Thanks to Professor Basuli Deb and Lecturer, Sonam Singh (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) for helping to bring Lisa Jackson's film, "The Greatest Silence" to our Mary Riepma Ross Theater for the "Women Make Movies" film festival (February 26-March11).
Jackson's film focuses on the victims of torture rapes: women who have suffered gang rapes, rifles, knives, brutally shoved into their vagina/uterus, anus--destroying their reproductive organs, destroying their lives, destroying their families, communities, culture. Torture rapes leave their bodies and spirits broken--and this method of brutality is a weapon of war--a war to destroy a culture. It is genocide. Imagine all the children in this area born since 1997. All they have seen and experienced is this brutality. This is all they know. How will they be able to grow up and live peaceful and productive lives? This film legitimates these women as they articulate what happened to them. It is a step toward empowerment for them. For us, it is a step in honoring their voices and helping others become aware of these atrocities.
In her article, "Rape and Sexual Abuse of Women in International Law," Professor of International Law, Christine Chinkin (London School of Economics and Political Science) writes, "Rape in war is not merely a matter of chance, of women victims being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nor is it a question of sex. It is rather a question of power and control which is structured by male soldiers' notions of their masculine privilege, by the strength of the military's lines of command and by class and ethnic inequalities among women."
Even though I live in Lincoln, Nebraska (and you may live in Lincoln or other places in the United States), far away from sites of such brutal conflicts, chances are your city is involved with refugee programs. Since the 1980s, Lincoln has welcomed and resettled 5,500 refugees from Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo. Many of these refugees are victims of torture. (Read Mary Pipher's book, The Middle of Everywhere.) Maybe your city or town does not have a refugee program. You can still take action--we all can take action----
Taking Action:
(1) SIGN the Petition to pass The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA - S. 2982, H.R. 4594): Sign Petition Here.
(2) INFORM yourself about the International Criminal Court: click HERE
(3) Subscribe to the ICC daily synopsis at icc-info-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
(4) Donate/Keep up with Women for Women International POSTS
Thank you kind readers!
Leave a comment