UNSCR 1325 triumphs and discontents in Darfur
By iKNOW Politics expert Dr.Amina Alrasheed Nayel
The publication tackles cases from all the continents and addresses issue of security and peace and the mechanism and strategies adopted to implement 1325. The book is thorough critique with recommendations and conceptualization of alternative approaches to address and to implement 1325 effectively and efficiently. The publications draws together representational findings from countries that signed and ratified the resolution (22 countries) to provide guidance on how the impact of this pioneering Resolution can be measured, and how peacekeeping operations could improve their capacity to engender security. The publication provides a critical appraisal of the resolution and practical strategies to address the shortcomings in effectively implementing the resolution. University for peace will lead the efforts on brining the spirit of the resolution to reality, by emphasising measures and mechanism to proficiently and competently implementing its covenants.
In September 2008, there were only 14 countries with NAPs National Action Plan, for 1325 and during the past two years many have developed, in Asia, Philippines became the first country to adopt one and now Nepal will in October, The ‘pacific Islands’ are thinking of a joint one for 22 countries and that is one interesting aspect to look into.
Interestingly among the African countries, Liberia was the first country to develop a NAP as a post conflict or conflict affected country, prior to that it was the Nordic countries that took the lead followed by European countries, these countries took the lead not only as peace keepers but also they were involved in peace making in other countries. This resolution is very special it not only a call upon conflict countries, but rather a global calls for countries that are involved in peace making, 1325 is a call for gender balance in our world.
The following table illustrates the list of countries with 1325/1820 National Action Plans NAPs:
The countries that published revised NAP following the 2004 Secretary General report:
In this introductory section of the book, we will address in short a holistic framework of gender, violence and peace. Tackling the reasons for women subjugation, and exclusion from the public sphere and examining the cultural dimensions that enhance women exclusion from the public arena. Women are working forces in the society, they are natural workers and bearers of violence and despair most of the time, they are the face for poverty and marginalization, and due to many influencing factors women thought of improving their condition by addressing the structural inequality the prevails in the our world. By so doing they are bringing their agency in the inquiry, and citing their cognitive style as worthy of consideration in order to build healthy and equal societies. In the following section we will address factors of culture, economy and politics that hinder women from achieving equality and rights. A most prominent factor is the cultural perception and the way our societies are constructed. The intrinsically patriarchal institutions that guards women and confined them to the public sphere needs to be challenge and before that need to understood within the very context of each and very society. Promoting and critically analyzing 1325 will boost the chances for women in building a just and fair societies and institutions.
Introducing 1325: A Theoretical frame work
The UN Security Council passed its landmark Resolution 1325, the first international agreement to specifically recognize the impact of armed conflict on women and their role as builders of peace. Since then many workshops forums and debates were held that brought together UN, INGOs, civil society organizations, and pressure groups and practitioner and policy makers to attempt to narrow the gap between the provisions of this wonderful resolution and the reality of implementing it on the ground.
It was claimed by Elizabeth Rehn, a UN independent expert that the war has changed, and violence against women, sexual and gender based violence escalated and become a tool of war. During wars eighty percent of victims are civilian; half a million women were raped in Rwanda. The persistence and the resilience of women across the globe led from the early Beijing conference to having more than 60 organizations participated in that conference to bring the issue of women and war to the table. The 1325 reflects the voices of women of the world.
The key provisions of the resolution capture the famous three Ps: Protect Prevent and Participate.
Protection of human rights of women.
Prevention of sexual and gender based violence
Participation of women in peace building and reconstruction.
In spite of the fact that the UN produced a well-crafted resolution, it was reported that the situation on the ground remains execrable. While enough has been done to implement the resolution, the UN peacekeeping forces have made situations worse. Powerful testimonies of frustration are heard here and there. Despite that we all have these agreements on paper, yet we are still trying to capture the genuine responses from the highest levels in addressing issues of gender-based violence. Many workshops were staged since then, on tackling the issue of how to move beyond words on paper through sharing of experiences and methodologies and most importantly how to move beyond numbers. At the international level, NGOS and women’s organization spared no efforts to mobilize protection and support for women during and after armed conflicts
Challenging patriarchy Introducing patriarchy;
A case in point is the Bucharest workshops where five cases were shown, it reflects how complicated the implementation of the resolution can be. All the five cases highlighted the fact that “
“The large international presence has increased the demand for commercial sex in many places. In each of the post-war situations considered, trafficking increased dramatically. In each case study, domestic violence was found to be pervasive and widely accepted”.
Impunity for perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence is the norm. Feelings of blame, shame and dishonour complicate prosecution, and reporting of sexual and gender-based violence often leads to a re-victimization of those who have been injured. The normalization of the male conduct during war, and the use of rape as a tool, was widely condemned every time we face war and despair in a country, and it becomes a pattern of wars and conflicts.
The brutality of Sierra Leone's civil war, the wide spread rape and torture and child soldiers,
The poverty of two thirds of Palestinian in the Occupied Palestinian Territory , and the political situation that creates an obstacle to addressing gender-based violence, which is considered a private family matter.
In Timor-Leste, the poorest country in Asia, and after the war, domestic violence is seen as an internal family issue, and there is a counter attacks against women's organizations that are trying to end it.
In Kosovo, the war is over, but violence against women continues. Organized crimes are running commercial sexual activities, and Kosovo has become a pivot for exploitation of girls and women.
Violence against women in Aceh Province of Indonesia was exacerbated by the 30 years of armed conflict, and the Sharia law, the 2004 Tsunami added to the misery of women and girls in the region, with the insensitive legal system to issues of gender-based violence.
Many guidelines were produced to help relief workers prevent and respond to sexual violence, integrating gender equality into policies, training on human rights for police forces, etc. these guidelines covered almost a full spectrum at the regional and international level. The UN in 2005 introduced guidelines for gender based violence in emergency settings, and it covers supplies, measures, and responses as well as preventions of gender based violence. At the regional levels efforts were made to institutionalize elements of the UNSCR1325 for the armed forces and police in many countries. In order to employ a robust gender account on issues of violence against women, it is significant to explore the historical specificity of the violence inflected on women in war times. And when interrogating issues of sexual violence and mass rape that dominates the war zones, we must articulate the issue from wider perspectives, as examining the culture connotation of the female body and how women’s agencies are constructed perceived and then violated. The following section will deal with the theoretical frame work of the female body and the cultural trap constructed for women across the globe. Why women globally are enduring such discourses of violence, exclusion, subjugation and marginalization? There are many structural factors that contribute to such position for women across the globe, and it is extremely important to address these factors and to understand the reasons for the systemic structural violence that women suffer from. A main general question will be tackled in this instance, of what is wrong/right with the female body? And what is wrong/right with women?
How the resolution works?
The Gender, Peace and Security Programme of UN-INSTRAW (as part of UN Women) announced the launch of the new UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan Map. The interactive map provides information on the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the publicly launched National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325. Additionally, the Map provides key facts, reading suggestions and contact information for people working on the National Action Plans in each country.
Over the last decade, the United Nations Security Council has adopted four resolutions on women, peace and security: resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889. These women, peace and security resolutions require reform within security sector institutions to better address the needs of women and girls and to promote their participation and empowerment, the resolutions need further strengthening in terms of its adaptation in different settings as well as a robust accountability and monitoring machines should well in place.
Despite the fact that the resolution addresses reforms within the notorious patriarchal military machines, like the defence forces, police and justice sector it fails in addressing the structural patriarchal nature of these regimes. Service of victims as structured and established assume help working would wither away the crimes committed against these women, and it employs the same patriarchal norms, and creates a strata of victimized women in war times, without addressing seriously the level of the crime committed against them and building a just and a comprehensive strategy to advocate women’s rights and to implement laws and rules the protect them. Other pillars addressed by the resolution, increase of women leadership in defence organization, peace keeping training, with examination of progress made in promoting women participation in security decision-making progress. Many mechanism and strategies were introduced to activate the work of the resolution 1325, example for that, like The European Peace-building Liaison Office (EPLO) has recently released the publication “UNSCR 1325 in Europe: 21 case studies of implementation”.Iin august 2010 The Monthly Action Points (MAP) provide recommendations on country situations in Iraq, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, and Liberia.
Meanwhile insightful virtual discussion took place on issues of gender and disarmament demobilization, and integration, addressing various questions and concerns, highlighting impacts and recommendations towards the improvement of the work on the side of women security and peace. A short mapping of countries that progress and responded in developing a resolution 1325 national plan of action were at the beginning as follows:
The global sets of indicators:
A comprehensive set of indicators on the implementation of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, were advised by the UN, and the use of the indicators contained in the report of the Secretary-General presented on 2010, and represented a clear step forward for improving accountability and implementation of the groundbreaking Security Council resolution.
“The indicators were produced by 14 UN entities under the leadership of the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues. UNWOMEN after being established was assigned the technical lead role, and the indicators were developed in close consultation with Member States and women’s civil society groups from around the world that support women’s engagement in conflict resolution and peace-building.
There was a call among women’s organization and women advocate groups civil society organization and NGOs, towards A 40/40 Gender Balance would be a natural next step to a precedent that has emerged in post-conflict parliamentary elections. NGOs women groups, and advocates of women’s rights, lobbied hard for a gender balance quota with the result that one third of countries with over 30% women in parliament are countries recovering from conflict. Mainstreaming Gender as a Cross-cutting Issue as well needs attention.
