Women from Latin America, North America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East are joining together in a new international campaign that seeks to unite women’s struggles against violence against women.
Seventy three women’s organisations, which include the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office (REPAK) from Iraqi Kurdistan, the Star Congress from North and East Syria, ‘Stop Honour Killings’ women’s organisation in Iran, the Autonomous Women and Opponents from the Kurdistan Solidarity Committee in Mexico, the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign from Ecuador, the Initiative of Women Against Femicide and Occupation – Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, the Afro Las Malungas Women’s Collective from Colombia, Casa Fem from Paraguay, Ñotyhara Feminist Collective from Paraguay, the Women’s Network from Sweden and the Indonesian Women’s Organisation SERUNI issued a statement that announced their new joint campaign “Weaving for life”, ANF reports.
The 181 campaigners from the aforementioned organisations signed the petition which stated: “We are ‘weaving for life’. Let us stop the femicide for our pioneers to live, for a political femicide not to be committed again.
“All femicides are political and the product of the power relations of the patriarchal system which has been built for five thousand years. Since then, the alliance of religion, the state and the military continues to reign over peoples and women.
“All these killings are an expression of the dominant mentality that only recognises private ownership rights and therefore only the silent obedience of women. All these killings show how the powers, which only aim for the suppression of the resisting majority, are so distant from humanity … Tyranny and militarism, attacks and occupations control the world and target those who defend their rights and stand against them.
“For the sake of the transnational financial benefit of the nation states, of the paramilitary powers and of the corporates owned by the states, we witness a serious increase in the number of killings targeting women. When we look at the profiles of women, who were murdered as a result of political assassinations, we see that these women had a pioneering role in organising and leading struggles against exploitation. These women are activists, intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, artists, revolutionaries and politicians who defend women’s rights, human rights and their countries on behalf of indigenous peoples.
“Enough! We cannot take this anymore! Therefore, we have decided to ‘weave for our lives’ and to stop the femicides … We are weaving a campaign against femicide”, they stated.
They added: “This campaign leans on sisterhood, solidarity between organisations, trust and commitment amongst women and the moral and political commitment that calls for justice against the injustice women around the world have been subjected to”.
