Participation

11 Ideas for Action

We all have to take action every single day of the year in order to make girls' lives better. Whatever you're doing, no matter when, you are creating change that makes girls voices heard!

In the winter of 1975-76 I was living in the depths of the Zagros Mountains in Iran. I was working for the Persian Department of Environmental Conservation, based in a little village on the shores of Lake Parishan in Dasht-e Arjan National Park.

Where are the women? In traditional historical and scholarly accounts of the making and fighting of wars, women are often nowhere to be seen. With few exceptions, war stories are told as if men were the only ones who plan, fight, are injured by, and negotiate ends to wars. As the pages of this book tell, though, those accounts are far from complete. Women can be found at every turn in the (gendered) phenomena of war.

Last week, I came to Bogotá to participate in the Peace Summit of Mayors and Governors. The event was sponsored by Gustavo Petro, the Mayor of Bogotá, and included the participation of local and regional authorities from some of the most war-torn parts of Colombia. International guarantors for the event included three representatives from the U.S.

Yesterday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos delivered his address to the General Assembly. He noted his “moderate optimism” that after two years of exploratory talks with the FARC, a short agenda for peace talks had been established that would be pursued in coming weeks in Oslo and Havana.

If people have heard of the Southeast Asian country known alternately as “Myanmar” or “Burma,” they are just as likely to have heard mention of its national heroine: pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.

For almost two years I lived in a small village on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific. Here I worked with some of the most inspiring women in the world.

Bogotá, 3 September 2012

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
WOMEN AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLE
Mr. JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
President of the Republic of Colombia
Bogotá

Dear President Santos:

The U.S. is set to withdraw the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan by 2014. This transition period is fraught with risk for Afghan women, many of whom have benefited during 10 years of improved access to education, health care, and political participation.