Budgeting is an essential issue in peace and security for women, there should be proper budgets to be allocated for the implementation the National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325. Government, Ministers and financial bodies should be monitored in their assistance in the implementation of UNSCR 1325, an important point was for long time the use of qualified women in UN missions, Keep up pressure on Government Ministers and on the UN Secretary there is only one woman Chief of Mission, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Liberia, llen Margrethe Løj from Denmark. Lesly Abdela once wrote “ The current system for choosing Chiefs of UN Missions is about as transparent as choosing a Pope. The only thing missing is puffs of coloured smoke to announce which names has been accepted by the UN Secretary General” ( Abdela on 1325 discussion board of 2010)
There is structural deficiency in integrating women to the UN system, and going beyond the rigid gender representation there are always issues of quality in such representation, questions of whether women selected are the ones able to represent other women and to bring their agendas to the fore. It is scandalous that the UN and the UNDP system is dependent on its old warriors who were debriefed on gender issues shortly, and were assigned to implement such an important resolution. The experiences with the ECA/AU and UNDP in Africa Ethiopia shows that the hegemonic patriarchal norms are to stay and to prevail, simply by the control of the UNDP warriors/practitioner who took over to implement UN resolutions that addresses women issues.
The same pattern of hegemony and control of patriarchal structural norms are dominant as well in the body that is supposed to address women’s issues. In the Rwanda Forum November 2011, on gender equality, the forum approved the language used by its selective participants, that was used to address issues of women inclusion, sampling “ “rural women cannot be brought to the parliament, a rural woman will have ten children how can we do that” the same patriarchal discourse of exclusion is in working, to exclude rural women and to pave the way for middle class urban women to take over and to be fully responsible in representing the interest on behalf of rural women. The discourse of exclusion always find its way through the middle class men and women who control agencies and organization that ran the shot on issues of women peace, security and inclusion. A radical change is needed in the structure of many UN and International agencies that address issues of women security and inequalities.
Conclusion:
By the 12th Anniversary of 1325 in October, we need to see significant, concrete, and systematic improvement in the lives of women in conflict situations. Through the Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security – 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 – the Security Council and Member States are obliged to make that improvement. There are several key challenges to the full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda as:
The lack of leadership in implementing the resolution, the urgent need for women leadership that qualify women’s representation bearing in mind as well that ( some women are guardians of patriarchy).
The need for a robust concrete monitoring process. Cognitive styles and structures of all women should be present
A systematic and effective approach to women peace and security. undermining the Other experiences will create a structural deficiency in the implementation of the resolutions as we see it now.
Accountability and genuine implementation of the resolution that goes beyond numbers, is much need, qualitative account should be well thought.
Keeping the promises, gender issues are crucial at all level of policies and programmes.
The coordination between the international bodies and organizations that works on issues of political participation, election, women violence and gender equality is crucial to holistically tackle the implementations defects of 1325
There are monthly analysis and recommendations for the Security Council provided by the experts of INGO and many other bodies, with suggestions and alternative approaches and strategies to deal with the short comings of the resolution’s implementation. Africa is lagging behind: NAPs are still not followed at many African states.
We cannot turn blind eyes about the realities in African states, the nature of the political system and how the work on women is conducted under such regimes. Undemocratic totalitarian regimes are still holding power in most of the African states, which hinder any effective implementation of 1325. A huge gap between policies and practice is still exists. The importance of the African Union’s members, in pushing forward agenda’s that include women, and that can in first place influence the conduct of many aggressive regimes is essential. In efforts pursued by the Africa to build a better strategy for 1325 implementations here are the 12 points on 12 years of 1325 in Africa:
Monitoring and annual reporting
Accountability
Strengthening the bodies, agencies and strategies that works in 1325 implementation
Finances and providing sufficient resources to follow up.
African AU and UN missions should integrate a gender sensitive present, training and awareness.
Strengthening African women’s organization, civil societies and women organizations and groups can play a significant role in 1325 implementation.
International actors and UN agencies responsible in following the resolution’s implementing need more training and integration to grasp the specific African realities and to implement the resolution with a robust understanding of the cultural and political constraints.
The task force responsible for the implementation needs to widen the prospects of its composition, and to integrate contributions coming from different levels of women’s representations.
Women participation should be prioritized and women as key actors in peace initiatives should be strengthened.
The indicators of 1325 implementation should be comprehensively and analytically addressed, going beyond numbers and quantity towards more qualitative approach in measuring women’s inclusion.
Monitoring and evaluation should be performed by experts on the field who integrate women’s perspective in the ground effectively and strongly.
AU, UN, Civil Society organizations, women organization should encompass a genuine attitudes and desire to widening women’s participation and women inclusion, by creating mechanisms and strategies that includes all women from different spectrum of the society, with their diverse cultural backgrounds social status, political affiliation, ethnicity and level of education.
These strategies will address issues of shortcomings and weaknesses in the implementation of 1325 in the continent: the main gaps and weaknesses of 1325 are as follows:
The fictitious representation of women in peace processes in African need to be challenged.
Lack of database of experienced women peacemaker-
A mandate that specify the protection of women as essential and at the top of the UN, Peace keepers, and all actors list.
Gender specific data should be integrated in the work of the UN and other agencies on the ground
Gender advisory boards should be resettled with broad authorities of gender adviser from both local and international institutions.
Accountability and disciplinary actions should be well in place.
Voices of beneficiaries and victims should be heard, and their cognitive style, structure and perspective should be respected and implemented.
Gender disaggregated data should be available.
The Geo-politics of violence and the Female body.
Location, identity and the female body:
The issue of female body has begun to attract attention globally as well as locally. The main trend within feminist theory has been a preoccupation with questions of identity and the body, initiating a debate that has shifted towards the acknowledgement of the complex interactions between categories of sex, class, ‘race’, and gender, e.g. minority studies in the US (Kofman 2000: 33). Within this trend, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of the role of female in global politics and the formulation of the female body and identity.
A dichotomy that is widely expressed within the scholarly work, maintains that gender relations and sexuality are crucial in defining cultural boundaries and binary opposition between European and North African/Middle Eastern standards. The intersectionality of gender religion and sexuality brings to the fore religious issues at the time where fundamentalism is posing threat to internationals politics. In altered traditional models, religion has become the key signifier of perceived incompatible differences. As Kofman states:
Islamic groups regulated by patriarchal structure are singled out as being too distinctive in their lives and social norms to be able to cohabit with groups whose practices are derived from Christian traditions (Kofman 2000: 37).
Christianity is central in shaping European culture. It is essential to understand this centrality when we conceptualize gender differences within different cultures. It is as well significant to cite the complex relationships between Europe and colonized ‘Other’, and that modernity we all seek is the secularized Christianity. It is defined through Christian European perspective and is produced within the whole project of the regime of truth, imposed within specific power relations.
Edonis (2009) stresses that the Muslims scholars have failed in neutralizing and secularizing the religious discourse in the Muslim world.
The very project of ‘civilization’ was marked by a dominant Christianity and the way it related to bodies and sexualities as uncivilized. The sense that the West presented a ‘higher’ form of civilization was expressed through a Christian disdain for these aspects. Thus, as the ‘human’ came to be defined through a radical contrast with the ‘animal’, so people could only aspire to being moral/ spiritual beings through ‘rising above their ‘animal’ natures in Kant’s terms. In this way people came to be positioned as ‘less than human’ because of their relationship with the bodily and the ‘material’. Because Christianity was able to ‘rise above’ its religious sources, so it denigrated any Islamic tradition, from which it supposedly had nothing to learn nothing to acknowledge or respect. At some level this vision of ‘rising above and superseding’ shaped the relationship between the colonizer and the uncivilized, trapped in an earlier—more primitive—stage. These historical echoes remain significant because it was often in relation to the people across culture as the Other. That colonized ‘other’ came to be conceptualized as lack, less, ignorance, vicious and torn by wars and despair. etc —.
Products of the Class structure in post-colonial states.
The geopolitics of the female body globally manifests a representation of a middle class culture and discourse. Post-colonial political elites are created after independence, featuring the lower and middle class women dominance. The capitalist structure of the female body sexualized, objectifies women equally. In post-colonial societies capitalism never own, Capitalism cohabits with the traditional society. The subjugation scene of women in many cultures is a product of both patriarchal capitalism merging with other religious and ethnic discourses, preserved by the virtue and power of neo-liberalism.
In post-colonial eras the women’s body constructed as traditionally, propertized terrorized as a sexual object. Thus resembles the construction of the female body under capitalism. It is noticeable that the project that subjugates women and targets their bodies within much cultural discourse is mainly originated from the upper middle class women, while they were themselves spared harsh experiences and body regulations. Feminist discourses sound foreigner when it is originated in an alternate location ( read African Middle East, Asia) full of jeopardy for women who dare to challenge an old patriarchal discourses mixed with religious ones.
The female body and its discontent: Contesting representations.
The category of ‘ women across culture’ is constructed through various discursive channels including the local, national and international media, as well as the state and academia. This category has emerged most prominently as an object of scrutiny for social scientists since the 1960s and goes back to the era of colonialism and pre-colonialism. The explorers account on the victimization and subjugation as a prominent products of the colonial discourse of Othering. A reproduction of an Orientalist discourses never cease to exist. A justification of new forms of imperialism, the third ‘Third World women’ – with ‘women across culture’ often assumed to be the most oppressed members of this group – became the focus of attention for Western feminists.
A wave of interest in ‘these women’ occurred during the mid-1980s and early 1990s in response to the national debates occurring around the issue of personal laws, women suppression, and gender structure.
Within this discourse ‘women across culture’ stand as symbols of conservative groups who echo Orientalist discourse by arguing that it is the oppression of women across culture by their very culture and habituation.
Departing from the discourses of academic texts, and the media depictions, to examine the fact around the female body in its global context, my approach challenges the idea of a fixed category of women by looking at the multiple ways that women, who may be identified as women across culture also carry with them multiple intertwined identities, themselves perceive this category and how or whether this is connected to their narratives of their own personal experiences, and to challenge the production of victimized women’ as a fixed marker of identity.
Qualifying Alternative women across culture.
