number and spacing of their births and one reason for that is because family planning remains out of reach for many couples in low-income settings. But among the many technologies available to improve the human condition, family planning is one of the most cost-effective interventions with enduring health and welfare benefits for women, families, nations – and the entire world. However, reaching Millennium Development Goal 5b, universal access to reproductive health, requires comprehensive resource planning, which in turn requires a continually refreshed base of strong evidence, best practices and a wide range of contraceptive commodities. The 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), with the theme of "Full Access, Full Choice," will be held from 12-15 November, and this year is held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ICFP is more than a conference – it reflects a greater movement to expand and improve access to family planning worldwide, and provides a platform to build momentum and generate new commitments to the family planning agenda. The conference, the third of its kind, is jointly organised and hosted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia's Ministry of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. The first was held in 2009 in Kampala, Uganda, and the second in Dakar, Senegal, in 2011. The objectives of the ICFP have evolved since the first conference. At that first conference, in Kampala, and which drew more than 1,300 participants, the aim was to encourage dialogue and positive changes in family planning policy and programs. That was one reason for by holding the conference in a country with one the highest levels of unmet need and lowest contraceptive prevalence rates. This first conference also created a global platform for discussion about family planning issues, which had been relatively absent for more than 15 years. The intention at the second conference, in Senegal, was to highlight family planning and reproductive health in Francophone Africa. 2,200 participants from 87 countries attended. The 2013 ICFP aims to celebrate successes that have been achieved in family planning around the world, share recent evidence on effective programs and discuss the hurdles that still need to be addressed. it will also call attention to the wide-ranging benefits of helping people plan their families – including improved maternal, newborn and child health, increased educational attainment, and greater economic opportunity, and highlight the national and global efforts being made to provide everyone with voluntary family planning information, services and methods that meet their needs. Approximately 3,000 participants are expected to take part; these will include heads of state, health researchers, academicians, scientists, educators, young advocates and programmers and policy makers from around the world. "Full Access, Full Choice" reflects the desire for all women, regardless of nationality or socioeconomic status, to have access to a variety of family planning resources and the power to make decisions about their families. For, as Melinda Gates pointed out: "When you put the decision in the hands of the woman and you give her the tools, and you educate her about it so that she can decide whether she wants to do this, it makes a complete difference in her family's life and ultimately in the community's life." ICFP 2013 aims to build on the momentum of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, which generated unprecedented commitments from international donors, emerging economies, civil society and the private sector to give 120 million more women voluntary access to family planning by 2020. And, Malawi’s president Joyce Banda added: "Many partners have a role to play in expanding family planning access, but success ultimately depends on the sustained commitment of national leaders." For more information, click here.  |
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