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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2002
Anti-war women abused by military familiesNorth Carolina—As the U.S. continues to be plunged into a state of permanent war, a surprising group of women are daring to raise their voices in protest: the wives, girlfriends, daughters and sisters of military families in the Southeast. Many are paying a heavy price. There has been an increase in the number of women being seen by a women's shelter here that have been beaten and threatened by their families for daring to speak out against the war in Afghanistan, and the idea of war itself. "I was raised in a military family, and it never occurred to me to question the authority of it all," said a young woman whose boyfriend is in Afghanistan. "But on September 11 when the U.S. got bombed, I saw for the first time the suffering and horror that is inflicted. That changed me forever and I told my boyfriend I felt war is wrong." She continued to write to him about her growing feelings against the war. One day she was surprised to find two of his friends at her door. They were there, they said, to talk to her about her lack of patriotism. What followed was an hour long beating during which she was insulted and sexually assaulted. Another woman, married to a man in the upper ranks of the military, was physically assaulted for expressing her new views when other people were around. She also says September 11 changed her. "I have supported my husband in all his military endeavors. Everything he has been involved in up to this point seemed to have a higher purpose. But now, after September 11, it should have been up to us, as Americans, to set an example for the rest of the world. I now understand fighting violence with more violence is not the way." —Suzanne Rose |
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