A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power

by Jimmy Carter

  Hague and Jolie recently visited eastern Congo and Rwanda to meet survivors of sexual abuse and with regional political leaders who claim to have some authority over the militia groups who are known to be the brutal rapists. The foreign secretary pointed out that rape is used as a weapon of war in conflict zones and that, more often than not, the international community ignores these brutal crimes and so the perpetrators repeat the cycle of abuse. It was reported that 74 percent of survivors of rape treated in a hospital in Goma, in eastern Congo, were children, and eleven baby girls between the ages of six and twelve months had been raped! Jolie said, “For too long these innocent victims of war, responsible for none of the harm, have been bearing the worst of the pain.”

  Three weeks later Hague presided over a meeting of foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States, who all approved a new international agreement declaring that rape and sexual violence are grave violations of the Geneva Conventions and that universal jurisdiction can apply; it also provided for documentation and investigation of these crimes to be used in the prosecution of the guilty. In hopes of preventing such crimes altogether, a primary thrust of the agreement is that perpetrators of sexual violence will not be granted immunity in peace treaties. When the United Kingdom acted as president of the UN Security Council in June 2013, Foreign Secretary Hague used this opportunity to open the debate on sexual violence in conflicts. The result was a unanimous vote for a Security Council resolution on the subject, with forty-five nations as cosponsors. When I visited Secretary Hague in July 2013, he told me that he intended to convene a global gathering on the same subject during the UN General Assembly in September 2013, and he met this commitment. This recent effort by a diplomat and a movie star to force the long-ignored issue of rape during wartime onto the international agenda has been a notable achievement.

  One of my personal heroes is Ela Bhatt, also an Elder, from India. Her parents were Brahmins, and she received a superb education leading to a law degree. In 1955 she joined the legal department of the Textile Labor Association (TLA), founded by Mahatma Gandhi, and soon became the leader of its women’s wing. In 1972, when the textile mills of Ahmedabad, India’s fifth largest city, were failing and workers were laid off, Ela visited their neighborhood and found that the women were supporting their family through vending and home-based work like sewing and cigarette rolling. This work was low-paying and exploitative. She became increasingly concerned when she realized that there were state laws protecting industrial workers but not the thousands of self-employed women who worked to provide their family with an income. She organized them into the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), with herself as the general secretary. She followed the example of Gandhi, who believed that an organization of workers should cover all aspects of their lives as a holistic defense against oppressive laws or state policies. SEWA was soon seen as more militant than the TLA, and the interests of the self-employed women were sometimes at odds with those working in large factories.

  There were riots in 1981, when high-caste Indians protested the reservation of jobs and opportunities for untouchables. Since a large portion of SEWA members were from the untouchable caste, Ela and SEWA defended the downtrodden group. They were expelled from the TLA for their outspokenness, but the result was that SEWA expanded rapidly in membership and influence. Today SEWA is the largest primary union in India, with 1.7 million women members. Ela has formed more than a hundred cooperatives among women who were extremely poor; nearly three-fourths lived on less than 20 cents a day and had no prospect of income after their working days were over. Now there are more than 100,000 women enrolled in SEWA’s health and life insurance program and 350,000 depositors in its bank. Most loans are in the neighborhood of $100, and even with a fairly high interest rate of about 15 percent to cover administrative costs, the bank reports that the repayment rate exceeds 97 percent.

  In accepting the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in February 2013, Ela Bhatt described the character and contribution of working women with these beautiful words:

  I have faith in women. . . . In my experience, as I have seen within India and in other countries, women are the key to rebuilding a community. Why? Focus on women and you will find an ally who wants a stable community. She wants roots for her family. You get a worker, a provider, a caretaker, an educator, a networker, a forger of bonds. I consider thousands of poor working women’s participation and representation an integral part of the peace and development process. Women bring constructive, creative and sustainable solutions to the table. . . . A woman who tends a small plot of land, grows vegetables, weaves cloth, and provides for the family and the market, while caring for the financial, social, educational and emotional needs of her family is a multifunctional worker and the builder of a stable society.

  During deliberations of The Elders, Ela usually listens to our debates without interrupting; then she raises her hand and everyone gets quiet to listen. On almost any issue she can point out how it affects the well-being of poor female workers, and she invariably describes how their proper treatment and incorporation into the larger society can be of benefit to everyone. She defines women’s poverty as “violence with social consent.”

  Violence against women is the most prevalent and the most hidden injustice in our world today. As I lay out in my book On God’s Side, what has been missing from this narrative is the condemnation of these behaviors from other men, especially men in positions of power, authority, and influence—like those in our pulpits. In a section of that book, I say “we need to establish a firm principle: the abuse of women by men will no longer be tolerated by other men.” The voices of more men need to join the chorus to make that perfectly clear.

  JIM WALLIS, AUTHOR, FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF Sojourners MAGAZINE

  After years of concerted effort by The Carter Center to alleviate the mistreatment of women and girls, one of the most important lessons we have learned is that outside organizations like ours, even when working with women who are fighting their own abuse, cannot bring about an end to child marriage, genital cutting, or exclusion of women from equal treatment without the support of the entire community, especially including traditional chiefs and other male leaders. Molly Melching, the head of Tostan, said that when men were asked to join their discussion groups the women began calling their goal “human rights” instead of “women’s rights.” Including men had a positive effect, because Tostan began making real progress in ending genital cutting and child marriage only when the men gave their quiet approval or began speaking out in favor of the reforms. One of the most effective inducements for local chiefs and other men to oppose child marriage, for instance, is to show them how families can become more prosperous if the girls can go to school and be gainfully employed rather than sold at an early age to become a servant in their husband’s home.

  After attending one of our local human rights sessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a traditional chief attended our Human Rights Defenders Forum in Atlanta and then returned home to discover that a local soldier had raped a fourteen-year-old girl. The chief personally found the soldier, tied him to a chair, and waited for the police to arrive and arrest him. He then used his influence to prevent anyone from condemning or ostracizing the girl. The benefits from this kind of bold action have been proven in Malawi, Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, and other African countries. When some of these leaders have recognized the societal advantages of making changes, they have become effective spokesmen among their own people and in nationwide councils.

  Another good example comes from the Atlantic magazine, which in June 2013 told the story of an English teacher named Kwataine in central Malawi. As a young man he had seen a woman struggling in labor; unable to reach the local health clinic in time to stop her bleeding, she died. When Kwataine became chief, he decided that all women should have a “secret mother” to advise her during pregnancy and then should be attended by a qualified per
son at the time of birth. He imposed fines of a goat or a chicken if the family permitted a woman to go into labor in her home without care. His strict policies have resulted in no maternal deaths during the past three years, whereas there were forty in his district in 2007. Kwataine is now recruiting young girls as skilled midwives and has set a goal of having two thousand midwives by 2015. The president of Malawi, Joyce Banda, has recognized his good work and is offering Kwataine as an example for the other twenty thousand chiefs in the country.

  What prevents us from following the example of Kwataine and the Congo chief and taking action to secure basic human rights for women? Some of us are paralyzed by the extent and complexity of the problems. Some of us have become desensitized by societal violence and no longer recognize it when it occurs. Some have misinterpreted Holy Scripture and believe God has ordained a lower status for women. Some men are afraid of losing their advantages in a paternalistic society. But these two simple success stories illustrate how the suffering of women and girls can be alleviated by an individual’s forceful action and how the benefits of such actions stretch out into the larger society. Political and religious leaders share a special responsibility, but the fact is that all of us can act within our own spheres of influence to meet the challenges.

  My hope is that this book and the publicity that will result from its promotion will be of help. The Elders will continue to devote significant effort to fighting discrimination and abuse of women and girls, and all of us at The Carter Center are eager to contribute whatever resources we have to join others in this effort. For example, The Center’s initiative Mobilizing Faith for Women is preparing to offer an online resource for those who wish to be involved, either by being inspired to take action or by reporting on what they are doing. The following are actions that we will monitor and support, and we encourage readers to visit our website, www.cartercenter.org, and participate with us in this effort.

  1. Encourage women and girls, including those not abused, to speak out more forcefully. It is imperative that those who do speak out are protected from retaliation.

  2. Remind political and religious leaders of the abuses and what they can do to alleviate them.

  3. Encourage these same leaders to become supporters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN agencies that advance human rights and peace.

  4. Encourage religious and political leaders to relegate warfare and violence to a last resort as a solution to terrorism and national security challenges.

  5. Abandon the death penalty and seek to rehabilitate criminals instead of relying on excessive incarceration, especially for nonviolent offenders.

  6. Marshal the efforts of women officeholders and first ladies, and encourage involvement of prominent civilian women in correcting abuses.

  7. Induce individual nations to elevate the end of human trafficking to a top priority, as they did to end slavery in the nineteenth century.

  8. Help remove commanding officers from control over cases of sexual abuse in the military so that professional prosecutors can take action.

  9. Apply Title IX protection for women students and evolve laws and procedures in all nations to reduce the plague of sexual abuse on university campuses.

  10. Include women’s rights specifically in new UN Millennium Development Goals.

  11. Expose and condemn infanticide of baby girls and selective abortion of female fetuses.

  12. Explore alternatives to battered women’s shelters, such as installing GPS locators on male abusers, and make police reports of spousal abuse mandatory.

  13. Strengthen UN and other legal impediments to ending genital mutilation, child marriage, trafficking, and other abuses of girls and women.

  14. Increase training of midwives and other health workers to provide care at birth.

  15. Help scholars working to clarify religious beliefs on protecting women’s rights and nonviolence, and give activists and practitioners access to such training resources.

