Rwanda :: Baha'i Perspectives

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Rwanda, Women Leaders, and the Path to Peace

nadim September 29th, 2008

Few people can fail to recall the horrific events that took place in Rwanda in 1994. In three short months, an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a brutal ethnic conflict, while the majority of the world turned and looked the other way. Since then, the sense of shame that has pervaded the international community with respect to this catastrophe has been immense, to the point where it now serves as a case study highlighting the moral imperative of intervention when events in a country spiral out of control.

In the aftermath of the genocide, a new constitution was adopted, one that ensured that at least 30% of the members of parliament would be female. Billions of dollars from donors and investors have been flowing into the country. There has been steady economic growth driven by a growth in rural agriculture and skills development, as well as improvements in clean water access and primary health care. And, while serious problems remain — such as the growing divide between rich and poor — it is surely heartening to see such significant improvements in such a short span of time.

And now a little piece of history has been made – a news story which very nearly slipped under the radar (hardly surprising with all the coverage of collapsing banks and looming elections). Just over a week ago, Rwanda became the first country ever to have a majority of women in parliament, with at least 55% of MP positions going to women.

Why might this be regarded as historic? Well, let’s start with the words of Bellancilla Nyonawankusi, a Rwandan election official, as quoted on News24:

All Rwandans have a role to play in the reconciliation, but women can do it better than men… They are the ones who were the first to be affected by the genocide and they are the ones who are bringing up the children.

This critical connection between war, motherhood and the raising of children was emphasized in a moving passage from Abdu’l-Baha, while He travelled the Western world expounding the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. It was part of a talk delivered to a Women’s Suffrage gathering in New York, in 1912:

The most momentous question of this day is international peace and arbitration, and universal peace is impossible without universal suffrage. Children are educated by the women. The mother bears the troubles and anxieties of rearing the child, undergoes the ordeal of its birth and training. Therefore, it is most difficult for mothers to send to the battlefield those upon whom they have lavished such love and care. Consider a son reared and trained twenty years by a devoted mother. What sleepless nights and restless, anxious days she has spent! Having brought him through dangers and difficulties to the age of maturity, how agonizing then to sacrifice him upon the battlefield! Therefore, the mothers will not sanction war nor be satisfied with it. So it will come to pass that when women participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world, when they enter confidently and capably the great arena of laws and politics, war will cease; for woman will be the obstacle and hindrance to it. This is true and without doubt.

(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 134)

It is clear that the world is still playing catch-up to these words, and women everywhere continue to struggle for an equal voice in the decision-making arena. But how poignant it is that a small, mountainous country in East Africa — which has endured so much recent agony — should suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, be showing us the way.