If the discourse mentioned before is a specific product of a social class and a power of hegemony, then it is most significant to challenge generalization and depiction of all these women. In the popular discourses of women in general, the trend is to associate negative attributes to these women, displacing onto specific regional or class based groups. Women in general express frustration with such generalization. The trend of women within the context of the mainstream discourse is an attempt to identify this category within the limits of the stigma and the preconceived ideas.
The limitation of notion of ‘women across culture’ is that different categories of these women acrosslocation, and ethnicity provide a direct challenge to the simplistic characterization of oppressed victims of war and undemocratic societies. While these women are rendered voiceless and powerless, it is imperative to stress that men too are voiceless, powerless in front of the hegemonic capitalist discourse and the power of the international neo-liberal politics. The stigma and stereotype overlooks the complexity of actual men’s and women’s lives.
The adoption of a critical approach at this time and in the global contexts is essential; the image of women victims is increasingly used in order to justify various forms of violence and oppression.
How the patriarchal discourse evolved? According to Kalf (1999: 179)“ real change in Western representations of women do not occur until decolonization struggle alter the material conditions of discourse, until the Other world begin to speak back in the language of the colonizer”.
Challenging the discourse:
The assumption of women across culture as already constituted, coherent groups with identical interests and desires, regardless of class, ethnic and racial location needs to be challenged. Another analytical presupposition is evident on the methodological level when addressing these women, the proof of women universality, and cross cultural validity, as well as the political presupposition where models of power and struggle suggested a homogenous notion of oppression of women as a group.
Another assumption that needs to be tackled is the assumptions that these women are politically and economically dependent, and are a homogenous social group characterized by dependency and powerlessness. These women hence denied any historical specificity when researched by European scholars, without addressing the particular historical, material, and ideological power structure that construct such image, any analysis or analogies drawn on them would fall short.
Women’s body; A historically specific subject:
Departing from the above mentioned discourses and paradigms provided to explain women across culture, I will apply a historical specificity to the subject, tackling reductionism, essentialism and singularity in the study of women across culture and challenging the depiction of these women as evolving in non-historical time.
The stories of these women are stories of political power; as well as stories of representation. This is an attempt to provide an alternative approach in narratives and representations. Paying homage to the history of these women, and their prospects within different regimes and state governments, would provide a comprehensive manifestation and understanding of their current realities. In order to do so a complete robust account of states should be provided, and critically analyzed.
The chronicle of women’s history would address issues of rights, representations and history; women fight of patriarchal systems is a fight against two colonialisms as states Nnaemkea, in her plied for African women “one that internally induced patriarchal structures, and the externally engineered imperialist contexts. “Both are ever evolving always contaminated and contested, mutually creating and recreating each other”. ( Nnaemeka 1998:31).
It is important to implement a narrative of multiplicity of perspectives, and the plurality of experiences within the groups. In this sense it is important to capture the fluidity and dynamism of the different cultural imperatives, historical forces and localized realities conditioning women’s activism. The difference between Feminism or Feminist movement across culture shows that in general and Western feminism is deeply ingrained in historical grounds, and contested priorities. This could be sensed within the agenda of the women across culture, the sole call for emancipation, education and challenging hegemonic colonialism and Western imperialism.
Hill Colin called the unequal power relations “the matrix of domination” and this focuses on the nexus of interlocking systems of oppression where the positions of oppressor/ oppressed shift. Colonialism conquered colonized women’s body, and neo-colonial discourse produced images of subjugation they long construct.
The works of Joshine Betts, 1976, Janice G 2005, Mohanty 1988 recounts the image of the ‘ignorant’ backward and ‘inferior’ African in general and women in particular. Such writings stood as affirmation of the civilizing mission of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
Gender discourses; A post- colonial account on women performing power
Questions of power identity and difference are important, further historical perspective is needed so as to trace gains and losses of these women through decades of colonialism, independence, militarism and short democracies and repressive regimes.
Generally speaking issues of gender, power empowerment and agency intersect with politics, governance and religion. History of women across culture is a history of resistance and thrives for emancipation that is hardly ever cited in the Western literature on these women. What western feminist have challenged in their own space, is evident in post-colonial Africa, “ ruling African women enjoyed considerable prestige and power, the erosion of their prerogative and positions particularly under the imposition of colonial rule, has been documented in societies spanning the continent as a whole” (Andrea Cornwall, 2005:11).
Most of these analyses find echoes in the victim narratives, in which the assumption was women, are subjected by patriarchy. Such a singular notion of patriarchy is inadequate to capture the complexities within these societies. A single story of victims and oppressed women, fail to capture the contradictions of colonial and post-colonial legislations, beginning from a gender politics of difference would challenge the imposition of identities on diverse subjects, and pave the way towards an alternative perspective and readings of women’s histories.
A post-colonial account on Darfur:
Sudanese women in Darfur reclaiming their rights:
DARFUR:
Women of Darfur deserve justice; rape is a crime that needs to be judged by the force of law and fairness, restoring Darfurian women’s dignity and integrity is an honourable cause to be pursued. It is a stand point not to let rights of women violated and unclaimed, particularity women as vulnerable as Darfurian women. The main drive behind this project is to re-state facts about these women and to urge the international community not to let down these women and to value their struggle and their resilience.
The Darfur crisis plagued and strained the international media, and shades all public notices provided by the Media. The Janjaweed the name of the perpetrators and the criminals committed their acts of violence against the people of Darfur, were articulated in the news more than the victims themselves. The Janjaweed portrayals in the Western media are equivalent to the old way of portrayal of the exotic and the eccentric. Janjaweed the name as well as the act attracted full attention in the Western media, while less has been done to help the victims, a reproduction of old patterns of portrayals, that was recurred in previous troubles, Rwanda, Serbenetia, Burundi etc. Rape was portrayed as a repetitive normalized act of violence and themes of yet another war.
Situating knowledge on women of Darfur;
This introduction seeks to revisit women of Darfur and to challenge existing violations of rights that occur against them, it is as well an attempt to break the silence on what they endure. As (victims) of the Janjaweed, women of Darfur are presented in numbers, the international community paid lip serves to these women. Even 1325 take the blame of a short-sighted articulation of the problem. What are their rights within the existing regime of public orders and public laws that targets women? How did they face the silence and neglect of their rights? What can we do to break the chain of silence and to address issues of rights, and to restore dignity and integrity to these women?In the eve of the election of the leader of the Janjaweed in the current election, what is left for women of Darfur? How the AU forces neglected their duties of protecting women in Darfur and place another episode of violence and abuse against these women, and why the 1325 resolution and other UN resolutions fail to address the structural violence inflicted on women of Darfur? This paper can not answer all these pressing queries, rather it provides an alternative approaches in addressing issues of violence in a conflict setting by understanding the root causes and bringing about a specific historical account on such violence. The articulations attempt to go beyond a surface account of the crisis towards investigating issues of ethnic identity and patriarchal structured that prevail and overshadow efforts thought to resolve the crises and to stop the violence.
Identity issue in Sudan was mainly articulated by those in powers, and by elites who dictated one sided image of the ethnic identity of Sudan. The dominant Arabic Islamic culture took over and shaped the history of the country. Politics of exclusion and racism was the main feature that dominated the country since its independence. Normalising the patterns of exclusions adopted by different regimes in the country reach its peak, when such exclusion took a turn of violently liquidating those who dare to stand against. Darfur is an extension of such practices and mal function of Islamist regime in Khartoum. Is there a way to end racism that is institutionally built in the system of power that is dominant in Sudan? As the existing political regime intended to stay in power what is on it for women of Darfur?
Women of Sudan Women of Darfur relentless victims:
The Mass rape, the crime and the repercussions:
It is time to revisit and re evaluate the Arabic/Islamic hegemony within the context of Sudan. One step is to investigate and illustrate the government in Khartoum’s perception on Darfur population, particularly women. The perceptions that led to the atrocities n Darfur started when they were perceived as bad Muslims, with a conduct that can be redeemed. The Islamic junta of Khartoum in its attempt to construct a new image of Muslim hood in Darfur, singled out the incorrect attitude of Darfurian women to their proper attire and their disobedience to their husbands, as stated by (Willmese 2001: 49).,
This concept paper suggest to bring into the fore issues of women of Darfur and the violations of their rights that continued and advocated by the current existing regimes this is an attempt to challenge the norms that claim that these women do not exist. A robust study on their situation and a genuine attempt to curb the existing process of negligence and exclusion of their cause as just and fair, need to be performed.
Scrutinizing the ideology of the Islamist regime in Sudan, suffice to say that the wide spread mass rape episode in Darfur, as an act of aggression against Sudanese women, can easily be foot printed on the ideological and cultural norms and practices of the Islamic Fundamentalist and the national congress party leaders in Khartoum. Since 1989 the regime was obsessed with issuing orders rules and regulation to control women of Sudan. Dress code, Decency laws, restriction of women in public place, confinement of women to specific work. Last and not least encouraging and condoning second and third marriages, while taking the lead in such call is the president himself.
Defining the Janjaweed
A post-colonial account on Darfur will illustrate how and why 1325 is not effective and influential as it was perceived. The history of the region will show that measures more than resolutions need to be tackled, in order to secure women’s lives and to understand the politics of the mass rape and despair that overwhelmed the region. It’s the mentality, the attitudes the morals and the ideology of those who lack sense of humanity and integrity and took over power in 1989 in Khartoum the instigated the vicious attack on women of Darfur.
The Islamist regime in Sudan, short account of Darfur political history shows that, Darfur was an independent state with anatomy during 1650 to 1919, named Darfur sultanate. The sultanate managed to defeat several attempts to put it under foreign protection till the year 1917, when the British colony added the region to its authority of Sudan. Since 1917 and along the period until after independence in the 1956, Darfur received no attention to develop economically or socially. Policies that marginalised Darfur region, was adopted by the central governments in Khartoum, isolating and alienating the region from the other parts of the country. In 1982 a new system of local government was adopted, that reinforced the permanent economic backwardness of the region.
