WOMEN, UNITE TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AND WAR! IDEVAW 2024

The International Women’s Alliance honors the Mirabal sisters who were martyred on this day, November 25, 1960, by the fascist dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Their martyrdom is symbolic of their bravery as revolutionary women who took up the fight to topple Trujillo’s 30 year long reign riddled with violence and state terror among the people, especially women. Every year, women around the world commemorate November 25 as the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) drawing inspiration from their strength and courage to confront the DR state.

Today violence against women is an all-out crisis which impacts the health and safety of women, their families, and communities. The World Health Organization estimates that globally about 1 in 3 of women worldwide (30%, or 736 million women) have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Because of underdevelopment in the majority of the world, as well as forced migration and neoliberal economic policies, more and more women are scapegoated and become victims of violence due to the chronic economic crisis.

In the last year, global tensions have continued to rise amidst a dying and decaying economic system, and the world's biggest imperialist powers have grown more desperate. In times of crisis, women bear the heaviest burden. Crisis leads to more conflict and war, furthering the suffering of the people. Governments around the world have a combined debt of $91 trillion dollars, an amount almost equal to the size of the global economy and one that will ultimately exact a heavy toll on the most exploited and oppressed.

Around the world, more women and girls are impacted by violence due to war, militarization, and state neglect. According to the UN, more than 612 million women and girls are now affected by war, a 50% increase from a decade ago. IWA speculates that this a severe under-estimation given the UN’s narrow view of war. Increased military presence is a leading cause of sexual violence. Around the world there are more and more reports about women, girls, and other oppressed genders being victims of coercion, rape, and murder at the hands of the US military and other reactionary military forces. Millions more women suffer from domestic violence, sexual assault, or femicide. While a majority of women experience violence individually in the home or at work, we know that these instances are connected to the overall crisis of violence against women in a world where patriarchy still impacts working and oppressed women in a majority of the world.

The most egregious form of violence against women is state-ordered violence which uses sexual violence as a war tactic. While less common - this form of violence creates a culture globally that sees women as dispensable, vulnerable and disposable. During WWII, thousands of women known as “Comfort Women” suffered from state-sanctioned sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial army. For more than 74 years, these women have continued their cries for justice until their last dying days. Just yesterday, November 24, Lola Estelita Dy, a member of Lila Pilipina, passed away in her home in the loving care of her daughters. Lila Pilipina is a member organization of IWA, and Lola Estelita served as the voice of survivors for Filipino Comfort Women of military sexual slavery during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines. She was a true warrior for peace who amplified the calls for justice for all Filipino comfort women and called on young people to continue fighting against imperialist wars that will continue to impact the youth, as imperialist wars continue to rage on. As we mourn her loss, we uplift her decades long dedication and commitment to the cause for seeking justice for all comfort women and women who continue to be impacted by violence due to increased military bases, foreign intervention, and war.

Lola Estelita Dy

As members and supporters of IWA, we appeal to women around the world to remain steadfast in the long road ahead to continue the fight to end all forms of violence against women. Let us remember those women before us like Lola Estelita, the Mirabal Sisters, the brave women in Palestine, Sudan, the Congo, Kurdistan, Yemen and elsewhere who continue to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our liberation and the liberation of their people. On the heels of a historic presidential election in the United States, we know that the crisis facing women and all oppressed people around the world will continue to worsen as fascism gains a stronger foothold. May we continue to engage in the struggle to end violence against women in all forms. Let us unite together to put an end to all wars of aggression and ultimately to destroy imperialism which is the number one enemy of women and all exploited and oppressed people of the world.

UNITE TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

NO TO STATE SANCTIONED CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN