title card, white text over black:
On October 24, 2000,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
introduced UN Resolution 1325
on Women, Peace and Security.
voice-over of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s speech over treated visuals:
The nature of conflict has changed a great deal, in the decades since our Charter was written. The age of interstate wars has been replaced by the age of ethnic conflict. Militias have multiplied, and small arms have proliferated. International law has been flouted. Civilians do not only make up majority of victims, they are increasingly the targets of conflict.
From rape and displacement, to the denial of the right to food and healthcare, women bear more than their fair share of the suffering. But women, who know the price of conflict so well, are also often better equipped than men to prevent or resolve it. For generations women have served as peace educators, both in their families and in their societies. They have proved instrumental in building bridges rather than walls. They have been crucial in preserving social orders when communities have collapsed.
Noeleen Heyzer:(interview) "When you look at the First World War, only 15 percent of the casualties were civilians. After the Second World War, it was 65 percent. But in today’s world, it is 80 to 90 percent of casualties are civilians, and of that, the majority are women and girls."
Isabel Allende:(interview) "We need to find new forms of solving conflict. We cannot go into another war, because now we have the resources to destroy each other completely and destroy the planet."
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri:(interview) "Now we’ve come to understand that not only no man is an island, but no country is an island. And that unless we look globally for peace, we cannot find peace at home."
title cards, black text over white:
For one year, we followed
women peacebuilders from
Afghanistan, Burundi,
Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Argentina.
This is how they are
redefining peace.
title card, over aerial view from airplane window:
PEACE by PEACE
Women on the Frontlines
AFGHANISTAN
(Fatima Gailani flies to Kabul)
Fatima Gailani: (interview) “Most of the time I never doubted that I will not be back, I knew that I’d be back. But it was at the end of Taliban's era that I thought maybe I will never see my country. And I hated that feeling. I always wanted to have hope. And here I am, back where I was born.
My name is Fatima Gailani. I am from Afghanistan.”
lower third:
Kabul, Afghanistan
(music; scenes of the city)
Fatima Gailani: (interview) "I was born and brought up in a country where women, in the constitution, under an Islamic law, under an Islamic constitution, they were equal. We had equal rights in education and work and political participation, and I could see it was getting better and better. Then I went for my further studies to Tehran in Iran. I was still a student in Tehran when I heard on the radio that there was a communist coup in the country. We were lucky that some of us were already out and then my father decided that we have to get out immediately. So, thank God, we are safe. And most of us spent of the whole of the 24 years working for the country."
narration by Jessica Lange:
A quarter century of war has devastated Afghanistan. Its strategic position between Central Asia and the Middle East has turned it into a battleground of competing ideologies. In 1979 Afghanistan was on the brink of democracy when the Soviet Union seized power in a communist coup. For the next 11 years, war between Russia and the US-supported Afghan guerillas would bleed the nation dry.
When the Soviets withdrew, Afghanistan’s internal wars continued as warlords and ethnic groups fought for dominance. By 1996 Islamic extremists, the Taliban, were in control. Women were denied education and faced public execution for breaking Taliban law. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the U.S demanded the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, head of Al Queda. When they refused, the US launched air strikes. A month later, coalition forces controlled Kabul and most of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, appointed interim Head of State, was charged with drafting a new constitution.
More than 18 months later, violence and intimidation again threaten women. Girls’ schools have been attacked, and children harassed on their way to class. Outside of Kabul, where there are fewer peacekeepers, women are routinely beaten and raped. The human rights situation seems to be getting worse.
graphic title card:
TA’LEEM
Education
Fatima Gailani: "I’m going to meet a circle of women whom I’ve been looking forward to meet for quite a long time."
(to group) "What can Afghan women do to bring peace?"
Woman 1: "We want all women to get a proper education, so they can stand on their own and do something."
Woman 2: "Education means a better life. It will prevent terrorism and prevent people from being misled. The terrorists behind the September 11th attacks were used because they were poor and not educated properly."
Fatima Gailani: "Until about ten months ago, we couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go to work, we couldn’t even raise our voice.
Woman 3: "For now, more than 50 percent of our problems are solved.”
Fatima Gailani: "Imagine how hurtful it was during the Talibanist era that we couldn’t even be educated; women could not be educated. Those who didn’t have any means to help themselves, they lost a lot.
