and ain't i a woman?: Fighting global violence
When we think about war, images of planes dropping bombs and troops running with guns in hand come to mind. However, there is a silent killer in war that receives little if any attention at all. That is the rape, forced prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and children.
While rape has been — and still is — used as a weapon of war and a weapon of genocide, it is rarely classified as such. Rape can be used in order to destroy women's confidence and terrorise a whole people. Rape can make women want to leave their homes. It can make women wish they were dead and it can divide a society.
During the war in Bosnia, camps were established by Serbs where thousands of women were held under inhumane conditions, treated like animals, and given little or no food. Gang rapes, sodomy, and the making of pornographic films during rape were commonplace.
The trafficking of abducted women and girls has become one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity. Trafficking for prostitution or forced labour is now considered the third largest source of profits for organised crime, behind drugs and guns.
In this worldwide billion-dollar "industry", it is estimated that between one and two million women are sold each year. Around 375,000 of these women come from Asia, most end up large cities, vacation and tourist areas, or near military bases in Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe and North America.
Australia is not isolated from this. Thirteen thousand Australians visit Angeles City in the Philippines each year, a notorious part of prostitution "tourism". Australians own around 60% of the sex bars and hotels in Angeles City.
Around 50,000 women a year are brought to Australia for prostitution, often either against their will or without knowing what "work" they will be doing. In a shocking case recently, a woman who was brought to Australia as a prostitute when she was 13 was "caught" by immigration officials. Far from being helped to recover from the trauma, she died in a detention centre awaiting deportation.
Women who are deported generally have no protection in their home country. Many women who are deported end up in the same situations that forced them into prostitution in the first place.
Women sex-workers in the Third World have overwhelmingly been forced into the work by crippling poverty: whether the decision to become a prostitute was theirs, someone sold them or they were tricked by getting a "loan" from a trafficker that could only be paid off by sex work.
Women make up 70% of the world's poor. Women and girls do two thirds of the worlds work for only 5% of the income. And while women produce most of the world's food, they are also the most likely to face starvation.
Fierce repression of the poor is often accompanied by horrendous oppression of women, resulting in high incidences of rape and domestic violence. According to an April 9 BBC report, women born in South Africa are more likely to be raped than to learn to read.
Women fleeing violence, poverty or repression often end up in refugee camps where the same atrocities are committed. It is a disgrace that Australia takes in so few people from the Third World. This is why all feminists need to support the refugees' rights campaign, and help stop a war on Iraq.
In reclaiming the night, we demand an end to the violence against women and children everywhere in the world. We demand that you and I — and every woman on this Earth — be able to walk the streets, be safe in our homes and be considered equal. These are fundamental human rights.
BY TERRICA STRUDWICK
[This is an abridged version of a talk given at the Rockhampton Reclaim the Night march on October 24. The author is a member of the socialist youth group Resistance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, October 30, 2002.
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