In 1991 the Darfur region was divided to three regions, Northern Darfur with Alfashir as the capital, and southern Darfur with Nyala as the capital and Western Darfur with Algenina as the capital. Geographically speaking Darfur was far from the centre and lacks any means of transport that can connect the whole region with other parts of the country and particularly with the capital Khartoum.( M.Suliman :343).
Dr Mohamed Suliman in analysing the current situation in Darfur, refereed to the year 1980 as the beginning of the transformation of what was considered as ecological traditional conflict into a wide war fare,Suliman stressed that “the bloody conflict that stirred on Darfur since the early 1980th in Gabal Marra area in Darfur is basically an ecological traditional conflict, run through ecological boundaries, through the fields were the pastoralists move around. The reconciled situation in Darfur has transformed drastically, during the last century, this transformation was a result of the long drought period that hit the area for long time, it is very important to investigate the reasons behind the environmental effect, on the political economic and social situation in the region.
Historically speaking, drought was one of the main characteristics of western Sudan, in the regions of northern Darfur and Kordofan for long time, looking at the ecological impact on the regions severe war, it is important to pay a historical account on the situation. According to M Suliman,
“five drought periods struck the region, through the last 20 years, the relationship between the percentage of rains and the arise of conflicts shows clearly that the rate of increase in conflicts has a direct relations to the rate of drought and famine in the area, late in the 1980th the drought led to famine and raised high the rate of conflict and war of resources in the region. Suliman raised the question of, although there are long periods of drought and less rains than usual in the area, throughout the last century namely, drought in the period of 1950-1954 and 1972-1974 and the period of 1982-1984, however the rate of conflict took different turn through the 1980th, many reason were thought behind high rate of conflict and famine, basically: During the 1970th food production was for subsistence level. The reserve of food locally in Darfur area lessened the effect of drought in the region. The traditional chiefdom system in the 1970th worked effectively and helps supporting the communities in the region.
Shairf Harir further stated that “Description on how the legitimacy of the state was eroded by violent governance in a marginalized area in the western periphery of the country, Harir considers the starting point is the fold wisdom of the tribesmen, traditionally regarding the relationship between the state and subjects in kinships terms, and not as questions of legality of contracts between rulers and ruled, Harir claimed that the change in the Zagawas attitude towards the state were caused by the progressive militarization of the relationship between the state and the rural people. In contradiction to early pre- independence period when using a military violence to solve conflicts was regarded as the last resort. {T.Tvedt ed 1993.3}
The 1980th witnessed the rise the regional and neighbours conflicts, civil war in southern Sudan, Libyan/ Chadian war that affects directly the peace in Darfur. Following the same line of analysis provided by M. Suliman, Flint and De Waal, examined the British policies towards the region, and the ecological nature of the conflict.
All Darfurians are Muslims, and the majority are followers either of the Tijaniyya which originates in Morocco or the Ansar followers of the Mahdi, or both, Islam was a state cult in Dar Fur. (Jullie Flint& Alex De Waal 2005:10).
They further stressed the fact that Britain’s only interest in Darfur was keeping the peace, it administered the province with absolute economy, the core of this was the native administration system, by which the chiefs administered their tribes on behalf of the government only in 1945 did the colonial governor began to consider possibilities for the development of Darfur, the file economic development Darfur Province in Khartoum national archive contains five entries for the entire period of 1917-1950 Most bemoan the impossibility of doing anything except encouraging modest exports of cattle and gum, in 1935 Darfur had only one tribal elementary school, and two sub-grade schools, and this was worse than neglect British policy was deliberately to restrict education to the sons of chiefs, so that their authority would not be challenged by better schooled Sudanese administrators or merchants. {Flint & De Waal ed. 2005:12}
In interview with the leader of the Janjaweed Shiekh Hilal, J Flint and A de Waal wrote “ The proud old Sheikh refused to talk about his people’s poverty, instead he spoke darkly of how the cosmic order was changing, in old days the nomads had been welcome guests of the Fur and Tunjur farmers, he travelled himself to Kargula and Jabal Marra, where the Fur chief Shartai Diriage would welcome him with a feast and the nomads would assist the farmers by buying their grains, taking their goods to market and grazing their camels on the stubble of the harvest” { J.Flint a& A.De Waal ed 2005 :35}.
A lot of controversies surrounded the facts about the meaning and the origin of the Janjaweed, according to the United Nations the Janjaweed comprises nomadic Arab tribes who've long been at odds with Darfur's settled African farmers, the core of which are from an Abbala (camel herder) background with significant recruitment from the baggara( cattle herder) people.
The name Janjaweed is often believed to mean something in a dialect of Western Sudan. Generically meaning ‘hordes’ in colloquial Arab, there is no evidence for etymological connection between Janjaweed and ‘jinn’ (spirit), ‘jim’ or ‘jawad’ (horse). The term is instead a derivative of the Persian word, jang, "war", and jangaweed, "warrior." The term was adopted by the Mahdists in Sudan. The Ismaili Shia Fatimids dynasty of Tunisia, inherited the term and carried it to Egypt and then Sudan. The relationship between the nomads and the Fur farmers was a consistent one with mutual interests that has its ups and downs, and occasionally interrupted with conflicts over resources, the Islamic regime of 1989 resorted to the use of Janjaweed to wage its proxy war against Darfurian.
Adan Azain Mohammed wrote that “Tribal fights have claimed thousands of lives in recent years in Darfur region of western Sudan, competition over scarce and diminishing resources is the usual cause of conflict pitting nomads against nomads, nomads against cultivators, migrants from Chad across the border against local inhabitants, and Arabs against fur.
On the other hand Abdel Gahfar summed up the crisis in Darfur when he stated that “ the rural population in Darfur live within a predominantly subsistence economy based on the balanced utilization of natural resources, this balance has been interrupted by the complex of factors leading to intense competition between ethnic groups that led to minor conflicts, these conflicts were transformed into wars when the central state started to use its repressive apparatus to support one side of those involved in the conflicts against the other. The state went even beyond using its regular force of army and police for this task, to training and arming local militias from groups that are seen as representing its dominant ideology. (A. Ghafar & L. Manager 2006:14)
It is very important to stress the fact that the change of politics in Darfur and the existing crisis was initiated by many factors, but mainly and as basic source for the crisis is the Islamic regime of 1989, were a systematic process of intensifying the racial and ethnic division in the region was sustained and backed by the Islamic regime in Khartoum.
Atta El-Battahani followed the argument on the issue of fragile peace and war by proxy, referring to the war in Darfur, El-Battahani mentioned the signing of peace protocols between the GoS and the SPLA/M in 2002, and the fear that this agreement would bring drastic changes in the power structure in the whole country. He stressed that; “powerful Arab groups in Darfur moved to exploit their alliance with the hardliners in the Islamic government in Khartoum- resembles what is left of an ideological expansionists movement of political Islam in Sudan, whose dreams were shattered with the dismal performance, failure and eventual collapse of Islamists in Sudan, and to settle once and for all the conflict over lands with the Zurga – non-Arabs-in Darfur” ( El-Battahani 2005: 39).
It is as well equally important to reassert the fact that there are few Ethnic Arabs in Darfur, and the Arabs there are those who speak Arabic as their mother tongue, or those who are nomadic in their life style, both identities Arabs and non- Arabs in the region are changeable and fluid. As many has mentioned in different studies and writings. El–Battahani stressed a very important fact, about the rebel groups fighting now the Khartoum government; none of them are purely ethnic in their composition.
The Islamic junta in Khartoum is basically depending on the current proxy actors –Janjawid- and using them at the same time to weakening the strength gained by the Darfur rebels, and opposition groups within the government itself mainly the Turabi Islamists who split from the current regime. The same scenario of waging war by proxy seems to fit into the pattern of politics pursued by Islamic junta in Khartoum, a small scale of proxy war took place as well in Eastern Sudan, a massacre that claimed the lives of many Sudanese in Eastern Sudan occurred. The formulation of the Eastern Front took place in 2005, the Front called for the Islamic regime to stop its war against the Sudanese in the Eastern Sudan.
Policies rules and regulations affecting women’s lives in Sudan at large could be looked at collectively in order to critically analyze the nature of the Islamic regime and culture reproduced within its ideology. It worth mentioning that one pattern was followed by the Islamic regime, as far as women are concerned. Starting with the Decency Laws, in Khartoum and other parts of the country, Public orders, Public police, dress codes for women, restriction of women in public sphere, work, education etc. mass marriages programmes implemented by the regime, encouragement of second and third marriages, following the presidential example, implementations of a resemblance of middle ages patriarchal patterns. Summing up such patterns it is no surprise an episode of mass rape in Darfur was a pattern and a habit of those who wage proxy wars on behalf of the regime. The Janjweed are every where in Sudan, they represent hearts and minds of middle ages Islamist, reproducing patriarchal brutality and aggression that resembles programme they advocate and the morals they lack.
Trading places, The Janjaweed and the AU forces:
Suffice the say that in the attempt thought by the UN and International community to stop the violence in Darfur and to spare Sudanese women’s their lives and dignity, such attempts have flourished with yet another abuse and violence inflicted on these women by the so-called international forces. The AU forces were witnessed committing the same crimes the Janjaweed were condemned in doing in Darfur.
A Darfuriam grandmother was shown on TV talking about how the AU forces dishonoured their duties of protecting women in Darfur she said”
“They all damaged our girls as young as 13 years old; all the girls in our neighbourhoods are damaged and assaulted by the AU forces: ( BBC TV report 2008).
This reflects how addressing issues of violence goes beyond naïve accounts on issues of quantitatively implementing resolutions and measures that overlooks a historically specific patterns.in our societies. The systemic structural patriarchal norms that allow men to violate women’s rights is not an evil deed by outlaws or people who are deemed criminal rather it is a very structural pattern of upbringing and socialization processes followed in our societies.
