Women Dismantling Militarism
Facts, Articles,
and Ideas from
the Global Fund's Militarism Initiative
Legacies of Colonialism
The Impact of Militarism on Women in Asia & Oceania
Context
Three fifths of the world’s population lives in the vast geographic area that encompasses Asia and Oceania. From the land-locked country of Afghanistan to the Pacific island of Guahan, the region has a diverse and complex set of histories and cultures. Sadly, conflicts across the region are a part of the region’s history: from legacies of colonialism, which led to the partition and division of territories, to identity-based struggles over ethnicity, nationalism, religion and resources. The region’s growing militarization is in part driven by national governments, which are investing heavily in their defense and internal security infrastructure, as well as by foreign governments building their military presence in the region. Adding to this potent and dangerous mix is the growing militancy of non-state actors challenging state actors, whether over access to key resources for marginalized communities in the region, or over fundamentalist interpretations of religion and culture.
For instance, the civil war in Sri Lanka, arising out of ethnic tensions between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority spanned over 25 years and is perceived by the Sri Lankan government to have come to an end after strong military action in May 2009. Yet that action – and the political violence that preceded it – caused a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions, and civic and political distrust amongst communities that continues to hinder Sri Lanka’s development. One of GFW’s grantee partners in the island nation reports that there are over 24,000 war widows in the most highly affected Jaffna region, all of them struggling with loss of life, livelihoods and security.
Another major source of militarism stems from the heavy presence of U.S. military bases throughout Asia and the Pacific (half of all the U.S’ military bases are in this region). The presence of bases has generated intense tension with local populations over resources, sovereignty and the adverse impacts of U.S. military troops. Chemical waste from military operations and equipment has contaminated water and land, leading to severe health problems. The construction of military bases has also led to the destruction of ancestral land and cultural heritage. Finally, research across the region has shown that with large numbers of military troops (mostly men), violence against women and girls intensifies, especially in terms of commercial sexual exploitation.
Impact on Women
As in all parts of the world, gender-based violence is pervasive across Asia and Oceania, arising mainly from social, cultural and religious practices that subordinate women. Patriarchal perceptions of women’s roles in the region have meant that they have almost no legal or judicial recourse or even protection from state and community actors. While gender-based violence in Asia and Oceania spans the spectrum of physical, sexual, and psychological violence found in all societies, there are certain types of violence that are specific to the regional context. For example, women are murdered or severely harmed in parts of South Asia on the basis of affronts to family honor or dissatisfaction with dowry. According to the Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, over a hundred million women and girls are missing from the world’s population because of sex-selective abortion, female infanticide and systematic deprivation of food or medical care; most of them in Asia.
This overarching socio-political and economic context for women implies that women in the numerous conflict zones of Asia and Oceania face heightened vulnerability to violence, especially when they are displaced. One estimate is that 80% of the world’s refugees and internally displaced persons from war and conflict are women and children. Unsurprisingly, trafficking also flourishes in the absence of appropriate and effective social and legal mechanisms. As in conflict zones the world over, women face sexual violence at the hands of warring parties. In Burma, for example, ethnic minority women have endured decades of sexual violence as part of the Burmese military’s systematic use of rape as a weapon to subjugate ethnic minorities. In post-conflict countries, such as Cambodia and East Timor, women are grappling to stem epidemics of domestic violence in societies that, after years or decades of conflict, have accepted extreme violence as a way to resolve disputes. In countries more recently emerging from conflict, such as Afghanistan, women are struggling to gain footholds in the new government structures, by crafting the new constitution and reconstructing civil society based on the principles of gender equity and universal human rights.
Here are some statistics about the impact of militarism on women in the region:
- According to research by Women Act Against Military Violence, U.S. troops in Okinawa have committed more than 4,700 reported crimes since 1972. Many of these were crimes of violence against women. The number of crimes are also high in South Korea, where in 1992, the brutal rape and murder of Yoon Kum Ee by a U.S. soldier galvanized human rights advocates to establish the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crime by U.S. Troops in Korea in order to document these crimes and help victims claim redress.
- In 2009, Sri Lanka fought the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the northern region of Vanni, and Amnesty International estimates that 7,000 people were killed and some 200,000 were displaced of which 80,000 of them children.
- Near the closed Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, research found the area’s drinking water contaminated with oil and grease. At 21 of the 24 locations where groundwater samples were taken, pollutants that exceeded drinking water standards were found, including mercury, nitrate, and other contaminants.