  16. Insist that the U.S. Senate ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

  17. Insist that the United States adopt the International Violence Against Women Act.

  18. Encourage more qualified women to seek public office, and support them.

  19. Recruit influential men to assist in gaining equal rights for women.

  20. Adopt the Swedish model by prosecuting pimps, brothel owners, and male customers, not the prostitutes.

  21. Publicize and implement UN Security Resolution 1325, which encourages the participation of women in peace efforts.

  22. Publicize and implement UN Security Resolution 1820, which condemns the use of sexual violence as a tool of war.

  23. Condemn and outlaw honor killings.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I want to express special thanks to Karin Ryan and my other partners at The Carter Center who made it possible for me to write this book. As our leading specialist on human rights, Karin has orchestrated our annual assembly of human rights heroes from around the world, which we call Human Rights Defenders Forums. Over the years, she has emphasized the increasing importance of discrimination against women as an issue for us to address, and has assembled the foremost protectors of women’s rights to share their information and advice with us. The incisive comments of some of the key participants in our 2013 session were especially useful to me.

  This is the eleventh time that I have enjoyed the benefit of having Alice Mayhew as editor, and she and the other editors and designers at Simon & Schuster have been of great help. Their generous stream of questions, suggestions, and corrections have made the entire process both challenging and gratifying.

  Since 1981, Dr. Steve Hochman has monitored my university lectures, my speeches, and the texts of all my books, and his emphasis on clarity and accuracy continues to increase my own desire to reach his high standards.

  INDEX

  ABC program (abstinence, be faithful, condoms), 140–41

  Abdullah, King (Saudi Arabia), 63

  Abdullah II, King (Jordan), 152

  Abel (biblical char.), 39

  Abimelech, King (biblical char.), 23

  abortion, 4, 91, 197

  and American approval of CEDAW, 183–84

  of female fetuses, 4, 115, 129, 197

  Abraham (biblical char.), 23

  abstinence, 12, 140, 141

  Acts 1:14, 101

  Adam (biblical char.), 27

  addiction, 178–79

  Afghanistan, 17, 18, 56, 90–91, 143, 145–49

  Africa, 68, 106, 164

  agriculture in, 80–82

  AIDS in, 136–41

  contraceptive use in, 112

  disease in, 28, 63, 72, 77–79

  FGC in, 154–57

  Global 2000 in, 80–81

  maternal death rates in, 173–74

  rape in, 120, 121–22

  under-age marriage in, 173–74

  see also specific countries

  African Americans, 1, 7–8, 9–10, 113, 171, 173

  death penalty and, 39–40

  incarceration rates of, 35

  unequal justice for, 32–34

  Africa Political Leadership Award, 175

  agriculture, see farming

  Ahtisaari, Martti, 160n

  AIDS, 112, 136–41, 173

  Air Force Academy, 47

  Alaani, Samira, 56

  Al-Azhar Declaration on Women’s Rights, 96–97

  Al-Azhar University, 94

  Albany, Ga., 9

  alcoholism, 179

  Alexandria, Egypt, 96

  Alkhateeb, Maha B., 144–45

  Al Qaeda, 57, 58–59

  Always a Reckoning (Carter), 8

  American Association of University Professors (AAUP), 170

  American Civil Liberties Union, 35

  American Convention on Human Rights, 86

  American Himalayan Foundation, 131

  American Jewish World Se
rvice, 83

  Amin, Idi, 28

  Amnesty International, 40, 57, 119

  Anglican Church, 113

  Annan, Kofi, 160n

  antiretroviral medication, 136–41

  Anwar, Zainah, 4, 11, 105–7

  Apollos (biblical char.), 25

  Apostles, 26, 102

  Arab League, 63, 181

  Arab-African Women’s League, 181

  Archery, Ga., 7, 171

  Argentina, 164

  Army, U.S., 50

  Askerzada, Khatera, 145–48

  Askerzada, Mashuq, 145–48

  Askerzada, William, 148

  Associated Press, 184

  Atlanta, Ga., 34, 42, 86, 89, 95, 134, 195

  human trafficking in, 127–28

  Atlanta Declaration, 90

  Atlanta Dream Center, 188

  Atlantic, 195

  Australia, 3, 164

  Away from Home: Letters to My Family (L. Carter and Spann), 61

  azithromycin (Zithromax), 77, 78

  Backpage, 128

  Bagram prison (Iraq), 91

  Baha’i, 95

  Bahi, Riham, 98

  Banda, Joyce, 164, 195

  Bandar, Prince (Saudi Arabia), 66

  Bangladesh, 62, 168

  child mortality in, 116

  gender equality in, 177

  Banzer, Hugo, 111

  Baptists, 20, 21–22, 29, 30, 113, 139

  Baptist World Alliance, 83

  Bathsheba (biblical char.), 23, 39

  Baugh, G. Todd, 50

  BBC, 151

  Belarus, 37

  Benedict XVI, Pope, 109

  Benin, 75

  Bennani, Salma, 189

  Bharadwaj, Vinita, 119

  Bhatt, Ela, 160n, 192–94

  Bible, 1, 2, 3, 61, 65–66, 96, 99, 101, 103, 105

  gender equality and, 19–31

  Hebrew text of, 10, 20, 61

  misinterpretation of, 9–10, 27

  sexism in, 19, 20, 21–23