latter day satyagraha

sisters in zion – unite for peace!

In What Latter-day Saint Women Do Best: Stand Strong and Immovable, Relief Society General President Julie B. Beck quotes Joseph Smith as having said that ‘the women of this Church were organized to provide for “the relief of the poor, the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent purposes” and “not only to relieve the poor, but to save souls”. That relief effort was further defined by Elder John A. Widtsoe as “relief of poverty, relief of illness, relief of doubt, relief of ignorance – relief of all that hinders the joy and progress of woman”. Does that mean dismantling patriarchy?

In Women as Peacemakers, Elizabeth Ferris explains that ‘women suffer disproportionately from the effects of militarized economies in which governments choose to devote scarce resources to arms and wars. When a government shifts money from education to military spending, more women than men lose teaching jobs, while more men than women gain jobs in the military sector. Women and children suffer the most from the economic and social consequences of military spending and foreign debt. Wars have other consequences for women. There is considerable evidence that men who return from wars are more likely to be violent towards their wives. As one author writes, ‘militarism and violence against women are inextricably linked. Military spending not only creates an economic injustice for women, it supports the ethic of violence against women’. 

In addition, awareness is growing that violence against women in armed conflicts is often a conscious policy, not an incidental by-product. Rape and sexual intimidation are common features of war in all societies. Rape and war go hand in hand.Rape, when used as a weapon of war, is systematically employed for a variety of purposes, including intimidation, humiliation, political terror, extracting information, rewarding soldiers, and “ethnic cleansing”. The consequences for victims of sexual violence in war are grave and may affect women for the rest of their lives. These include serious and chronic medical problems, psychological damage, life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS, forced pregnancy, infertility, stigmatization and/or rejection by family members and communities.

250 000 women are believed having been raped in the war in the DRC

Julie Beck, as President of the Relief Society, is aware of the harsh conditions under which the women of the church are called to do God’s work. She explains: ‘the greatest and most important work for the women of this Church still lies ahead. The earth must be prepared to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must help with this preparation in the midst of wars, turmoil, natural calamities, and an increase of evil. There has not been a time in the history of the world when a full-scale relief effort was more needed. Because we are disciples of Jesus Christ and we have made covenants with Him, we are already committed by covenant to participate in that relief effort’.

Elizabeth Ferris further explains however that ‘in some cultures beating of wives and children is an accepted tradition’. In fact, in most cultures, violence against women is not openly discussed or acknowledged. Rather it is kept undercover by a tradition that a “man’s home is his castle”, and as head of the household what he does in his home is of concern only to him and his family, not to the community. ‘Men get away with beating their wives and girl-friends because they believe that it is men’s right to own and control women’.

Traditionally, women are believed to be care-givers with the ‘nurturing gift of motherhood’, and are thought to have a potential motivation to speak up against war because of their maternal thinking. It is true that maternal roles of resolving conflicts within families, reconciling differences and of naming and challenging threats to their children create a certain predisposition towards working for peace and using nonviolence. More than 60 percent of the participants in the Salt March organized by Gandhi in April 1930 were women for example; and of the 30 000 people arrested, 17 000 were women. Gandhi himself saw women as offering the best hope for the practice of nonviolence.

Women activists wait at the starting line during the "Follow the Women - Women for Peace" ride in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon on April 10, 2007. Some 350 women activists from 35 countries kicked off a 12-day bicycle ride Saturday in northern Syria and then transferred to Lebanon to highlight the suffering of Arab women in the Middle East.

One must be aware of one thing however, that nonviolence advocates have been criticized in the past for any practice of nonviolence which does not include a commitment to women’s issues: ‘any commitment to nonviolence which is real, which is authentic, must begin in the recognition of the forms and degrees of violence perpetuated by men against women. Any analysis of violence, or any commitment to act against it, that does not begin there is hollow and meaningless. Any male apostle of so-called nonviolence which is not committed, body and soul, to ending violence against women is not trustworthy’. So a latter day satyagraha is naturally concerned with the position and situation of women within the LDS movement and is committed to end violence (direct-structural-cultural) against women in the Church and outside of it. Relief Society, on the lds.org website, lists three different objectives for the LDS women’s movement that may represent a starting point for a latter day satyagraha:

1. increase faith and personal righteousness (cultural peace)

2. strengthen families and homes (structural peace)

3. serve the lord and his children (direct peace)

Unfortunately, maternal thinking and maternal roles do not necessarily lead to defiant actions against oppressive governments (both political, ecclesiastical and familial). Women often organize or are organized in support of the status quo. Many leaders are conscious that ‘when women mobilize as mothers on behalf of their families, they become a potent political force’, but one as adaptable to repressive as to liberating causes. Not all women’s groups espouse progressive agendas.

why dismantle patriarchy

Ferris reports that ‘while some Chilean women’s groups organized for democracy and for life in the 70s, the network of women’s organizations created to support the military dictatorship of General Pinochet evolved to encompass an estimated 2 million women in the ten years between 1973 and 1983. For this reason, some women’s rights advocates are critical of building a peace movement solely on women’s identity as mothers. Women play many roles in society and justifications based on biology reinforce patriarchy. They also suggest that linking maternal values to peace-making absolves men of their equal responsibility to value and protect life’. This we will address in a separate article on ‘priesthood responsibilities’. 

Julie Beck reminds her sisters in the faith of President Hinckley’s plea to [women of the church]: ‘We have a greater challenge than we realize. ‘Do the best you can’. But I want to emphasize that it be the very best. We are capable of doing so much better. We must get on our knees and plead with the Lord for help and strength and direction. We must then stand on our feet and move forward.’ Julie Beck testifies that ‘our prophet has said that there is a better way than the way of the world. He has called uponthe women of the Church to stand together for righteousness. He has said that if we are united and speak with one voice, our strength will be incalculable’. I have expressed to him my confidence that the women of this Church will stand strong and immovable in our faith in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel (cultural peace); strong and immovable in upholding, nourishing, and protecting our families (structural peace); and strong and immovable in providing relief (direct peace)’.

ODM women supporters carry posters and shout slogans against the government as they march to the city centre, Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. Kenyans mobilized to demand the truth in their deadly dispute over presidential elections, with hundreds of women in the peace march yelling "No peace, no justice!"