When the occupation of Iraq occurred, there was the promise, as there was a promise in Afghanistan, that women would be liberated. In occupied Iraq, women are worse off today then they were under Saddam Hussein.
In the name of occupation, with lawlessness and the rise of fundamentalism, roughly seventy women a month are being abducted, stolen and raped.
Looking deeper to the root of ‘occupation’, the word means:
1. To invade or enter a country by force or as an army
2. Conquest, conquer and control of a nation by foreign armed forces.
Rape is, of course, the ultimate invasion, the ultimate occupation.
Women’s bodies around the world are being invaded and occupied at a terrifying rate. The earth, our mother, is being invaded and occupied and devastated. In the name of silencing women and the earth, in the name of undermining the power of life, of birth, of mystery, of passion and ambiguity, there is this occupation and invasion.
The concept of empire, the concept of corporations determining reality and the concept of invasion, occupation, domination are central to those in power today. But millions of us know in our bodies, in our minds, and in our spirits – that another paradigm is desperate to emerge on this planet. I believe we can feel it in the very fiber of our beings. And with a little courage, with a lot of unity, and with faith that paradigm is going to emerge.
I believe that non-violent women and men will be at the center of this new paradigm. We will be the carriers of it, the provokers of it, and the healers and the heart of it. There are many, if not millions of non-violent women and men on this planet who hold this new paradigm in their bodies, in their beings. And because we have been so far outside the current power structure, this paradigm has been allowed to grow in us.
What does this paradigm look like? What is its shape? What will will it abolish?
You cannot bomb people into trust and democracy and hope. A new paradigm knows that terrorists are made, not born. It knows that violence and humiliation take many forms – the occupation of a people’s homeland, sending troops into holy lands, stripping people naked in prison and forcing them to masturbate, or allowing millions of people to starve to death while you eat steak. And shame, as we know becomes violence. This is not to justify terrorism, state or individual. It is more a desire to look at the reasons. Why are there terrorists? Why are people flying planes through buildings? In the new paradigm, the why of things will be more crucial than vengeance.
A new paradigm will not be about conquering people, but about collaborating with people. It will not be invading people, it will be inviting people. Not occupying, but offering, inspiring, and serving people. In the new paradigm, there will always be time to feel, to heal, to grieve. Unexpressed grief often becomes violence as well. Experienced grief becomes wisdom. As a nation, instead of grieving over September 11, the U.S. retaliated. They bombed.
They bombed Afghanistan, killing innocent civilians. They did not free the Afghan people. They did not invite their trust nor form alliances. I firmly believe that had the U.S. processed their grief, understood their pain, what they felt for the loss of the people in those buildings, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq may not have happened.
Real power is about generosity. Real power is about being bigger than revenge. And it requires every part of you to say “I’m not going to retaliate.” Gandhi once said that “an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” When we take revenge we not only blind our targets, but ourselves.
In the past couple of years, I’ve met many individuals in both professional and personal circumstances who already live this new paradigm. In them and in my awareness, I believe around the world it is the same. When seeds begin to grow, it’s roots grow down before its shoots come up. Early growth is not always visible.
The majority of rapes that occur worldwide are perpetrated by men, as are wars and occupations. It stands to reason that peacefulness among peoples leads to peacefulness within nations.
Non-violent women and men understand that peacefulness is a way of life, and that they need not ‘fight’ for it to prevail. They understand that not fighting and non-cooperation do not mean passivity and silence, but to continually choose to walk the path of peace in the face of a war.