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By iKNOW Politics expert Dr.Amina Alrasheed Nayel
The publication tackles cases from all the continents and addresses issue of security and peace and the mechanism and strategies adopted to implement 1325. The book is thorough critique with recommendations and conceptualization of alternative approaches to address and to implement 1325 effectively and efficiently. The publications draws together representational findings from countries that signed and ratified the resolution (22 countries) to provide guidance on how the impact of this pioneering Resolution can be measured, and how peacekeeping operations could improve their capacity to engender security. The publication provides a critical appraisal of the resolution and practical strategies to address the shortcomings in effectively implementing the resolution. University for peace will lead the efforts on brining the spirit of the resolution to reality, by emphasising measures and mechanism to proficiently and competently implementing its covenants.
In September 2008, there were only 14 countries with NAPs National Action Plan, for 1325 and during the past two years many have developed, in Asia, Philippines became the first country to adopt one and now Nepal will in October, The ‘pacific Islands’ are thinking of a joint one for 22 countries and that is one interesting aspect to look into.
Interestingly among the African countries, Liberia was the first country to develop a NAP as a post conflict or conflict affected country, prior to that it was the Nordic countries that took the lead followed by European countries, these countries took the lead not only as peace keepers but also they were involved in peace making in other countries. This resolution is very special it not only a call upon conflict countries, but rather a global calls for countries that are involved in peace making, 1325 is a call for gender balance in our world.
The following table illustrates the list of countries with 1325/1820 National Action Plans NAPs:
The countries that published revised NAP following the 2004 Secretary General report:
In this introductory section of the book, we will address in short a holistic framework of gender, violence and peace. Tackling the reasons for women subjugation, and exclusion from the public sphere and examining the cultural dimensions that enhance women exclusion from the public arena. Women are working forces in the society, they are natural workers and bearers of violence and despair most of the time, they are the face for poverty and marginalization, and due to many influencing factors women thought of improving their condition by addressing the structural inequality the prevails in the our world. By so doing they are bringing their agency in the inquiry, and citing their cognitive style as worthy of consideration in order to build healthy and equal societies. In the following section we will address factors of culture, economy and politics that hinder women from achieving equality and rights. A most prominent factor is the cultural perception and the way our societies are constructed. The intrinsically patriarchal institutions that guards women and confined them to the public sphere needs to be challenge and before that need to understood within the very context of each and very society. Promoting and critically analyzing 1325 will boost the chances for women in building a just and fair societies and institutions.
Introducing 1325: A Theoretical frame work
The UN Security Council passed its landmark Resolution 1325, the first international agreement to specifically recognize the impact of armed conflict on women and their role as builders of peace. Since then many workshops forums and debates were held that brought together UN, INGOs, civil society organizations, and pressure groups and practitioner and policy makers to attempt to narrow the gap between the provisions of this wonderful resolution and the reality of implementing it on the ground.
It was claimed by Elizabeth Rehn, a UN independent expert that the war has changed, and violence against women, sexual and gender based violence escalated and become a tool of war. During wars eighty percent of victims are civilian; half a million women were raped in Rwanda. The persistence and the resilience of women across the globe led from the early Beijing conference to having more than 60 organizations participated in that conference to bring the issue of women and war to the table. The 1325 reflects the voices of women of the world.
The key provisions of the resolution capture the famous three Ps: Protect Prevent and Participate.
Protection of human rights of women.
Prevention of sexual and gender based violence
Participation of women in peace building and reconstruction.
In spite of the fact that the UN produced a well-crafted resolution, it was reported that the situation on the ground remains execrable. While enough has been done to implement the resolution, the UN peacekeeping forces have made situations worse. Powerful testimonies of frustration are heard here and there. Despite that we all have these agreements on paper, yet we are still trying to capture the genuine responses from the highest levels in addressing issues of gender-based violence. Many workshops were staged since then, on tackling the issue of how to move beyond words on paper through sharing of experiences and methodologies and most importantly how to move beyond numbers. At the international level, NGOS and women’s organization spared no efforts to mobilize protection and support for women during and after armed conflicts
Challenging patriarchy Introducing patriarchy;
A case in point is the Bucharest workshops where five cases were shown, it reflects how complicated the implementation of the resolution can be. All the five cases highlighted the fact that “
“The large international presence has increased the demand for commercial sex in many places. In each of the post-war situations considered, trafficking increased dramatically. In each case study, domestic violence was found to be pervasive and widely accepted”.
Impunity for perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence is the norm. Feelings of blame, shame and dishonour complicate prosecution, and reporting of sexual and gender-based violence often leads to a re-victimization of those who have been injured. The normalization of the male conduct during war, and the use of rape as a tool, was widely condemned every time we face war and despair in a country, and it becomes a pattern of wars and conflicts.
The brutality of Sierra Leone's civil war, the wide spread rape and torture and child soldiers,
The poverty of two thirds of Palestinian in the Occupied Palestinian Territory , and the political situation that creates an obstacle to addressing gender-based violence, which is considered a private family matter.
In Timor-Leste, the poorest country in Asia, and after the war, domestic violence is seen as an internal family issue, and there is a counter attacks against women's organizations that are trying to end it.
In Kosovo, the war is over, but violence against women continues. Organized crimes are running commercial sexual activities, and Kosovo has become a pivot for exploitation of girls and women.
Violence against women in Aceh Province of Indonesia was exacerbated by the 30 years of armed conflict, and the Sharia law, the 2004 Tsunami added to the misery of women and girls in the region, with the insensitive legal system to issues of gender-based violence.
Many guidelines were produced to help relief workers prevent and respond to sexual violence, integrating gender equality into policies, training on human rights for police forces, etc. these guidelines covered almost a full spectrum at the regional and international level. The UN in 2005 introduced guidelines for gender based violence in emergency settings, and it covers supplies, measures, and responses as well as preventions of gender based violence. At the regional levels efforts were made to institutionalize elements of the UNSCR1325 for the armed forces and police in many countries. In order to employ a robust gender account on issues of violence against women, it is significant to explore the historical specificity of the violence inflected on women in war times. And when interrogating issues of sexual violence and mass rape that dominates the war zones, we must articulate the issue from wider perspectives, as examining the culture connotation of the female body and how women’s agencies are constructed perceived and then violated. The following section will deal with the theoretical frame work of the female body and the cultural trap constructed for women across the globe. Why women globally are enduring such discourses of violence, exclusion, subjugation and marginalization? There are many structural factors that contribute to such position for women across the globe, and it is extremely important to address these factors and to understand the reasons for the systemic structural violence that women suffer from. A main general question will be tackled in this instance, of what is wrong/right with the female body? And what is wrong/right with women?
How the resolution works?
The Gender, Peace and Security Programme of UN-INSTRAW (as part of UN Women) announced the launch of the new UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan Map. The interactive map provides information on the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the publicly launched National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325. Additionally, the Map provides key facts, reading suggestions and contact information for people working on the National Action Plans in each country.
Over the last decade, the United Nations Security Council has adopted four resolutions on women, peace and security: resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889. These women, peace and security resolutions require reform within security sector institutions to better address the needs of women and girls and to promote their participation and empowerment, the resolutions need further strengthening in terms of its adaptation in different settings as well as a robust accountability and monitoring machines should well in place.
Despite the fact that the resolution addresses reforms within the notorious patriarchal military machines, like the defence forces, police and justice sector it fails in addressing the structural patriarchal nature of these regimes. Service of victims as structured and established assume help working would wither away the crimes committed against these women, and it employs the same patriarchal norms, and creates a strata of victimized women in war times, without addressing seriously the level of the crime committed against them and building a just and a comprehensive strategy to advocate women’s rights and to implement laws and rules the protect them. Other pillars addressed by the resolution, increase of women leadership in defence organization, peace keeping training, with examination of progress made in promoting women participation in security decision-making progress. Many mechanism and strategies were introduced to activate the work of the resolution 1325, example for that, like The European Peace-building Liaison Office (EPLO) has recently released the publication “UNSCR 1325 in Europe: 21 case studies of implementation”.Iin august 2010 The Monthly Action Points (MAP) provide recommendations on country situations in Iraq, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, and Liberia.
Meanwhile insightful virtual discussion took place on issues of gender and disarmament demobilization, and integration, addressing various questions and concerns, highlighting impacts and recommendations towards the improvement of the work on the side of women security and peace. A short mapping of countries that progress and responded in developing a resolution 1325 national plan of action were at the beginning as follows:
The global sets of indicators:
A comprehensive set of indicators on the implementation of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, were advised by the UN, and the use of the indicators contained in the report of the Secretary-General presented on 2010, and represented a clear step forward for improving accountability and implementation of the groundbreaking Security Council resolution.
“The indicators were produced by 14 UN entities under the leadership of the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues. UNWOMEN after being established was assigned the technical lead role, and the indicators were developed in close consultation with Member States and women’s civil society groups from around the world that support women’s engagement in conflict resolution and peace-building.
There was a call among women’s organization and women advocate groups civil society organization and NGOs, towards A 40/40 Gender Balance would be a natural next step to a precedent that has emerged in post-conflict parliamentary elections. NGOs women groups, and advocates of women’s rights, lobbied hard for a gender balance quota with the result that one third of countries with over 30% women in parliament are countries recovering from conflict. Mainstreaming Gender as a Cross-cutting Issue as well needs attention.
