Women from 11 conflict and post conflict countries share stories of the fight to rebuild their countries and find peace a new photo collection that will be published on Word Peace Day on Monday 21 September 2020.
The powerful stories and images of women who have lived through some of the world’s worst conflicts – including poets of the Sudanese revolution, art activists in Colombia and a defender of the Amazon, and a journalist shining a spotlight on the plight of refugee in the Central African Republic – are captured in an interactive and immersive photo collection, called She Leads.
- Alaa Salah (22), ‘the women in white’ who became a symbol of the Sudanese fight for freedom and the central role women played in it when a photo leading a protest went viral: “I look at the picture and don’t see myself. I see the strength, bravery, glory, and the sacrifices of Sudanese women. It is not me. I am just one of hundreds of thousands of others. We were all in it together.”
- Bissan Oudah, a community organiser from Gaza: “I believe in what I am doing and what I am doing is right. Either I agree to be excluded or keep going and become a valuable member of society. It is a fight I am taking on behalf of myself and the rest of the women in my community. Once I carve this space, other women will carve it too.”
- Elisabeth Morales Tascon (29), an Embera leader, human rights defender from Colombia: “I survived a landmine. I’ve tried to take my life twice, because I thought my life didn't have any value. I thought everything had ended. But I survived for a reason. I created an organisation five years ago for indigenous women victims of the conflict. We work with women to keep alive different arts and craft practices…The women use different colours and different designs to tell their stories. They express different emotions through their crafts; it might be joy, it might be sadness.”
- Marina Moulow-Gnatho (29), a journalist from Central African Republic: “Journalism has always been my passion, but it takes bravery. As a radio broadcaster, I was able to reach and inform a large audience and get to places that others couldn’t. In 2015, radio was the only way to hear what was happening. I visited one camp, where people – even children and pregnant women, were sleeping on the ground. Suddenly, there was shooting, and I had no idea what to do. I had just arrived and found myself in the middle of it. I realised it was crucial to do this reporting and I had to just summon up the courage.”
- Sayama Zawng Naw (29), a community Leader from the Myitkyina Janmaikawng KBC Camp in Myanmar says “All my life, leaders in administrative roles in the village were men and men and men. Women can do this too. As women, we should build our capacity more and be leaders, Being a leader doesn’t mean it’s only you all the time, you have to help others to lead too. After me, two other women became leaders in the camp community.”
- Masuma Jami, a peace activist from Heart, Afghanistan says “The traditions, norms and prejudices in my society do not allow women to do activism. To do so, we must be very brave and overcome the challenges and obstacles that society puts in front of us…Political peace is important, but the government can also focus on creating a culture of peace and engage women and marginalised groups.”
The project, a collaboration between Oxfam and renowned photographer, Susan Schulman features women from Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia/Somaliland, South Sudan, Sudan, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Uganda and Yemen.
Years of evidence shows that when women are involved in peace-building, agreements are 35 per cent more likely to last beyond fifteen years. Yet in the 20 years since the UN Security Council passed a resolution recognising the need for women to be a part of peace negotiations and action aimed at preventing future conflicts, there has been little progress. For example, eighty per cent of Afghanistan peace meetings since 2005 have left women out completely, globally women constitute just 13 per cent of negotiators, three per cent of mediators and four per cent of signatories in major peace processes.
* Oxfam International https://www.oxfam.org/en
[Ekk/6]
Diaspora*
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Technorati
StumbleUpon