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E.S. Kandakai: Women for Peace Are Needed
Written by Dr. Evelyn S. Kandakai, President, National Peace Council, Liberia
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Women suffer the most in the current wars that are mostly internal and not between states. During such wars, women are abused, raped, tortured, trafficked, enslaved and killed. Women are mostly on the run, and they make up about eighty percent of those in camps for refugees and displaced people.
If poverty has the face of a woman, war also has the mask of a woman. Not only has poverty been feminized but so have wars. Efforts to support peacemaking and peacebuilding for women must be hailed. Women must not be merely the victims but also the victors, not being conquered or cowed in any way by their treatment both during the war and also outside of war. If women are largely the victims of war and violence, who is going to carry on the efforts of women for peace? Even women who are not in situations of war may suffer domestic violence. If they are suffering, they are not in peace.
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon is a champion of women for peace. In his advocacy of true love, he has placed true happiness in the citadel of the family, that most venerable and oldest of institutions. He treats his wife with utmost respect and has given her a comely and prominent place in his organization. It is evident that he believes in practicing what he preaches. He uplifts all women by the way he treats his wife.
Just as people say, “Show me the way a nation treats its children or its women, and I will show you the level of development in that society,’’ Rev. Moon’s example of the tripartite relationship with his wife, himself and God is evidence that their union is truly a blessed one.
To foster a culture of peace involving women, he has sent out into the far reaches of the world women missionaries and Ambassadors for Peace who spread the word about the peace kingdom that Rev. Moon speaks so eloquently about. He says that there is no better calling than being a daughter of God. A daughter of God fits very well into an ideal family which Rev. Moon believes is the model of living together in peace. For sure, domestic violence cannot be a part of the ideal family.
Women for peace can definitely be fostered through the marriage blessing ceremony for countless couples across the world officiated by Rev. and Mrs. Moon. This ceremony itself is an attempt to multiply true love, which Rev. Moon says is defined by the spirit of public service The marriage blessing ceremony can be considered a powerful prayer, a statement about what could happen when the unified world of peace, the hope of all the ages according to Rev. Moon, is attained.
These ideals are threatened by the realities that deny many women happiness in an ideal relationship. The moral authority of Rev. Moon and his organizations challenges men and women across the globe to abandon violence. Even war is no excuse for such barbaric behavior.
People should embrace Rev. Moon’s work, devotion to marriage and family and exemplary elevation of his wife as a path to peace. With this type of thinking made prevalent, there would be no abuse of women, no degradation. The nightmares of rape, wife beating and domestic violence perpetrated against women would come to an end.
As Rev. Moon seeks to create a peace kingdom, he says women must become no longer victims, but be victors. As members of the “peace force,” women must wage a war without weapons against the malaise afflicting our world, and, in Dr. Moon’s words, “sweep away the absurdities and evils of the world, through true love power.” Women do have the courage and the power of will to overcome these absurdities and evils and become women for peace.