WGS holds panel discussion on war

Students and community members came together in Levering Hall Wednesday to hear three JHU professors speak on women's issues in wartime situations. The discussion focused primarily on the United States' current conflict with Afghanistan.

The presentations were sponsored by the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS), and were organized by graduate students Tom Foster of the History Department and Jordan Stein of the English Department.

"This meeting was about women and violence in relation to war. We wanted to bring attention to the issues of women, gender and sexuality in the way this war is being talked about," said Stein.

Approximately 40 people attended the discussion, which took place Wednesday afternoon from 4-6 p.m. in the Sherwood Room at Levering Hall.

The majority of the attendees were graduate students of the University.

Professor Ruby Lal of the History department and affiliated with the WGS program gave introductory remarks and introduced the speakers.

"Women have become propaganda weapons," she said, noting the challenges Afghani women will face in facing their new found freedom without Taliban restrictions. "A few women have been nominated to represent Afghanistan in the meeting at Bonn [to decide how to establish a new government in Afghanistan], but we have yet to see if this is just a superficial gesture."

She asked the audience to view previous Taliban restrictions as unrepresentative of all Muslim countries and to "think a little further about the place of women in Muslim society." Muslim countries like Bangladesh, India and Indonesia have all had female prime ministers.

She was followed first by Professor Paul Kramer of the History department, who spoke about the changing nature of war in relation to gender.

"War is the health of patriarchy," he said, but added that women are becoming ever more present in the military industry, noting Condoleeza Rice as the national security advisor and increased female fighters. "I turned on the television the other day and there on the news was the first female pilot to ever lead a bombing mission. She said 'I am the Taliban's worst nightmare.'"

Professor Kramer also noted three recent accomplishments of the women's movement: the blocking of pipeline construction through Afghanistan that would have given the Taliban enormous profit, the high proportion of women (about 27 percent) in the new government of East Timor, and the anniversary of a UN resolution to include women in peace negotiations and nation rebuilding.

The next speaker was Professor Neil Hertz of the Humanities Center. He began by quoting from a novel published in 1982 by Don DeLillo, entitled The Names which dealt with the way foreign nations see America.

"In America it takes a crisis for people to see other people," he read. In the book, DeLillo's characters discuss how during a foreign crisis there is an "instant" educating of the populace in the US: this is the country, and this is their people, religion and culture.

Last to present was Professor Veena Das of the Anthropology department.

"Modern wars last for very long periods, from 10 to 30 years in countries like Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Algeria. In these situations what is socially 'normal' becomes very different from what we might believe," she said.

She went on to explain that in these situations, the notion of an unyielding maternal devotion to children can lapse.

"When women have many children in poverty or in war, and they know some of them will die, they disinvest affection for some of them. But this is not to say they don't love their children, just that it is very hard in those situations," she said.

"There is a notion that you are either traditional and backward or modern and inauthentic. We must dispel these notions and allow space for traditions to adapt.