The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

downfall. The Antifascist Women’s Front was dissolved in 1953, and
transformed into a women’s association which was to deal exclusively
with the education of women in the countryside. It was a way to keep
potential woman competitors out of socially respected positions, and
force them back into the household, where they should care for their
new image, complete with make-up and beautiful homes. Even socialist
ideology could not bypass patriarchal values. The initial democratization
was throttled again.
The legal foundation of women’s rights and the conviction that education
is decisive for a better life could not, however, be taken away again.
Thus, many women completed their education. Although housework,
and hence the double burden, remained exclusively their responsibility,
many women climbed to the highest levels in politics, the economy and
culture. Before the war of the 1990s, women were amongst the best
journalists, writers and politicians.
In the new war, women were completely pushed out of these positions.
The war was waged against them, they were not only expelled, shot
and tortured, they were also raped on a massive scale. The rapists explained
that they actually wanted to humiliate their husbands by violating
their women, so that they would never again return to their homes. The
“ethnic cleansing” was to be achieved by means of violence against
women. The women were permanently damaged, but so were their children
and their families, their very lives.
Nevertheless, it was primarily the women who healed the wounds
again, cared for the refugees, the traumatized children, women and
men, and built up a social supply system for the population. They were
the ones who made the first contacts to the “others”, and thus initiated
the peace process. They were now forced to regain their rights in their
families and in society, against the new ideology coloured by nationalism
and religion. This time, for the first time in human history, the raped
women have talked about their experiences frankly in front of cameras,
and have made contacts with women from other parts of the world.
Thanks to the great commitment of an international women’s network
and the courage of individual women who were willing to speak about
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