Women and Conscientious Objection - An Anthology

"This anthology is much, much more than a mere round-up of experience of women in the movement for men's conscientious objection to obligatory military service. It is more, even, than an account of women's struggle against their own conscription. For what we see here is women, at different moments, in one country after another, creating for themselves the concept, analysis and practice of a distinctive feminist antimilitarism. Starting from a focus on soldiering, they soon notice that militarisation is not just the existence of armies. It penetrates and deforms daily life in myriad ways. All of us are militarised, all of us can be conscientious objectors. As Ferda Ülker of Turkey puts it in her declaration, 'As much as militarism is determined to affect my life, I am determined to continue my struggle. I reject!'"

Cynthia Cockburn, Women in Black London, author of From Where We Stand: War, Women's Activism and Feminist Analysis, Zed Books, 2007

"From Native-American Tina Garnanez who, after witnessing 'disfigured bodies, limbs blown off, soldiers who lost their sanity' in Iraq, decides to leave the military and 'not fight for anybody's oil agenda' to Idan Halili who applies to the Israeli military's Conscience Committee on the grounds of a 'feminist objection', defining it as 'an objection to any army, rather than a specific government policy', to Colombian, French, Korean, Paraguayan, and Turkish women redefining conscientious objection as refusing to partake in militarism at large, rather than conscription per se, this anthology offers a wide-array of imaginative, thought-provoking, transformative responses by women around the world to military service, war, and militarism. Their radical retheoretising of militarism with a feminist perspective reminds us of the centrality of women in processes of militarisation, as well as their power to turn militarisation processes on their head and contribute to radical reimaginings of a world where violence, war, patriarchy, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of dominations are not taken for granted."

Ayse Gul Altinay, anthropologist, Sabanci University, author of The Myth of the Military Nation: Militarism, Gender and Education in Turkey. Basingstoke, 2006

Edited by Ellen Elster and Majken Jul Sørensen

Preface by Cynthia Enloe

PUBLISHED BY WAR RESISTERS' INTERNATIONAL April 2010

ISBN 978-0-903517-22-5

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

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CONTENTS

• Publisher's Preface
• Cynthia Enloe: Preface
• Ellen Elster & Majken Jul Sørensen: Introduction
• Mitzi Bales: They Said "No" to War. British Women Conscientious Objectors in World War II
• US Women Conscientious Objectors in World War II
• Majken Jul Sørensen: Swedish Women's Civil Defence Refusal 1935—1956
• Total Resistance to Military Service (Statement from Women’s Gathering in Scotland 1980)
• German Women Said No
• French Women Say “Non à la guerre”
• Rebecca Gumbrell McCormick: Women Conscientious Objectors in Belgium

Israel

• “Coffee Serving Resistance”? An Introduction to Women’s Conscientious Objection in Israel
• Tali Lerner: On Women's Refusal in Israel
• Idan Halili: An Israeli Woman’s Story — A Bold Act of Refusal

Eritrea

• Eritrean Women: In a Crossfire Between Conscription And Denial Of Conscientious Objector Status
• Ruta Yosef-Tudla: "I'm Against War On Principle."
• Bisrat Habte Micael: “I've Had Enough of the War.”

USA

• Women from the US Resist War in the Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq
• Stephanie Atkinson: A Proud Deserter
• Diedra Cobb: The Power of Telling One's Story
• Anita Cole
• Tina Garnanez
• Katherine Jashinsky

Turkey

• Ferda Ülker: Turkish Women Awaken to Conscientious Objection
• Ferda Ülker: I reject (conscientious objection declaration)
• Hilal Demir: A Feminist Perspective on Conscientious Objection in Turkey
• Hilal Demir: Conscientious Objection Declaration

Korea

• Jung-min Choi: Women Activists in South Korea's Peace Movement

Paraguay

• María Elena Meza Barboza: Paraguayans Unite Against Militarism
• Mujeres Antimilitaristas — MOC Paraguay: Presentation of Women Conscientious Objectors in Paraguay, 1995
• MOC Paraguay: Presentation of Women Objectors and Antimilitarists

Colombia

• Introduction to Colombia
• Andrea Ochoa: Women Conscientious Objectors in Colombia
• Alejandra Londoño: Women Objectors in the Colombian Context
• Sandra Murillo Marín: Conscientious Objection Declaration
• Estefaní­a Gómez Vásquez: Conscientious Objection Declaration
• Milena Romero Sanabria: I Declare My Objection

• Ellen Elster & Majken Jul Sørensen: Women's Conscientious Objection as a Strategy Against Militarism — Concluding Remarks From The Editors