Reference :
V-P-IQ-E-02318
Date :
17/05/2017
Caption :
Anbar, Ramadi, Al-Raja secondary school for girls. This 58-year-old woman is the director of the school. She poses in her office, in front of a curtain.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
reserved users only
Description :
The school was founded in 1980 and moved to its current location in 2010. Its director has been running the school for almost 36 years. She was one of the last to leave during the last conflict, and one of the first to return. Along with a group of ten other teachers, she reopened school with donations for desks and books, even though the majority of classrooms were destroyed during the fighting and are still littered with unexploded ordnance. The school has stretched its ressources to try and accommodate as many students as possible . It is currently the only school in Ramadi which provides places for internally displaced students from western Anbar as well as Mosul.
"We encourage girls to be confident. Our school system is strict. I feel girls are entrusted to our care, love them all, and do not cause harm to them. In my opinion, the girls, who graduate from my school, are organized and follow a certain logic. I hope they succeed in the society. Many girls graduated from this school and became physicians, engineers and teachers. Most of the new generation teachers graduated from this school. I am proud of them. Women do not enjoy complete freedom. Nevertheless, a little space is given to them these days in comparison to what they had in the pre-crisis period. I think that resettlement in new communities brought about this change", she explains.
ICRC web site, article of 11.10.2018: Women and war. Men make war; women live with the consequences. At least that is the way it is largely perceived.
Women live and react to those consequences, but they are hardly passive victims. They grieve, they fight against the suffering, and many find they are forced to re-invent themselves, shedding an old identity and forging a new one shaped by war.
A new feature by National Geographic, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, takes a closer look at how women react to and deal with the disruption that conflict brings to family and work life.
In the project, A Woman's War, we break open the stereotype of "women as victim" and explore the multiple, complex, sometimes conflicting roles women play in conflict: fighters, humanitarians, mothers, daughters, laborers, community leaders and survivors.
"I believe that women are agents for change. I believe that women are major sources of stability in conflict-affected areas and that they hold together not only their families but their communities," said Mary Werntz, the deputy director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross. "My hope is that we all, humanitarians included, are able to look at women in their complete forms and not just as victims of something."
The lives documented are diverse. Photographer Robin Hammond visited a war he knows well – Iraq – as well as conflicts that seldom make global headlines, in the Philippines and southern Nigeria. Identities continue to be shaped by war even when the guns falls silent, so Hammond also travelled to Peru to see old scars that have not yet healed.
Working on gender is complex. It combines power and privilege, community rituals and expectations. Conflict tends to exacerbate existing inequalities. What happens when the family bread winner – often a male – goes off to war or is killed by the violence? Societal roles shift; women may be given an opportunity they previously didn't have.
"I think in many conflict situations women are forced into being the ones in charge of the family," Werntz said. "Women may have to take care of the agricultural areas. They may have to move into the work force. They have to look after the kids' education."
Resolution :
6192x8256
Orientation :
portrait
Colour/B&W :
colour
