A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - The war against women, women against war (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Interview with Hélène Hernandez broadcast on March 12, 2025 on the 
program Au fil des pages on Radio libertaire ---- To find the interview: 
https://radio-libertaire.org/podcast/registre/2025-03-12_23.mp3 ---- 
Hello, Hélène Hernandez, you are a well-known voice on this channel. 
Indeed, you co-host the program Femmes libres just after ours. An 
activist in the Anarchist Federation, you have published several 
articles and books on women's struggles. I will mention Celles de 14, 
the situation of women in the time of the great slaughter published by 
Éditions Libertaires in 2015. ---- A new book La guerre contre les 
femmes les femmes contre la guerre is published by Éditions du Monde 
Libertaire in November 2024. ---- An observation on the cover. An 
illustration by our friend Tardi. A landscape torn apart by shells, 
fighting, an overturned tank from the First World War, and a woman 
barefoot in the mud pushing a wheelbarrow in which two children are 
sitting. Why this otherwise powerful image? Your choice?

Yes, I asked Jacques Tardi for a cover drawing that would feature women, 
and it was Dominique Grange, his partner, who chose that one, and I 
immediately liked it. OLT designed the cover and the back cover, 
following the drawing. It's very successful in my opinion.

Now, let's present the book. Why this book and what texts is it composed of?

It was a commission from Le Monde Libertaire. Philippe noticed that over 
the years, I had written many articles on the war and women in Le Monde 
Libertaire, so he asked me to bring these articles together and make a 
book. There are thus 3 parts: the 1st are texts written by anarchist 
women, Emma Goldman, Hélène Brion, Nelly Trumel and an IWW unionist, to 
open on the idea that anti-militarism is anchored in history in the face 
of violence; The 2nd part shows the multiple facets of war against 
women: military, patriarchal, religious and capitalist violence. So 
texts on war with weapons, in times of war, but also on everyday war, 
the one that oppresses, exploits, discriminates, in times of peace. The 
3rd part, everywhere, women are fighting against war, as Stéphanie 
Bouvard said in November 1915 "Let this dance of death stop!" These 
resistances are important to evoke, whether in Chiapas, Rojava, or the 
demonstrators in India or Latin America against frenzied extractivism in 
contempt of local populations, or against nuclear energy.

So, this is not a book about the First World War, but about many 
conflicts and current conflicts. Some are well-known, I'm thinking of 
Ukraine, but others have been forgotten by the media. Why isn't this 
being talked about?

In 2023, there were 59 conflicts in the world, in Africa, Asia, the 
Middle East, and even in Europe and the Americas. The media chooses 
conflict zones that have geopolitical relevance. As for what women 
suffer, it's true that few media outlets talk about it.

You make a long procession of it. Everyone suffers in a conflict, but 
women suffer very specific abuses. Like a double attack on their bodies: 
torture, injuries, death, but also rape. You talk about a destructive 
weapon.

Women's bodies are used in the case of ethnic cleansing deployed in the 
war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Rape is a reality in 
all conflicts. To humiliate a people, women are raped, often in front of 
their own children. Rape is used as a weapon of war. In 2019, under 
pressure from the United States, Russia, and China, the UN Security 
Council had to back down on the creation of an international body 
responsible for prosecuting perpetrators and developing protection for 
survivors, raped women, and pregnant women. This implies that these 
gender-specific abuses are not weapons of war!

In other cases, they are objectified, sold into slavery, but slavery 
exists in three countries, but not in France?

Slavery exists in many countries, including France; it concerns young 
girls and women from poor countries. I cite the film The Silence of 
Sibel by Ali Yeganeh, this Yazidi girl, kidnapped by Daesh, in front of 
her massacred family in Iraq. Like other girls and women, she is reduced 
to slavery. When they are destroyed physically and psychologically, they 
are sold to finance the war of these terrorists. As for economic 
slavery, it serves capitalism, with very low wages.

You evoke and develop the notion of class and gender warfare through 
capitalism and the notion of patriarchy. Can you explain?

There is a continuum of economic violence, part of capitalism, and 
social violence, part of patriarchy. Conflict-related sexual violence is 
due to militarization, the proliferation of weapons, impunity, the 
collapse of institutions, but also to gender-based inequalities, 
discriminatory and harmful social norms.

The book is composed of articles with introductions written by you.

We could mention women who are symbols of women's struggle, I'm thinking 
of Emma Goldman but also the lesser-known Hélène Brion. Both have 
adopted a fiercely anti-militarist discourse. Could you tell us about 
Hélène Brion's work?

Hélène Brion (1882-1962) was a schoolteacher and union member of the 
Fédération des Institurices et Institurices (Federation of Teachers). 
She became a pacifist in view of the poverty of the population of 
Pantin, where she helped in the soup kitchen. Her trial by a court 
martial in 1918 for defeatism made her a symbol of feminist resistance 
to the war. And I quote her Feminist Address to the Committee for the 
Resumption of International Relations in 1916. During her trial in 1918, 
she proclaimed: "I am an enemy of war because I am a feminist, war is 
the triumph of brutal force, feminism can only triumph through moral 
strength and intellectual valor."

To clearly demonstrate the relevance and permanence of women's struggle, 
let's talk about Nelly Trumel. Who was she?