Budgeting is an essential issue in peace and security for women, there should be proper budgets to be allocated for the implementation the National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325. Government, Ministers and financial bodies should be monitored in their assistance in the implementation of UNSCR 1325, an important point was for long time the use of qualified women in UN missions, Keep up pressure on Government Ministers and on the UN Secretary there is only one woman Chief of Mission, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Liberia, llen Margrethe Løj from Denmark. Lesly Abdela once wrote “ The current system for choosing Chiefs of UN Missions is about as transparent as choosing a Pope. The only thing missing is puffs of coloured smoke to announce which names has been accepted by the UN Secretary General” ( Abdela on 1325 discussion board of 2010)
There is structural deficiency in integrating women to the UN system, and going beyond the rigid gender representation there are always issues of quality in such representation, questions of whether women selected are the ones able to represent other women and to bring their agendas to the fore. It is scandalous that the UN and the UNDP system is dependent on its old warriors who were debriefed on gender issues shortly, and were assigned to implement such an important resolution. The experiences with the ECA/AU and UNDP in Africa Ethiopia shows that the hegemonic patriarchal norms are to stay and to prevail, simply by the control of the UNDP warriors/practitioner who took over to implement UN resolutions that addresses women issues.
The same pattern of hegemony and control of patriarchal structural norms are dominant as well in the body that is supposed to address women’s issues. In the Rwanda Forum November 2011, on gender equality, the forum approved the language used by its selective participants, that was used to address issues of women inclusion, sampling “ “rural women cannot be brought to the parliament, a rural woman will have ten children how can we do that” the same patriarchal discourse of exclusion is in working, to exclude rural women and to pave the way for middle class urban women to take over and to be fully responsible in representing the interest on behalf of rural women. The discourse of exclusion always find its way through the middle class men and women who control agencies and organization that ran the shot on issues of women peace, security and inclusion. A radical change is needed in the structure of many UN and International agencies that address issues of women security and inequalities.
Conclusion:
By the 12th Anniversary of 1325 in October, we need to see significant, concrete, and systematic improvement in the lives of women in conflict situations. Through the Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security – 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 – the Security Council and Member States are obliged to make that improvement. There are several key challenges to the full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda as:
The lack of leadership in implementing the resolution, the urgent need for women leadership that qualify women’s representation bearing in mind as well that ( some women are guardians of patriarchy).
The need for a robust concrete monitoring process. Cognitive styles and structures of all women should be present
A systematic and effective approach to women peace and security. undermining the Other experiences will create a structural deficiency in the implementation of the resolutions as we see it now.
Accountability and genuine implementation of the resolution that goes beyond numbers, is much need, qualitative account should be well thought.
Keeping the promises, gender issues are crucial at all level of policies and programmes.
The coordination between the international bodies and organizations that works on issues of political participation, election, women violence and gender equality is crucial to holistically tackle the implementations defects of 1325
There are monthly analysis and recommendations for the Security Council provided by the experts of INGO and many other bodies, with suggestions and alternative approaches and strategies to deal with the short comings of the resolution’s implementation. Africa is lagging behind: NAPs are still not followed at many African states.
We cannot turn blind eyes about the realities in African states, the nature of the political system and how the work on women is conducted under such regimes. Undemocratic totalitarian regimes are still holding power in most of the African states, which hinder any effective implementation of 1325. A huge gap between policies and practice is still exists. The importance of the African Union’s members, in pushing forward agenda’s that include women, and that can in first place influence the conduct of many aggressive regimes is essential. In efforts pursued by the Africa to build a better strategy for 1325 implementations here are the 12 points on 12 years of 1325 in Africa:
Monitoring and annual reporting
Accountability
Strengthening the bodies, agencies and strategies that works in 1325 implementation
Finances and providing sufficient resources to follow up.
African AU and UN missions should integrate a gender sensitive present, training and awareness.
Strengthening African women’s organization, civil societies and women organizations and groups can play a significant role in 1325 implementation.
International actors and UN agencies responsible in following the resolution’s implementing need more training and integration to grasp the specific African realities and to implement the resolution with a robust understanding of the cultural and political constraints.
The task force responsible for the implementation needs to widen the prospects of its composition, and to integrate contributions coming from different levels of women’s representations.
Women participation should be prioritized and women as key actors in peace initiatives should be strengthened.
The indicators of 1325 implementation should be comprehensively and analytically addressed, going beyond numbers and quantity towards more qualitative approach in measuring women’s inclusion.
Monitoring and evaluation should be performed by experts on the field who integrate women’s perspective in the ground effectively and strongly.
AU, UN, Civil Society organizations, women organization should encompass a genuine attitudes and desire to widening women’s participation and women inclusion, by creating mechanisms and strategies that includes all women from different spectrum of the society, with their diverse cultural backgrounds social status, political affiliation, ethnicity and level of education.
These strategies will address issues of shortcomings and weaknesses in the implementation of 1325 in the continent: the main gaps and weaknesses of 1325 are as follows:
The fictitious representation of women in peace processes in African need to be challenged.
Lack of database of experienced women peacemaker-
A mandate that specify the protection of women as essential and at the top of the UN, Peace keepers, and all actors list.
Gender specific data should be integrated in the work of the UN and other agencies on the ground
Gender advisory boards should be resettled with broad authorities of gender adviser from both local and international institutions.
Accountability and disciplinary actions should be well in place.
Voices of beneficiaries and victims should be heard, and their cognitive style, structure and perspective should be respected and implemented.
Gender disaggregated data should be available.
The Geo-politics of violence and the Female body.
Location, identity and the female body:
The issue of female body has begun to attract attention globally as well as locally. The main trend within feminist theory has been a preoccupation with questions of identity and the body, initiating a debate that has shifted towards the acknowledgement of the complex interactions between categories of sex, class, ‘race’, and gender, e.g. minority studies in the US (Kofman 2000: 33). Within this trend, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of the role of female in global politics and the formulation of the female body and identity.
A dichotomy that is widely expressed within the scholarly work, maintains that gender relations and sexuality are crucial in defining cultural boundaries and binary opposition between European and North African/Middle Eastern standards. The intersectionality of gender religion and sexuality brings to the fore religious issues at the time where fundamentalism is posing threat to internationals politics. In altered traditional models, religion has become the key signifier of perceived incompatible differences. As Kofman states:
Islamic groups regulated by patriarchal structure are singled out as being too distinctive in their lives and social norms to be able to cohabit with groups whose practices are derived from Christian traditions (Kofman 2000: 37).
Christianity is central in shaping European culture. It is essential to understand this centrality when we conceptualize gender differences within different cultures. It is as well significant to cite the complex relationships between Europe and colonized ‘Other’, and that modernity we all seek is the secularized Christianity. It is defined through Christian European perspective and is produced within the whole project of the regime of truth, imposed within specific power relations.
Edonis (2009) stresses that the Muslims scholars have failed in neutralizing and secularizing the religious discourse in the Muslim world.
The very project of ‘civilization’ was marked by a dominant Christianity and the way it related to bodies and sexualities as uncivilized. The sense that the West presented a ‘higher’ form of civilization was expressed through a Christian disdain for these aspects. Thus, as the ‘human’ came to be defined through a radical contrast with the ‘animal’, so people could only aspire to being moral/ spiritual beings through ‘rising above their ‘animal’ natures in Kant’s terms. In this way people came to be positioned as ‘less than human’ because of their relationship with the bodily and the ‘material’. Because Christianity was able to ‘rise above’ its religious sources, so it denigrated any Islamic tradition, from which it supposedly had nothing to learn nothing to acknowledge or respect. At some level this vision of ‘rising above and superseding’ shaped the relationship between the colonizer and the uncivilized, trapped in an earlier—more primitive—stage. These historical echoes remain significant because it was often in relation to the people across culture as the Other. That colonized ‘other’ came to be conceptualized as lack, less, ignorance, vicious and torn by wars and despair. etc —.
Products of the Class structure in post-colonial states.
The geopolitics of the female body globally manifests a representation of a middle class culture and discourse. Post-colonial political elites are created after independence, featuring the lower and middle class women dominance. The capitalist structure of the female body sexualized, objectifies women equally. In post-colonial societies capitalism never own, Capitalism cohabits with the traditional society. The subjugation scene of women in many cultures is a product of both patriarchal capitalism merging with other religious and ethnic discourses, preserved by the virtue and power of neo-liberalism.
In post-colonial eras the women’s body constructed as traditionally, propertized terrorized as a sexual object. Thus resembles the construction of the female body under capitalism. It is noticeable that the project that subjugates women and targets their bodies within much cultural discourse is mainly originated from the upper middle class women, while they were themselves spared harsh experiences and body regulations. Feminist discourses sound foreigner when it is originated in an alternate location ( read African Middle East, Asia) full of jeopardy for women who dare to challenge an old patriarchal discourses mixed with religious ones.
The female body and its discontent: Contesting representations.
The category of ‘ women across culture’ is constructed through various discursive channels including the local, national and international media, as well as the state and academia. This category has emerged most prominently as an object of scrutiny for social scientists since the 1960s and goes back to the era of colonialism and pre-colonialism. The explorers account on the victimization and subjugation as a prominent products of the colonial discourse of Othering. A reproduction of an Orientalist discourses never cease to exist. A justification of new forms of imperialism, the third ‘Third World women’ – with ‘women across culture’ often assumed to be the most oppressed members of this group – became the focus of attention for Western feminists.
A wave of interest in ‘these women’ occurred during the mid-1980s and early 1990s in response to the national debates occurring around the issue of personal laws, women suppression, and gender structure.
Within this discourse ‘women across culture’ stand as symbols of conservative groups who echo Orientalist discourse by arguing that it is the oppression of women across culture by their very culture and habituation.
Departing from the discourses of academic texts, and the media depictions, to examine the fact around the female body in its global context, my approach challenges the idea of a fixed category of women by looking at the multiple ways that women, who may be identified as women across culture also carry with them multiple intertwined identities, themselves perceive this category and how or whether this is connected to their narratives of their own personal experiences, and to challenge the production of victimized women’ as a fixed marker of identity.
Qualifying Alternative women across culture.