(a girls’ classroom)
Students: (repeating teacher’s prompts aloud in unison) "Zakira is a good girl."
"Zakira helps her mother."
Naheed Sharfi: "What is this word?"
Students: "Girl."
Naheed Sharfi: (interview) "My name is Naheed. Naheed Sharfi. I teach about ten classes. There are 300 students who attend these courses. The young girls are from seven to ten years old, and there are some older girls as well who are learning how to read and write."
Naheed Sharfi: (to students) "Ahmed went to the bazaar.
Always remember to put a period at the end of a sentence."
title card:
Girls now make up 32 percent
of the 3.5 million children
attending school in Afghanistan.
Mary MacMakin: (interview) "I have a little NGO here in Kabul, Afghanistan, dedicated to helping women earn a living for themselves and their families. We started back in ’97 with our first home school, in which we found a woman teacher who would gather the kids in her neighborhood and form them into a class and teach them. All during this time the Taliban had put a special, heavy emphasis on locating home schools, and they were following our supervisor, Naheed. She was very, very brave. She continued on with her work even though the Taliban were following her. So that’s how she got started, and she's just – flowered, blossomed in this job. She does a wonderful job.
The fact that all these tradition-based families have allowed their girls to go to these schools is a big step forward. And that’s why we don’t want to endanger it, we don’t want to take any chances that the men will totally (swats fly) stop the whole process."
(group of young girls)
Interviewer: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Girl 1: "I want to be a doctor."
Girl 2: "Teacher."
Girl 3: "Minister of Defense."
(Fatima Gailani enters a house; greetings)
Naheed Sharfi: "Hello. How are you? I am Naheed."
Fatima Gailani: "How are you? I am Fatima."
Naheed Sharfi: "It’s very nice to meet you. I have always heard about you and the things you are doing for Afghan women. I am a fan of yours. I always hoped that the women working for us outside the country would come back to Afghanistan and work for us here."
Fatima Gailani: "I have been here since February."
Naheed Sharfi: "After the Taliban?"
Fatima Gailani: "Yes, after the Taliban. I couldn’t have come earlier because they would have killed me."
Naheed Sharfi: "Oh, God forbid.
Here, please have a seat.
What are you doing now?"
Fatima Gailani: "I am trying to educate the world about Afghan women. I want people to realize that the doors are open, but that Afghan women still need help."
Naheed Sharfi: "I know, it takes time."
(music; scenes of construction, signs, traffic; Fatima rides in a car)
title card:
Fatima is one of 35 people
appointed by Hamid Karzai to draft
Afghanistan’s new constitution.
Fatima Gailani: (en route) "This is the first meeting, in Kabul. This is, I think, the most important place to start because these people know exactly what a constitution is, what impact it will have on the lives of the people of Afghanistan, and what changes they want to see. And it’s an exciting day and I think it’s a great honor.
lower third:
Meeting of Afghan scholars, Kabul University - June 2003
(Muslim prayer leader finishes prayer at meeting)
Fatima Gailani: (in meeting) "No constitution, anywhere in the world, has involved as many people as we have here today. Think of the constitution as a blank book. Nothing has been written. Addressing women’s rights is important because half of society is women. We should consider all the pain and sorrow that women have gone through for so long. The two honorable professors here have said that Islam was the first religion to give women rights. That’s also why we should consider women’s rights in the constitution. Today, I am asking that we make something from our hearts, and from our minds, that will address all the shortcomings of our past."
Fatima Gailani: (interview) "Education will come when we have a true democracy in Afghanistan. It is up to us, women, how serious we take this, that we – regardless of our background – should live and respect each other and get from that country equally, and give to that country equally."
(music)
title cards:
200 million girls worldwide
have no access to education.
Almost two-thirds of
illiterate adults are women.
Isabel Allende: (interview) "We need a critical number of educated women participating in government, in power, in decision making, so that the paradigma will change."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "Women make up 50 percent of the population. In war-torn societies, they make up more. And yet they’re excluded from peace tables. One of the absolutely basic platforms that has to be established in the world today is that women are at the negotiation table, women are involved in the peace accords - the creation of them, and women are involved in the implementation of those peace accords."
Noeleen Heyzer: (interview) "Women stay longer at a peace table. They know that no matter which side wins, they are going to lose. And therefore they need peace in order to get on with every day life."
