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Why sisterhood is not global

By LIRA STA. ROMANA (GUEST COLUMNIST)

Now and then, people would heap praises and adulation on women achievers, declaring them “strong women” or “remarkable women equal to men”. Some sexists would even say they admire “women with balls”. At first glance, these feats of accomplishment by women seem impressive and unusual, more the exception than the rule since historically, women have always figured secondarily in political affairs and their achievements relative to their male counterpart’s. Some feminists avidly extol the virtues of women gunning for equal powers and rights as men. And for sometime in its recent history, even the progressive women’s movement went the way of uniting with all women, regardless of class since gender was of paramount importance.

Who could forget Cory Aquino, the simple housewife-turned-president? The nation was in near reverence of this woman who was shoved into the political limelight as she was the portrait of a charismatic martyr’s wife. Soon after, she unsheathed her sword of total war against the people who put her in power. A lot of people and many feminists among them were in awe of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s intelligence and mastery of economics, a giant among the male-dominated Senate. Then, she too ascended the presidency after people power toppled a macho-fascist president. Today, her so-called economic prowess has only driven the country to near bankruptcy as she tows foreign dictated policies. Then there is Maid Miriam. Not a few marvel at Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s brilliance and facility with the English language and genius at law. But she has periodically spewed absurd and anti-people pronouncements revealing her chameleon political nature but particular canine loyalty to Erap. We can go on with a long list of women in government who put the Philippines in the world map of politics. But what the world does not truly know is how these women, by the very nature of their economic and class background and political interests have adversely affected the people’s lives they had sworn to serve.

In the United States, there is Condoleezza Rice, former professor at Stanford University, an expert on Soviet politics and arms control. For four years, she was two-term president George W. Bush’s national security adviser and one of his closest aides. Recently she was appointed Secretary of State who will lead US diplomacy abroad. Such magnitude of power and position bestowed on her by the “global police” logically reaps a combination of admiration, awe and fear. Rice is regarded as a foreign policy hard-liner. She has emphatically stated that she is not a yes-woman for Bush but she believes that “the US government must speak to the world in one voice with President Bush in the lead”. This woman has staunchly defended and agitated for the US war of aggression against Iraq, and now Iran. She it was who despite reports that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq pushed for Saddam’s punishment and suppression of the Iraqi nation. This formidable woman of great knowledge of world politics does not care how many women and children die daily in the unjust wars her country wages. She has been called a “fascist” by leaders of the countries she branded “outposts of tyranny” referring to Cuba, Burma, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe.

Lately, there have been written accounts of torture by female military interrogators in the US prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba where Muslim detainees suspected in the 9/11 bombings are kept. Testimonies of released prisoners describe the practices of these military-trained women as “disgusting and beyond belief.” The use of sex and religion by the women interrogators to break the will of the Muslim detainees is a clear proof of Pentagon’s disrespect and disregard for Islamic law and religion. These women interrogators and intelligence officers had continually tried to make Muslim men talk in “late- night sessions, featuring touching, displays of fake menstrual blood, parading in miniskirt, tight t-shirt, bra and thong underwear.” These women are without doubt implementers of the US brand of revenge against its perceived enemies. These women allow themselves to be the instruments to redefine torture, the American way.

What is the point in featuring these women in a newspaper column reserved for women? First, there are women who, at first glance draw inspiration because they figure prominently in our lives, here or across the globe. Second, these very same women however, are actually giving us a false image of strength and wisdom by the very consequence of their action or position. Third, this is precisely the reason why the feminist tagline “sisterhood is global” is a myth because uniting with all women is not based on gender alone but more importantly, on the basis of working for the interest of the majority. We must know by now that many great women are such, only through the eyes of the few whose interests they serve and protect. We must know by now, that in contrast, there are many unnamed women, women of no title or power whose deeds and courageous acts remain deeply marked in the people’s quest for genuine peace and change. #

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