On June 29, The Global Fund for Women hosted an evening discussion featuring three of their grantee partners working to stop the spread of militarization and the related threats to human — women’s — values and safety. As well as funding the grassroots organizations represented in the discussion, GFW is planning a number of initiatives to increase awareness of and provide support to women in an increasingly militaristic world.
As the presenters for the evening emphasized, women must be active in local communities as well as across international borders to halt the violence, danger, lack of public and social services, and other malefic accouterments of the increasing military presence across the globe. Several attendees and presenters commented that the effect of militarization on women was a topic too often beyond the conversational range of individuals, both in the United States and in those countries under obvious heavy military or police influence. Women in the U.S. and other developed nations may feel removed from militarization because, as individuals, they’re physically distant from an area where the presence of soldiers, tanks, airplanes, active military bases, night raids, disappearing relatives, and shootings take place. As well as thinking of militarization as being synonymous with “war zone”, they also may only view the word “militarization” as an intellectual or academic concept. However, even in the U.S., women suffer consequences of militarization, ranging from those created by diverting funds from health and social services into military budgets to the mental and physical stress of distant military husbands and nearby military bases. Women in more conspicuously militarized zones know the day-to-day difficulties and horrors they face, but may not know their rights, know others suffer the same challenges, or know how to join together to resist and change military and political powers. As well as discussions to raise awareness about militarization, a fashion-show introduction to the evening presented an interactive and graphical depiction of military vs. social services budgets, the U.S. military as having the largest carbon footprint in the world, and more (photos are on GFW’s Facebook page).
Perhaps the most personal example of how militarization affects women was an exercise presented by given by Claudia Castellanos, from Colombia. As the presentation was about to begin, the audience members were given balloons and markers, and asked to inflate and tie the balloons. After being inflated, the balloons sat, disregarded as the talk progressed. Claudia then asked each one of us to take our balloons and draw or write what was most important to us on one side. As we finished, we were asked to turn the balloon and draw or write what we dreamed of sharing or giving to others. As some of us started POP! to write, POP! others finished POP! or were about to POP! finish POP! POP! POP! You get the point, as sharply as the pins popping the balloons surprised us: lives and dreams change quickly, and often finally, for women in areas with the constant, unpredictable presence of violence.
Militarization has many and far-ranging effects on women, and on humanity as a whole. The Global Fund for Women, their partner and sister organizations, and many across the world are increasing campaigns to raise awareness and resist militarization. Can you help — at least by staying informed? And yes, more information will be posted here, on the GFW website, and on other sites listed on the Resources page.
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