WUNRN
Syria &
Bosnia Women Confer on Importance of Women-Driven Peace
Cynthia Cockburn - 24 February 2014
Bosnian women live with the
malign consequences of a peace agreement engineered by internationals between
male war leaders. Syrian peace negotiations are heading the same way. Recently
Syrian women met with Bosnian counterparts to strategize for a peace that
delivers on the interests of women and civil society.
The war now raging in
This conference in
Sarajevo, organized by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
(WILPF) brought Syrian women directly from the conflict, and yet others from
refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The meeting coincided with
UN-mediated peace negotiations being conducted in
Bosnian women recalled how
the war had galvanized them in projects of self-help and mutual help. Memories
of unity in Yugoslav days had enabled some of them to reach out across the
ethnic conflict lines and support each other in work for women refugees and
survivors of war rape. But the negotiation of a peace agreement, when the
moment came, had taken place five thousand miles away at an airbase in
'You see,' Gorana
Mlinarević told the meeting, 'the Dayton Peace Agreement taught us
precisely how not to live together'. The lesson for the Syrians was: get
your act together now, with all the international support you can muster, to
achieve a voice in the peace negotiations. And on no account allow the
negotiators to double as constitution-builders. The constitution must be
hammered out later, back home, in an inclusive, democratic process.
The Syrian women reflected
on the Bosnian experience in separate daily strategy meetings. They also
discussed what they could learn from Bosnian women's struggle for 'transitional justice'
after the war. They learned how, post-war, the Bosnian women had pressured the
government for legislation giving women survivors of rape in the war the right
to acknowledgment and reparation. They were deeply touched by the testimony of
Nura Begović and Hatidža Mehmedović, two elderly members of the Srebrenica Women's Association who
are still pursuing the perpetrators of the massacre of ten thousand men in that
Bosnian enclave in July 1995. Many of the Syrian women told how they are trying
right now to document human rights abuses occurring in the course of the
fighting, to get autopsies done, medical evidence of injuries recorded and
deaths certified, with a view to taking war criminals to court when the
fighting ends.
The solidarity that grew
between the Bosnian and Syrian women during these intense five days was
heart-warming to see. Bonding was fostered by the organizers' understanding
that emotions matter as much as thoughts: participants could take a break at
any moment to enjoy "wellbeing" sessions run by feminist therapists.
Another gift was skilled and sensitive three-way language interpretation
between Arabic, Bosnian and English.
However, it early became
apparent that, despite sharing a language, the Syrian women were seriously
challenged to reconcile their political differences. Attendance at the
conference had been by open application. The women who came were of different
ages, differently feminist, and active in women's organizations with a range of
views as regards a solution of the conflict. Some, like those of the Syrian Women's League, and
its partner organizations in the Coalition of
Syrian Women for Democracy, including Msawat (Equality), were
already deeply committed to gaining access to the
Some of the Syrian
participants were living in 'liberated' areas, and had close relations with the
armed opposition forces. Some of these were suspicious of the word
'reconciliation' and hungered for victory as much as peace. Others were part of
the Syrian NonViolent Movement (Alharak,
or 'Uprising'), who disagree with an armed response to Assad. How were these
women to find common ground, meeting each other here in a foreign city? One
said, "In
The Syrian women, in
telling their story to Bosnian counterparts, constantly referred back to
women's presence in the 'revolution' of
2011, their moment in the Arab 'Spring' before nonviolent uprising
was brutally crushed by the regime and turned into civil war. What gave added
meaning to our conference was that, during the week before we arrived, and even
as we spoke, Bosnians were out on the streets in their own 'strike for dignity'
- as the Syrians put it. Protests were happening in
The Bosnian women felt this
rebellion clinched their argument. The Bosnian political system was a stitch-up
between rival nationalisms - militaristic, patriarchal and corrupt - reducing
ordinary people, and especially women, to penury and impotence. Learn the
lesson, they warned their Syrian friends. If civil society doesn't get a say in
shaping post-war