Nelly Trumel (1938-2018) created the show Femmes libres on Radio 
libertaire in reference to Mujeres libres, this organization of 20,000 
women in Spain. Nelly developed a feminism and anti-militarism that 
permeated Radio libertaire, Le Monde libertaire, and the Anarchist 
Federation. As a painter, she dared to choose potatoes, the food of the 
poor, to make them magnificent, sometimes disconcerting, subverting them 
in the manner of the surrealists but with hyperrealism. She thus painted 
everyday objects that she magnified: fruits, vegetables, bowls and 
glasses, bottles. She staged them very differently from traditional 
still lifes, because the pear seed seems to be an eye looking at us or 
the fig is such that we want to eat it.

She has very well-argued texts, I'm thinking of these words: "In times 
of war, civilization is overturned and impulses, suddenly released, are 
primitive, the sexual impulse is the most difficult to control." This 
was written in 1993 in Le Monde libertaire. It's still relevant today. 
She further describes the prohibition on controlling one's body.

It's because what Nelly wrote is relevant today that I took up her texts 
from 1993. Yes, in the case of Uighurs or non-Serb women in the former 
Yugoslavia, "the ethnic identity that wants to assert itself must spread 
its sperm and shed blood" and Serbian men must say "I call on all 
Serbian women to give birth to another son in order to repay their debt 
to the nation." Women's bodies are thus a political and warlike issue.

You yourself have a strong analysis of Emmanuel Macron's warlike 
discourse. Is France warlike?

I can't talk about global wars without mentioning France's military 
policy. Macron talks about war during the Covid period, he talks about 
demographic rearmament to urge women to have more children, to pay for 
pensions? No, to have a stronger country and influence the world. France 
has become the second largest exporter of arms and military engineering, 
the army budget is growing while public services are sacrificed (health, 
education, transportation, etc.). In 2017, it was the fatal march, 
alone, in the Cour Napoléon, a symbolic march. Yes, Macron has a 
warrior's posture.

How can we help these women? In Sudan, Burkina Faso, Afghanistan. I 
found the expression in an article, "women and girls at the heart of all 
dangers."

On the one hand, there are NGOs that provide medical and educational 
assistance, such as schooling for girls, and when they can do so. For 
example, Radio Begum allowed girls to take classes, especially English 
classes, for years; it has just been banned by the Afghan government. 
And we can support these NGOs like Negar or Femaid. On the other hand, 
talking about it, showing our solidarity, responding urgently to appeals 
against death sentences or incarcerations, or trials like that of Pinar 
Selek (harassed by the Turkish government for 27 years), etc., allows 
them to hold on. Social networks inform on both sides. We must always 
hold the flag of freedom, feminist and anti-militarist.

The book also discusses the pathologies caused by wars. Injuries, but 
not only that. Illnesses, including mental disorders. Especially for women?

Girls and women face a higher risk of violence during conflicts, 
including sexual violence, and difficulty accessing emergency obstetric 
care, family planning services, and psychological support on 
gender-specific issues. Wars significantly increase the prevalence of 
mental health problems: 22% suffer from them, more women than veterans, 
for example, with the exception of post-traumatic stress disorder.

I would also like an explanation of the distinction between femicide and 
femicide.

Both terms can be used. Femicide (or femicide, uxoricide, conjuguicide, 
sexocide, gynecide, gynocide, or gendercide) refers to the murder of one 
or more women or girls because they are women. The term femicide comes 
from the American feminist researcher Diana EH Russell in the late 
1970s, according to Christelle Taraud in the book Femicides, a World 
History (La Découverte, 2022). Definitions may vary depending on the 
cultural context. The term femicide is now the most widely used.

A word, of course, about the situation in Iran. Women, life, and 
freedom-what remains today?

Iranian women, after this popular uprising following the death of Jina 
Mahsa Amini in September 2022, are not defeated despite the terrible 
repression. Chouwra Makaremi says, "In 2022, burning the veil is a 
revolutionary grammar, with creativity and humor! Joy is a practice of 
resistance that allows us to fight fear. It is through non-fear that we 
will be on the barricades and become a people!"

A thought for Berta Caceres, Margarida Alves. Who were they?

On March 3, 2016, Berta Caceres was murdered in her home. She spent her 
life asserting the rights of Honduran communities to access their land. 
She fought against landowners and companies that plundered their land. 
Her daughter has re-raised the torch against the capitalist extractivism 
of natural resources.

Margarida Alves is a major figure in Brazilian peasant unionism. She was 
assassinated on August 12, 1983, during the height of the military 
dictatorship. As a reminder, the 7th March of the Margaridas took place 
on August 15 and 16 in Brasilia with 100,000 rural women workers, 
marching for the reconstruction of the country and good living: "Live 
better by fighting than die of hunger."

In my opinion, the book brings together analyses, references, 
testimonies, a bibliography, a filmography, it allows for food for 
thought. Activists can use it to lead a debate but you can travel. Last 
February, you were in Toulouse. How can I contact you?

The best thing is to write to me at femmes.libres@outlook.fr

Is a presentation of the book planned soon?

I will be in the Val d'Oise on March 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the initiative 
of Libre Pensée 95, it will be at the Café des quais 8 rue Hôtel Dieu in 
Pontoise. And I will be at the CIRA Limousin, EAGR 64, avenue de la 
Révolution in Limoges, on May 17 at 5 p.m.

Thank you, Hélène.
I remind you of the title of the book The War Against Women, Women 
Against War published by Le Monde Libertaire in November 2024.
(Interview by Francis PIAN)

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8278
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