The role of women in the military has been brought to the fore again, as a torrent of sexist nonsense has emerged following the capture of women soldiers by Iraqi forces.
According to the March 27 New York Times, Elaine Donnelly, president of the Washington-based Center for Military Readiness, and Kate O'Beirne, editor of the National Review, "question women's physical capabilities, worry about their vulnerability to sexual assault by the enemy, and contend that their presence on battlefields disrupts unit cohesion".
In fact, neither women nor men have the physical capability to defend themselves against rocket fire or chemical weapons and both are vulnerable to sexual assault and torture. The presence of women on the battlefield will only disrupt "unit cohesion", however, if the cohesion of the unit is based on the exclusion, and denigration, of women.
The "discipline" and "cohesion" of many imperialist armies depends on extreme hierarchy, psychological "breaking" and de-humanisation. Traditionally, this has been achieved through the inculcation of a special brand of ultra-machismo. Those who won't "cohere" are derided as "girls" or "faggots".
This explains why the imperialist military forces remain so resistant to the reforms that have taken place, at least formally, in most other institutions, why systematic sexual harassment, open hostility and discrimination against women are constantly "exposed" in military settings (and then forgotten) and why openly gay men are still prohibited from joining the US military and discharged if they "come out" while serving.
A group of young Israeli feminists are fighting to publicise their refusal to undertake compulsory military service. The proportion of women who refuse military service is an Israeli state secret. Research conducted by the New Profile movement (a movement committed to the de-militarisation of the state of Israel) indicates the number has grown markedly with the emergence of the second Palestinian Intifada and now stands at between 30% and 40% of draft age women. Unlike men, women are routinely granted "conscientious objector" status.
Shani Werner, a high school student, was one of the initiators and organisers of the explosive "open letter" to Ariel Sharon that was signed by 300 draft resisters or "refuseniks" in 2001. She says that what she is refusing is to be an "occupier" of Palestine.
Late last year she wrote:
"When we wrote our first Seniors' (Shministim) Open Letter (a year and a half ago) we wrote it all together — young women and men draft resisters. It didn't occur to us then to ask ourselves whether both kinds of resistance (women's and men's) belonged together. We were so convinced that women's draft resistance is identical in importance to men's.
"But women's draft resistance is no longer as meaningful to us as men's. We don't dwell on the humiliation to which the 'conscience committee' subjects girls. We've stopped conducting an ongoing discussion of the phenomenon of women's draft resistance... Meanwhile we discuss the imprisoned men resisters over and over.
"My refusal to enlist in the army, which I used to see as a political-public act, has now become private. As public discourse is unaware of it, as the discourse of the left ignores it, the draft resistance of girls-women remains personal, not to say silenced. It's precisely as easy for us to ignore women's draft resistance as it is for the IDF to ignore women's military service. If women's service in the army is seen... as deskwork and serving coffee... our resistance is treated like 'coffee serving resistance', which even the army accepts (and if the army doesn't need us, unlike the imprisoned boys, then can our resistance have any significance?)."
Shani's feminist resistance to militarism has profound significance, as does the refusal of all her comrades, male and female. Not only because the military is built on sexism, but because the Israeli army, like the US army, is there to oppress and destroy.
[For further information on the women refuseniks see: <http://www.newprofile.org>]
BY KAREN FLETCHER
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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