Halonen at Seminar: Women Suffer Most From War and Conflict
President Tarja Halonen says that women and girls often suffer most from military conflicts. Speaking at the “Women for a Better World” meeting in Valencia, Spain, Halonen said on Saturday that the human rights of women and girls are often the most endangered during wartime, when many become victims of rape and brutal violence.
Yup. You read that right.
Women and girls are the ones who suffer most during wartime.
Not the men who are dead.
Not the men who have no arms.
Not the men who have no legs, no eyes, no fingers,
Not the men who died with their bowels in their hands,
Not the men who carried their lifeless buddies' bodies back to the camp,
Not the men who promised their buddies they will deliver the letter to the dying man's parents,
Not the men who watched their friend's die.
Not the men who watched their friends take a bullet through the eye.
Not the men who never recovered from the brutality of war.
Women and girls, for whose safety these men were dying, getting holed, getting blown up, getting knifed, bayonetted, and in case of cowardness, getting executed by their own. The women and girls were the actual victims.
Women and girls are the most to suffer in wartime.
Not the boys aged fifteen who took up arms to protect motherland.
Not the boys aged twelve who were used as cannon fodder, machete sharpener.
Women and girls who are back home, for whom these young boys were dying, were the actual victims.
Makes you think if there currently is a party going on in the graves of the millions of dead men who died in the wars of the last century. Free booze, live music, lotsa women.
I am refraining from talking about my own grandmother and grandfather, and I am refraining from using a picture of one of the mass graves of the Sorbonne line in comparison of an advertisement for nylon stockings from the same date.
War is bad. War is a brutality.
But the ones who suffer most are the ones who died, the ones who got maimed. The ones who were in the forefront of the butchery,
Not the ones for whom the dying was done for.
Talking about rape.
Rape is bad. Rape is brutal. In peace and war, it is a crime. But is rape worse than losing an arm, or losing a leg?
Talking about brutal violence.
What more brutal violence is there than losing your life?
Talking about human rights.
The dead have all their rights taken from them.
Those words of the president are very unfortunate.
Let's look at the most recent war that Finland has fought.
Finns:
25.904 dead or missing
43.557 wounded
1000 captured
957 civilian casualties from air raids
Russians:
126.875 dead or missing
188.671 wounded
5.572 captured
Except the civilians, it is safe to assume the dead and wounded are men, maybe a number of female support and health staff could be among the mentioned.
Yet there is more, got to give credit:
Lotta Svärd organisation was founded already in 1920 but its role and activities were at a premium during Winter War. Women served both at the front and at their own localities – they made the home front stronger. Due to their work, national defence touched the whole society. It has been estimated that the work of the Lotta freed as many as 100 000 men to join the Finnish Army. During Winter War, the Lotta Svärd organisation activated 84 000 women. Most of them worked in provisioning, some were at the front. During the Winter War, 64 Lottas lost their lives.
Women have served a role in wars. No denying or belittling that; I do respect the work women have done for supplying the men at the front.
But compared to a total of 25.000 dead or missing men (plus 128.000on the enemy side), 64 dead women should make it clear who actually bears the burden of war. With their lives.
So the women and girls are the main victims of war.
Boys? Who cares? They will die in the next one anyway.
Duh.
Now some will say, "She was not talking about the European wars, she is talking about the conflicts in Africa and other parts of the world"
Okay.
Africa: Child soldiers (boys) are getting butchered to pieces with machetes. The boys too young to fight, if not killed, are getting their hands cut, or their eyes plucked with spoons so they will not be a threat when they grow up.
But as we know by now, boys do not matter. Dead or alive, boys will be boys. Don't you know?
Who is the victim of war then?
It is the women and girls who are raped, in way less numbers than men are getting killed, - in many instances the rapists are punished or executed, the killers given a medal. P.s: Men apparently never get raped. (???)
It is the women and girls who are brutally attacked, again in way less numbers than the men who got maimed.
Boys?
Who cares.
Men?
Dead ones are partying in their graves.
Very very unfortunate words of the president.
Men, throughout history have been doing the dying in order to protect the women, and it is too much even to acknowledge their suffering, their spilled blood, and their right to life taken away from them.
Because women and girls suffer most.
Dead men don't count.
The phrase "It is an honor to die for your country" must be if not the biggest, one of the biggest lies told to men.
You will die for country and flag.
And unfortunate words will not even bother recognizing your death as a miniscule kind of suffering.
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