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NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2007
War affects women and families
There are political, personal and economic effects of this war in Iraq that specifically and powerfully affect women and families. War does not just affect the primarily male fighting forces. The violence and chaos of this war ruins the lives of women, both internationally and domestically, while such consequences are often overlooked by those waging war, and the media who cover it. This is a particularly tragic position for women who are often excluded from decision-making and peace-making processes.
• Displaced persons and refugees are often the forgotten casualties of war. The fact that worldwide the majority of refugees are women with their dependent children contributes to this neglect. Refugee women must try to support themselves and their children in the face of discrimination in the communities where they have taken refuge: as women, because of nationality or ethnicity, and as refugees.
• While waging war is still thought of as a man’s job, rebuilding families and lives once the war has ended is often left to poor and traumatized women.
• When men return from the atrocities of war, wives, mothers and children must witness and endure the long term emotional and mental consequences of their experiences.
• Most sources state the rate of domestic violence in military couples is between three and five times the rate of non-military couples. These statistics often do not include military spouses who live off-post, as a reported 60% do, as these instances are often reported to local authorities or DV shelters and do not show up in military statistics.
• Male vets who have been in combat (a relatively small subset of all veterans) are more than four times as likely as other men to have engaged in domestic violence.
• Women enlisted in the U.S. military are more likely to experience physical, emotional, and specifically sexual abuse during their service.
• Our government claims to be helping women internationally with our military efforts. The U.S. has shown no real commitment to helping these women once their political goals have been achieved. Afghanistan is the perfect example. The ability of Afghan women to gain even a minimal amount of freedom is being severely hampered by the U.S.’s support of the warlords, by a repressive male-dominated culture, and by the hold that fundamentalist ideas have on the countryside. Every marker that showed progress is now moving in a backward direction. Horrors are appearing that are new on the Afghan landscape and the U.S. and NATO appear powerless to turn back the reaction.
--Anna, Women’s Action Coalition of Memphis
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