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Sparkle (2)
There was a time in history when only soldiers — and only men — died in wars. But today, the battlefields have no boundaries, and women and children have become the targets of wars and armed conflicts around the world — but this does not mean they are victims.
That is the message that recently crowned Nobel Laureate Leyman Gbowee is bringing to the world, and to the United States, as she is currently here to promote the independent documentary Pray the Devil to Hell, which tells the story of the grassroots peace revolution Gbowee ignited in Liberia in 2002, which resulted in the end of the decades-long civil war there, and ultimately, the ouster of dictator Charles Taylor. Her method was simple: gather up women, both Christian and Muslim, all wearing white t-shirts, sitting at the fish market with a sign that said "Liberian Women Demand Peace Now." This led to a huge movement, a meeting with then-president Charles Taylor, and Taylor's eventual ouster and the end of the civil war. (Gbowee was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize along with her fellow countryman Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, now running for her second term as Liberia's president, and Tawakkul Karman, a Yemen citizen who played a pivotal role in the 2011 Yemeni uprising).
"In all of the madness of militarism, communities are still going on, people are still finding food, babies are still being born — and there are no hospitals. So you can't call this community of women victims! Because we survived 14 years of war, we never went to the psychiatrist, we didn't have social security benefits, no insurance policies. I have never been to a counselor since the war and I still make coherent speeches. Is that the life of a victim?" said Gbowee at a small press gathering in Manhattan today, making a powerful point about the ways in which women and mothers are the backbone of rebuilding society in war-torn countries.
But these stories of women's strength in conflict zones have often gone untold. As one of the film's three filmmakers, Abigail Disney, put it, "I went to Liberia in 2006, and that's when I first heard about this story [of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace]. I couldn't believe I'd never heard about this story! And frankly, I was a little pissed off."
But the three filmmakers — Disney, Gini Reticker and Pamela Hogan — took that reaction and turned it into an investigation, unearthing the untold stories of women in war and conflict around the world. This led to Pray The Devil Back to Hell's being turned into a watershed five-part series, called Women, War and Peace, currently airing on PBS, that tells the stories of women's roles in redefining peace in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Colombia. (Pray The Devil Back to Hell airs Tuesday night, October 16; click here for the other scheduled air dates.)
Although Pray the Devil Back to Hell is airing in the United States for the first time, the film has already been seen in every continent and in 60 countries, and is influencing how women, war and peace are seen around the world — and is helping grassroots groups organize and change how governments respond to, and think about, women and war. (It was played at Davos recently, the annual meeting of the influential World Economic Forum.)
"None of these stories has ever made the big screen," said Gbowee. "And I have to make a statement: I would not be a Nobel Laureate today without Pray the Devil Back to Hell, because the story had been erased, had it not been for these three women bringing the story to the forefront." But the most important impact of the film, says Gbowee, is that "people have gotten very afraid of women's nonviolent protests. They were not paying attention before, and saw women as toothless bulldogs. Today we see that Jeni Williams [of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, aka Woza] and other women in Zimbabwe are arrested as soon as they step out. Now the governments say, "I believe that these toothless bulldogs have some power so if we don't stop what they're doing, we're going to get in trouble."
That's the downside, says Gbowee. But the upside is "There is now a global conversation taking place that says there is no way that peace can be negotiated without women. We are starting to understand that we cannot move
