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A
Story of Two Struggles
Aug. 25, 2004
Donna Zajonc
During
my recent visit to Tunis, Tunisia, to co-lead a workshop for 60
Islamic women, I was inspired by the stories of the women and their
challenges. Since returning I have continued to email with several
women. In response to my request to learn more about one brave woman,
I received this email from her. It is a typical tale of their struggles
and extraordinary courage. I asked permission and was granted approval
to share this story. For obvious reasons her name must be kept anonymous.
I have retained many of her phrases and spellings just as she wrote
them.
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I
am lawyer, and also I am consultant in human rights research
and training. I love the training and I believe in the training
capacity to change, to improve behaviours. I have good relations
/ contact with Arabic and African NGOs, human rights, women
rights NGOS. I participate to lot of training of trainer about
governance, leadership, poverty and gender, women rights.
I've been candidate to the "parlement" / congress, in 1997.
I didn't win but it was a very important experience for me.
I've been member of the commission to control the elections
in 1999. I am also member of ligue of human rights.
As
a lawyer, now I am working on a very important problem which
is considered taboo until now in my country: the forced disappearances
of the victims family. It looks crazy, perhaps very dangerous!!!
There
is lot of problems in my country, bad politic, bad governance;
poverty, no work, no health, no free medias, no equality,
women problems. I am really suffering about this situation,
and I want to do something, but it's too hard, too complicate,
I need different people to be with me: men, women strong and
clever people.
My father was a very important politic figure during the war.
After the end of war he was very disappointed about the quality
of governance, he refused to participate to political life.
He died when I was 4 years. I didn't know him very well, but
my mother and lot of people tell me about him, about his courage,
his nobility. I live in... I am married now, and I have two
children ages 9 and 13.
Thank
u donna, I promise to write to u every time I need help.
I still have tears which means we are very human. It's soo
important to have tears to laugh, to cry, and of course to
have faith and hope.
best
whishes
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AND
THEN THIS: Recently sent to me from an American woman friend...
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"By
the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison
guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on
a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing
sidewalk traffic."
They
beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her
head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed
her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her
cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered
a heart attack.
Additional
affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating,
choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when
the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there
because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House
for the right to vote.
For
weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When
one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,
they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and
poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured
like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
It
is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to
persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that
she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring
to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said,
and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished
the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
The
HBO movie, "Iron Jawed Angels" is a graphic depiction of the
battle these women waged. HBO will run the movie periodically
before releasing it on video and DVD. I have not seen it but
wanted to pass on the information.
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These
are two stories from different ages and cultures yet similar struggles.
As my courageous Northern African friend says "It is so important
to have tears, to laugh, to cry and to keep faith and hope."
Coming
Soon: In the September Issue of this newsletter there will be
special information about how to order a personally autographed copy
of The
Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy. Stay
tuned!
Donna
Zajonc is a Political Leadership Coach, a former
three-term Oregon Legislator and was her party's nominee for Secretary
of State. She has also managed several campaigns including a highly
visible governor's campaign. Donna challenges her clients to prepare
for public office with the same rigor that all professional seek.
Her new book, The
Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy will
be available at the end of August, 2004.
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