If the discourse mentioned before is a specific product of a social class and a power of hegemony, then it is most significant to challenge generalization and depiction of all these women. In the popular discourses of women in general, the trend is to associate negative attributes to these women, displacing onto specific regional or class based groups. Women in general express frustration with such generalization. The trend of women within the context of the mainstream discourse is an attempt to identify this category within the limits of the stigma and the preconceived ideas.
The limitation of notion of ‘women across culture’ is that different categories of these women acrosslocation, and ethnicity provide a direct challenge to the simplistic characterization of oppressed victims of war and undemocratic societies. While these women are rendered voiceless and powerless, it is imperative to stress that men too are voiceless, powerless in front of the hegemonic capitalist discourse and the power of the international neo-liberal politics. The stigma and stereotype overlooks the complexity of actual men’s and women’s lives.
The adoption of a critical approach at this time and in the global contexts is essential; the image of women victims is increasingly used in order to justify various forms of violence and oppression.
How the patriarchal discourse evolved? According to Kalf (1999: 179)“ real change in Western representations of women do not occur until decolonization struggle alter the material conditions of discourse, until the Other world begin to speak back in the language of the colonizer”.
Challenging the discourse:
The assumption of women across culture as already constituted, coherent groups with identical interests and desires, regardless of class, ethnic and racial location needs to be challenged. Another analytical presupposition is evident on the methodological level when addressing these women, the proof of women universality, and cross cultural validity, as well as the political presupposition where models of power and struggle suggested a homogenous notion of oppression of women as a group.
Another assumption that needs to be tackled is the assumptions that these women are politically and economically dependent, and are a homogenous social group characterized by dependency and powerlessness. These women hence denied any historical specificity when researched by European scholars, without addressing the particular historical, material, and ideological power structure that construct such image, any analysis or analogies drawn on them would fall short.
Women’s body; A historically specific subject:
Departing from the above mentioned discourses and paradigms provided to explain women across culture, I will apply a historical specificity to the subject, tackling reductionism, essentialism and singularity in the study of women across culture and challenging the depiction of these women as evolving in non-historical time.
The stories of these women are stories of political power; as well as stories of representation. This is an attempt to provide an alternative approach in narratives and representations. Paying homage to the history of these women, and their prospects within different regimes and state governments, would provide a comprehensive manifestation and understanding of their current realities. In order to do so a complete robust account of states should be provided, and critically analyzed.
The chronicle of women’s history would address issues of rights, representations and history; women fight of patriarchal systems is a fight against two colonialisms as states Nnaemkea, in her plied for African women “one that internally induced patriarchal structures, and the externally engineered imperialist contexts. “Both are ever evolving always contaminated and contested, mutually creating and recreating each other”. ( Nnaemeka 1998:31).
It is important to implement a narrative of multiplicity of perspectives, and the plurality of experiences within the groups. In this sense it is important to capture the fluidity and dynamism of the different cultural imperatives, historical forces and localized realities conditioning women’s activism. The difference between Feminism or Feminist movement across culture shows that in general and Western feminism is deeply ingrained in historical grounds, and contested priorities. This could be sensed within the agenda of the women across culture, the sole call for emancipation, education and challenging hegemonic colonialism and Western imperialism.
Hill Colin called the unequal power relations “the matrix of domination” and this focuses on the nexus of interlocking systems of oppression where the positions of oppressor/ oppressed shift. Colonialism conquered colonized women’s body, and neo-colonial discourse produced images of subjugation they long construct.
The works of Joshine Betts, 1976, Janice G 2005, Mohanty 1988 recounts the image of the ‘ignorant’ backward and ‘inferior’ African in general and women in particular. Such writings stood as affirmation of the civilizing mission of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
Gender discourses; A post- colonial account on women performing power
Questions of power identity and difference are important, further historical perspective is needed so as to trace gains and losses of these women through decades of colonialism, independence, militarism and short democracies and repressive regimes.
Generally speaking issues of gender, power empowerment and agency intersect with politics, governance and religion. History of women across culture is a history of resistance and thrives for emancipation that is hardly ever cited in the Western literature on these women. What western feminist have challenged in their own space, is evident in post-colonial Africa, “ ruling African women enjoyed considerable prestige and power, the erosion of their prerogative and positions particularly under the imposition of colonial rule, has been documented in societies spanning the continent as a whole” (Andrea Cornwall, 2005:11).
Most of these analyses find echoes in the victim narratives, in which the assumption was women, are subjected by patriarchy. Such a singular notion of patriarchy is inadequate to capture the complexities within these societies. A single story of victims and oppressed women, fail to capture the contradictions of colonial and post-colonial legislations, beginning from a gender politics of difference would challenge the imposition of identities on diverse subjects, and pave the way towards an alternative perspective and readings of women’s histories.
A post-colonial account on Darfur:
Sudanese women in Darfur reclaiming their rights:
DARFUR:
Women of Darfur deserve justice; rape is a crime that needs to be judged by the force of law and fairness, restoring Darfurian women’s dignity and integrity is an honourable cause to be pursued. It is a stand point not to let rights of women violated and unclaimed, particularity women as vulnerable as Darfurian women. The main drive behind this project is to re-state facts about these women and to urge the international community not to let down these women and to value their struggle and their resilience.
The Darfur crisis plagued and strained the international media, and shades all public notices provided by the Media. The Janjaweed the name of the perpetrators and the criminals committed their acts of violence against the people of Darfur, were articulated in the news more than the victims themselves. The Janjaweed portrayals in the Western media are equivalent to the old way of portrayal of the exotic and the eccentric. Janjaweed the name as well as the act attracted full attention in the Western media, while less has been done to help the victims, a reproduction of old patterns of portrayals, that was recurred in previous troubles, Rwanda, Serbenetia, Burundi etc. Rape was portrayed as a repetitive normalized act of violence and themes of yet another war.
Situating knowledge on women of Darfur;
This introduction seeks to revisit women of Darfur and to challenge existing violations of rights that occur against them, it is as well an attempt to break the silence on what they endure. As (victims) of the Janjaweed, women of Darfur are presented in numbers, the international community paid lip serves to these women. Even 1325 take the blame of a short-sighted articulation of the problem. What are their rights within the existing regime of public orders and public laws that targets women? How did they face the silence and neglect of their rights? What can we do to break the chain of silence and to address issues of rights, and to restore dignity and integrity to these women?In the eve of the election of the leader of the Janjaweed in the current election, what is left for women of Darfur? How the AU forces neglected their duties of protecting women in Darfur and place another episode of violence and abuse against these women, and why the 1325 resolution and other UN resolutions fail to address the structural violence inflicted on women of Darfur? This paper can not answer all these pressing queries, rather it provides an alternative approaches in addressing issues of violence in a conflict setting by understanding the root causes and bringing about a specific historical account on such violence. The articulations attempt to go beyond a surface account of the crisis towards investigating issues of ethnic identity and patriarchal structured that prevail and overshadow efforts thought to resolve the crises and to stop the violence.
Identity issue in Sudan was mainly articulated by those in powers, and by elites who dictated one sided image of the ethnic identity of Sudan. The dominant Arabic Islamic culture took over and shaped the history of the country. Politics of exclusion and racism was the main feature that dominated the country since its independence. Normalising the patterns of exclusions adopted by different regimes in the country reach its peak, when such exclusion took a turn of violently liquidating those who dare to stand against. Darfur is an extension of such practices and mal function of Islamist regime in Khartoum. Is there a way to end racism that is institutionally built in the system of power that is dominant in Sudan? As the existing political regime intended to stay in power what is on it for women of Darfur?
Women of Sudan Women of Darfur relentless victims:
The Mass rape, the crime and the repercussions:
It is time to revisit and re evaluate the Arabic/Islamic hegemony within the context of Sudan. One step is to investigate and illustrate the government in Khartoum’s perception on Darfur population, particularly women. The perceptions that led to the atrocities n Darfur started when they were perceived as bad Muslims, with a conduct that can be redeemed. The Islamic junta of Khartoum in its attempt to construct a new image of Muslim hood in Darfur, singled out the incorrect attitude of Darfurian women to their proper attire and their disobedience to their husbands, as stated by (Willmese 2001: 49).,
This concept paper suggest to bring into the fore issues of women of Darfur and the violations of their rights that continued and advocated by the current existing regimes this is an attempt to challenge the norms that claim that these women do not exist. A robust study on their situation and a genuine attempt to curb the existing process of negligence and exclusion of their cause as just and fair, need to be performed.
Scrutinizing the ideology of the Islamist regime in Sudan, suffice to say that the wide spread mass rape episode in Darfur, as an act of aggression against Sudanese women, can easily be foot printed on the ideological and cultural norms and practices of the Islamic Fundamentalist and the national congress party leaders in Khartoum. Since 1989 the regime was obsessed with issuing orders rules and regulation to control women of Sudan. Dress code, Decency laws, restriction of women in public place, confinement of women to specific work. Last and not least encouraging and condoning second and third marriages, while taking the lead in such call is the president himself.
Defining the Janjaweed
A post-colonial account on Darfur will illustrate how and why 1325 is not effective and influential as it was perceived. The history of the region will show that measures more than resolutions need to be tackled, in order to secure women’s lives and to understand the politics of the mass rape and despair that overwhelmed the region. It’s the mentality, the attitudes the morals and the ideology of those who lack sense of humanity and integrity and took over power in 1989 in Khartoum the instigated the vicious attack on women of Darfur.
The Islamist regime in Sudan, short account of Darfur political history shows that, Darfur was an independent state with anatomy during 1650 to 1919, named Darfur sultanate. The sultanate managed to defeat several attempts to put it under foreign protection till the year 1917, when the British colony added the region to its authority of Sudan. Since 1917 and along the period until after independence in the 1956, Darfur received no attention to develop economically or socially. Policies that marginalised Darfur region, was adopted by the central governments in Khartoum, isolating and alienating the region from the other parts of the country. In 1982 a new system of local government was adopted, that reinforced the permanent economic backwardness of the region.
