* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The threat West African women present to the powerful was on vivid display in Ivory Coast on International Women’s Day. The nation’s military opened fire on a peaceful demonstration that included women dressed in white T-shirts. At least one woman died and three men were killed. These shootings come one week after the military killed seven women who were also part of a protest for peace.
The nation is careening toward an armed conflict, similar to the one the nearly destroyed its neighbor Liberia. This time, however, the women of Ivory Coast are looking to the success of Liberian women who, under the leadership of Leymah R. Gbowee, not only were able to end the 14 year civil war but also elected in 2005 the first female president on the African continent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Gbowee’s organization’s Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace ultimately victorious strategy was to enlist Christian and Muslim women to wear white T-shirts and carry signs demanding the end of the war during daily sit-ins. She also led the Liberian women to travel to Ghana to insist the various militias sign a peace accord.
Gbowee now leads and is the co-founder of the Ghana-based Women in Peacebuilding Network, which has a presence Cote d’Ivoire. She and the women of Liberia are featured in a documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” produced by Abigail Disney. Both Gbowee and Disney are Women’s eNews 21 Leaders: Disney in 2003 and Gbowee in 2008. (Women’s eNews 21 Leaders 2011 are similarly outstanding contributors to changing women’s lives.)
This week, Gbowee issued this statement in response to the murders in Ivory Coast:
“Gbagbo and his killers failed to realize just one thing—the women of Cote d’Ivoire are not alone. They belong to a wider, more determined army of women peace activists in West Africa and across the World. He and his heartless killers will not escape justice for the lives of those women and the thousands they continue to gun down to hold on to power. Women of West Africa are determined to rise to the occasion. By this, I call on all sisters to break the silence on Cote d’Ivoire. The time is now to rid yet another West African country of a tyrant and a psychopathic leadership.”
African leaders are attempting to broker a peace deal between Laurent Gbagbo, who lost his bid to be re-elected as president of Cote D’Ivoire, and Alassane Ouattara, who defeated him at the polls. They might want to prepare for West African women and their allies, dressed in white T-shirts, to continue to demand publically and consistently, despite the deaths, that the talks are rapid and productive.
