gender and militarism

Back to table of contents

Back to table of contents

By Stephanie Atkinson

I am not a conscientious objector. I am not someone who has had to defend my beliefs for not participating in war. I am someone who when called upon to participate in a war that I thought was unjustifiable for many reasons, refused to go. I went AWOL (absent without leave) from the US Army in opposition to Operation Desert Storm. I am only a small part of a long continuum of war resisters, but I am proud of the decision I made to refuse.

Back to table of contents

Back to table of contents By Tali Lerner, New Profile Citizenship in Israel is judged in terms of the relations between a certain group and the military. Ultra-orthodox Jewish or Arab citizens are perceived as second-rate citizens. This is legitimised because they are exempted from compulsory military service.

Back to table of contents

Israel is one of two countries currently with conscription of women. Through the stories and declarations we are presenting here, we see a development from objection for religious reasons to reasons of conscience in 1954, and later for more political reasons in 1970 and up till to-day. The Six-Day war in 1967 seems to be a turning point. The last declaration we are presenting is from April 2009, after the bombing of Gaza.

Back to table of contents

By Majken Jul Sørensen, War Resisters’ International

Back to table of contents

I am a SPC in the Texas Army National Guard. I was born in Milwaukee, WI and I am 22 years old. At age 19 I enlisted in the Guard as a cook because I wanted to experience military life. When I enlisted I believed that killing was immoral, but also that war was an inevitable part of life and therefore, an exception to the rule.

Back to table of contents

"I was a lost Native," Tina Garnanez reflected on her journey in the Army.

Tina grew up on a Navajo reservation and attended public school in Farmington, New Mexico. The only daughter of five children raised by a single mom, Tina enlisted when she was 17, to get money for college.

"I wanted to attend college, and I knew that between my family situation and being from the reservation, I had few options to get a college education."

War Resisters' International's latest book publication Women Conscientious Objectors - An Anthology, published in April 2010, is now also available online. The book breaks with the assumption that conscientious objectors are generally seen as male - as are soldiers. Women conscientiously object to military service and militarism. Not only in countries which conscript women - such as Eritrea and Israel - but also in countries without conscription of women.

Back to table of contents

Discussion about women in the military

Back to table of contents By Jungmin Choi, Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights

Back to table of contents

By Ellen Elster and Majken Jul Sørensen, War Resisters' International