Women on the Frontlines of Violence

Women are the easy targets of war. They are unarmed and often protecting small children. Women in conflict zones told me many women chose to stand and face their killers, since running while pregnant or hanging onto children was futile. Death was inevitable, so they stared the killer in the eye as they went down.

Violence against women is and always has been integral to war and all armed conflict. It pervades all forms of militarism. It will endure so long as the institution of war remains a legally sanctioned instrument of State, so long as arms are the means to political, economic or ideological ends.

Colleen Wagner