Reference :
V-P-IQ-E-02320
Date :
19/05/2017
Caption :
Erbil, Rozhawa Hospital. This 25-year-old woman is a medical doctor and second year intern. She is standing in front of a blanket in the hospital room where she sleeps when she is on call. She has spent most of her life living with war.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
reserved users only
Description :
"I have suffered with the people living through the conflicts, but I want not only to feel pain but to stop the pain, to stop others from feeling the pain. I really want to do something for them but unfortunately I can't, sometimes it's just out of your hands. Being a woman, I can give the emotional support. I can tell them that I understand a bit of what they're going through. Maybe, by being a woman, it has added some sadness to my soul, but this is the way it is. To be a woman in this conflict, you can't just describe it in one word. She is someone who tries very hard to survive and help others survive. So basically, that is my idea. To be a woman in this conflict means to be resilient. To work hard every day, to try to neutralize the situation. I want the next generation to understand so that this conflict never happens again", she says.
West Erbil Emergency Hospital has received hundreds of war wounded and trauma cases from the conflict in Mosul. The ICRC supports this hospital and others, especially in the treatment of people injured in the conflict.
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
