gender and militarism

Integrities is the newsletter of a US-based nonprofit group called IF. IF works to empower women in both the South and North through its CAPACITAR program, which helps support soup kitchens and human rights groups in South America and the Families of the Disappeared in Honduras. The following are some of the projects the women of IF help to support.

by Shelley Anderson

‘I want to avert the end through work. Through work by healthy men. Thanks to that the ghetto exists… The Germans wouldn’t keep a ghetto for women and children for very long: they won’t give them food for one extra day.”
—Jacob Gens, leader of the Jewish ghetto in Vilna

(Editor’s note—the following article was written before the scheduled October 3 eviction. On October 3, many prominent people, including Members of Parliament, showed up and the authorities postponed the eviction.)

by Kathryn Turnipseed and Vesna Kesic

Brazil

Colectivo Feminista Sexualidade Saude (CFSS) is a feminist health action group, that provides training for women and professionals. They encourage self-help and offer information and health care around contraception, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth and women’s mental health. Coordenadoria Especial da Mulher/São Paulo (CEM) is a municipal government agency that is looking at institutionalizcd violence around women’s and children’s mortality, and organizing actions against such violence.

Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. Under the military government (1964-1985), Brazil also accumulated the largest foreign debt in the world—US $121 billion. A constitutional process began in 1986, culminating in a new Constitution in 1988. Fernando Collor de Mello was elected President in 1990, the first directly-elected president since 1960.

Violence against women in Haiti has increased since the 1991 coup, when the military took power. This violence includes the violence of poverty, which has forced many women into prostitution. There are reports of girls as young as 9 years old being kidnapped and sold to Dominican-run prostitution rings. Rape is also on the increase, with many of the rapes being committed by the Haitian military and the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). A victim who has been twice gang-raped said, “The crime is that those who should be protecting us don’t.

by Jacqueline Pitanguy and Selene Herculano

At 4:30 pm on June 4th, a group of approximately 30 soldiers of the Mexican Federal Army (MFA) raped three young Tseltal

indigenous women from Santa Rosita Sibaquil (in the municipality of Altamirano). The rapes took place at a military roadblock outside of Altamirano, where the soldiers were on duty.

The young women had sold their farm produce in the town of

Altamirano and were returning with their mother when they

"My family's got a house and a bit of land, but I've been living on the streets since I was seven, the year after my mother died. I worked as a servant in a family house, but then a friend told me to come to the city.

"I got by in the city, picking up men, though I had to put up with them hitting me. What really makes me angry is the way that these machos beat you up all the time. It makes you want to kill them, that's why I don't live with a guy. I just sell my body to them from time to time." Katia

Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. Under the military government (1964-1985), Brazil also accumulated the largest foreign debt in the world--US $121 billion. A constitutional process began in 1986, culminating in a new Constitution in 1988. Fernando Collor de Mello was elected President in 1990, the first directly-elected president since 1960.

Economy: Gross National Product per capita is $2,540 (to compare, GNP per capita in the US is $20,910). High inflation, with almost half the population living below the poverty line.

by Shelley Anderson

Virginia Feix works as a lawyer in the human rights commission of the state assembly in Porto Alegre. It was a natural step for her, as she had been working on human rights issues--specifically, amnesty for prisoners of the dictatorship--since 1985. While the changes since then have encouraged her, "all the apparatus for oppressing the people is still there," she says. "Now, instead of repressing dissidents, the poor and blacks are repressed in the name of national security."

Against the War in Former-Yugoslavia

Women in Black in Belgrade celebrated their second anniversary on October 9, 1993. A pamphlet and a book of leaflets and articles about their work was published: for copies, fax +381 11 334 706. The group, in addition to their regular antiwar vigils, also held the workshop "Is there no end to this war?" on international women's day in 1993. In August last year, the group sponsored the second international conference on "Feminist Solidarity Against War" in Subotica, Tresnjevac and Novi Sad.