In 1991 the Darfur region was divided to three regions, Northern Darfur with Alfashir as the capital, and southern Darfur with Nyala as the capital and Western Darfur with Algenina as the capital. Geographically speaking Darfur was far from the centre and lacks any means of transport that can connect the whole region with other parts of the country and particularly with the capital Khartoum.( M.Suliman :343).
Dr Mohamed Suliman in analysing the current situation in Darfur, refereed to the year 1980 as the beginning of the transformation of what was considered as ecological traditional conflict into a wide war fare,Suliman stressed that “the bloody conflict that stirred on Darfur since the early 1980th in Gabal Marra area in Darfur is basically an ecological traditional conflict, run through ecological boundaries, through the fields were the pastoralists move around. The reconciled situation in Darfur has transformed drastically, during the last century, this transformation was a result of the long drought period that hit the area for long time, it is very important to investigate the reasons behind the environmental effect, on the political economic and social situation in the region.
Historically speaking, drought was one of the main characteristics of western Sudan, in the regions of northern Darfur and Kordofan for long time, looking at the ecological impact on the regions severe war, it is important to pay a historical account on the situation. According to M Suliman,
“five drought periods struck the region, through the last 20 years, the relationship between the percentage of rains and the arise of conflicts shows clearly that the rate of increase in conflicts has a direct relations to the rate of drought and famine in the area, late in the 1980th the drought led to famine and raised high the rate of conflict and war of resources in the region. Suliman raised the question of, although there are long periods of drought and less rains than usual in the area, throughout the last century namely, drought in the period of 1950-1954 and 1972-1974 and the period of 1982-1984, however the rate of conflict took different turn through the 1980th, many reason were thought behind high rate of conflict and famine, basically: During the 1970th food production was for subsistence level. The reserve of food locally in Darfur area lessened the effect of drought in the region. The traditional chiefdom system in the 1970th worked effectively and helps supporting the communities in the region.
Shairf Harir further stated that “Description on how the legitimacy of the state was eroded by violent governance in a marginalized area in the western periphery of the country, Harir considers the starting point is the fold wisdom of the tribesmen, traditionally regarding the relationship between the state and subjects in kinships terms, and not as questions of legality of contracts between rulers and ruled, Harir claimed that the change in the Zagawas attitude towards the state were caused by the progressive militarization of the relationship between the state and the rural people. In contradiction to early pre- independence period when using a military violence to solve conflicts was regarded as the last resort. {T.Tvedt ed 1993.3}
The 1980th witnessed the rise the regional and neighbours conflicts, civil war in southern Sudan, Libyan/ Chadian war that affects directly the peace in Darfur. Following the same line of analysis provided by M. Suliman, Flint and De Waal, examined the British policies towards the region, and the ecological nature of the conflict.
All Darfurians are Muslims, and the majority are followers either of the Tijaniyya which originates in Morocco or the Ansar followers of the Mahdi, or both, Islam was a state cult in Dar Fur. (Jullie Flint& Alex De Waal 2005:10).
They further stressed the fact that Britain’s only interest in Darfur was keeping the peace, it administered the province with absolute economy, the core of this was the native administration system, by which the chiefs administered their tribes on behalf of the government only in 1945 did the colonial governor began to consider possibilities for the development of Darfur, the file economic development Darfur Province in Khartoum national archive contains five entries for the entire period of 1917-1950 Most bemoan the impossibility of doing anything except encouraging modest exports of cattle and gum, in 1935 Darfur had only one tribal elementary school, and two sub-grade schools, and this was worse than neglect British policy was deliberately to restrict education to the sons of chiefs, so that their authority would not be challenged by better schooled Sudanese administrators or merchants. {Flint & De Waal ed. 2005:12}
In interview with the leader of the Janjaweed Shiekh Hilal, J Flint and A de Waal wrote “ The proud old Sheikh refused to talk about his people’s poverty, instead he spoke darkly of how the cosmic order was changing, in old days the nomads had been welcome guests of the Fur and Tunjur farmers, he travelled himself to Kargula and Jabal Marra, where the Fur chief Shartai Diriage would welcome him with a feast and the nomads would assist the farmers by buying their grains, taking their goods to market and grazing their camels on the stubble of the harvest” { J.Flint a& A.De Waal ed 2005 :35}.
A lot of controversies surrounded the facts about the meaning and the origin of the Janjaweed, according to the United Nations the Janjaweed comprises nomadic Arab tribes who've long been at odds with Darfur's settled African farmers, the core of which are from an Abbala (camel herder) background with significant recruitment from the baggara( cattle herder) people.
The name Janjaweed is often believed to mean something in a dialect of Western Sudan. Generically meaning ‘hordes’ in colloquial Arab, there is no evidence for etymological connection between Janjaweed and ‘jinn’ (spirit), ‘jim’ or ‘jawad’ (horse). The term is instead a derivative of the Persian word, jang, "war", and jangaweed, "warrior." The term was adopted by the Mahdists in Sudan. The Ismaili Shia Fatimids dynasty of Tunisia, inherited the term and carried it to Egypt and then Sudan. The relationship between the nomads and the Fur farmers was a consistent one with mutual interests that has its ups and downs, and occasionally interrupted with conflicts over resources, the Islamic regime of 1989 resorted to the use of Janjaweed to wage its proxy war against Darfurian.
Adan Azain Mohammed wrote that “Tribal fights have claimed thousands of lives in recent years in Darfur region of western Sudan, competition over scarce and diminishing resources is the usual cause of conflict pitting nomads against nomads, nomads against cultivators, migrants from Chad across the border against local inhabitants, and Arabs against fur.
On the other hand Abdel Gahfar summed up the crisis in Darfur when he stated that “ the rural population in Darfur live within a predominantly subsistence economy based on the balanced utilization of natural resources, this balance has been interrupted by the complex of factors leading to intense competition between ethnic groups that led to minor conflicts, these conflicts were transformed into wars when the central state started to use its repressive apparatus to support one side of those involved in the conflicts against the other. The state went even beyond using its regular force of army and police for this task, to training and arming local militias from groups that are seen as representing its dominant ideology. (A. Ghafar & L. Manager 2006:14)
It is very important to stress the fact that the change of politics in Darfur and the existing crisis was initiated by many factors, but mainly and as basic source for the crisis is the Islamic regime of 1989, were a systematic process of intensifying the racial and ethnic division in the region was sustained and backed by the Islamic regime in Khartoum.
Atta El-Battahani followed the argument on the issue of fragile peace and war by proxy, referring to the war in Darfur, El-Battahani mentioned the signing of peace protocols between the GoS and the SPLA/M in 2002, and the fear that this agreement would bring drastic changes in the power structure in the whole country. He stressed that; “powerful Arab groups in Darfur moved to exploit their alliance with the hardliners in the Islamic government in Khartoum- resembles what is left of an ideological expansionists movement of political Islam in Sudan, whose dreams were shattered with the dismal performance, failure and eventual collapse of Islamists in Sudan, and to settle once and for all the conflict over lands with the Zurga – non-Arabs-in Darfur” ( El-Battahani 2005: 39).
It is as well equally important to reassert the fact that there are few Ethnic Arabs in Darfur, and the Arabs there are those who speak Arabic as their mother tongue, or those who are nomadic in their life style, both identities Arabs and non- Arabs in the region are changeable and fluid. As many has mentioned in different studies and writings. El–Battahani stressed a very important fact, about the rebel groups fighting now the Khartoum government; none of them are purely ethnic in their composition.
The Islamic junta in Khartoum is basically depending on the current proxy actors –Janjawid- and using them at the same time to weakening the strength gained by the Darfur rebels, and opposition groups within the government itself mainly the Turabi Islamists who split from the current regime. The same scenario of waging war by proxy seems to fit into the pattern of politics pursued by Islamic junta in Khartoum, a small scale of proxy war took place as well in Eastern Sudan, a massacre that claimed the lives of many Sudanese in Eastern Sudan occurred. The formulation of the Eastern Front took place in 2005, the Front called for the Islamic regime to stop its war against the Sudanese in the Eastern Sudan.
Policies rules and regulations affecting women’s lives in Sudan at large could be looked at collectively in order to critically analyze the nature of the Islamic regime and culture reproduced within its ideology. It worth mentioning that one pattern was followed by the Islamic regime, as far as women are concerned. Starting with the Decency Laws, in Khartoum and other parts of the country, Public orders, Public police, dress codes for women, restriction of women in public sphere, work, education etc. mass marriages programmes implemented by the regime, encouragement of second and third marriages, following the presidential example, implementations of a resemblance of middle ages patriarchal patterns. Summing up such patterns it is no surprise an episode of mass rape in Darfur was a pattern and a habit of those who wage proxy wars on behalf of the regime. The Janjweed are every where in Sudan, they represent hearts and minds of middle ages Islamist, reproducing patriarchal brutality and aggression that resembles programme they advocate and the morals they lack.
Trading places, The Janjaweed and the AU forces:
Suffice the say that in the attempt thought by the UN and International community to stop the violence in Darfur and to spare Sudanese women’s their lives and dignity, such attempts have flourished with yet another abuse and violence inflicted on these women by the so-called international forces. The AU forces were witnessed committing the same crimes the Janjaweed were condemned in doing in Darfur.
A Darfuriam grandmother was shown on TV talking about how the AU forces dishonoured their duties of protecting women in Darfur she said”
“They all damaged our girls as young as 13 years old; all the girls in our neighbourhoods are damaged and assaulted by the AU forces: ( BBC TV report 2008).
This reflects how addressing issues of violence goes beyond naïve accounts on issues of quantitatively implementing resolutions and measures that overlooks a historically specific patterns.in our societies. The systemic structural patriarchal norms that allow men to violate women’s rights is not an evil deed by outlaws or people who are deemed criminal rather it is a very structural pattern of upbringing and socialization processes followed in our societies.
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