BURUNDI
lower third:
Bujumbura, Burundi
(music; woman entering workplace)
Spes Manirakiza: (interview) "My name is Spes Manirakiza. I am married, I am the mother of three children, I’m a journalist by profession, and I work at the Women’s Peace Center as the Director. In our country, people are separated by ‘la crise.' At one time, people said that the life expectancy of a Burundian was 24 hours. Killing a person was like killing a chicken." (images of the violence)
narration by Jessica Lange:
Like its northern neighbor Rwanda, Burundi was devastated by a genocide that made headlines around the world. Ethnic tensions between Hutus and Tutsis turned to war in October 1993. Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically-elected president, a Hutu. A year later, the plane carrying the new president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down by Hutu extremists. He was killed alongside the President of Rwanda. The Hutu-Tutsi violence exploded.
Voice from radio: "The vampires of Bikomagu can only attack pregnant women, children, and old people."
narration by Jessica Lange continues:
Hutu extremists took over the airwaves, calling on all Hutus to kill all Tutsis. Machetes were delivered. Overnight, neighbors turned on neighbors, teachers turned on students. Not a single Burundian, Hutu or Tutsi, has been left untouched in this ongoing civil war. Close to 300,000 people have been killed, and 600,000 displaced. In 1999, Nelson Mandela joined the faltering peace talks. A year later, the Arusha accords were signed by Hutu and Tutsi political leaders. But ‘la crise,’ as it is known in Burundi, continues. Extremist rebel groups remain outside the accords. Attacks, robbery, and rape are the daily realities of living here.
graphic title card:
IBIGANIRA
Communication
lower third:
Displaced Persons Camp
Buterere
Spes Manirakiza: (interview) "My vision is still to find a solution to this crisis through different programs, we are giving women a voice to promote peace and reconciliation in Burundi."
(Spes and Susan meet upon Susan’s arrival)
Susan Collin Marks: "Spes."
Spes Manirakiza: "Hi, Susan. Thank you for coming."
Susan Collin Marks: "Did you get my e-mails? Because they kept bouncing back."
Spes Manirakiza: "We have...we've got a lot of problems with our server, you know."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "In 1994, in the wake of the Rwanda genocide, we sat at Search for Common Ground in Washington in a state of shock and horror. And we said, 'what’s the international community doing about this to heal this?' There didn’t seem to be any real action and there was a sense of helplessness. And so John Marks and I came to see if there was anything that we could do. We found that there was a lot that we could do, that we were welcomed here."
(music; radio clips)
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "One of the reasons for starting Studio Ijambo was to counter hate radio. Hate radio had been one of the tools of the ‘genocidere’ in Rwanda and had spurred people on to do the killing. Radio has been for so long, and continues to be, the main connector. You’ll see people in remote areas gathering around a radio to listen. So the radio has been the source of information. We have Hutu and Tutsi journalists working together to make the news, features, soap opera, to provide just professional journalism."
Jeannine (on air) "You’re listening to Radio Isanganiro. You can call us at
Nahigombeye: 24-66-01."
Jeannine: (interview) "My name is Jeannine Nahigombeye. For three months, I have been the director of this radio station. By giving information in a country at war, like Burundi, we truly discourage rumors . Because if there were only one station that just reported what the government wanted you to hear, there would be no way to verify what you heard in the streets."
(Annick communicates with her station from the field)
Annick: "Yeah, we have a signal now. Okay."
Jeannine: "Annick, can you hear us?"
Annick: "Can you hear me, Jeannine?"
Jeannine: "Yes. What is the situation in Ruyaga now?"
Annick: "Jeannine, we are in the Kanyosha Commune, Ruyaga zone. We are with many young people in a very heavy rain. I will ask the first one here to tell us how youth can help to bring back peace."
Youth: "I ask these politicians not to play games with those of us who have not been to school. I am strong enough to cultivate the land, but I have no place to do it. I ask others who have not been to school to not blindly follow what the politicians tell them. Politicians are guided by their own interests, and their children are in school in Europe."
Annick: "Let’s stop because the rain is too much."
(French rap music; truck drives through the streets of Bujumbura; Jeannine enters a building in the city)
Jeannine: (interview) "I know that from time to time we talk about very sensitive topics on the radio, so there have been moments when I’ve been afraid. When I’ve turned around to see if someone was following me, or if a car pulled up beside mine. And I’ve thought, ‘Okay, it’s my turn.’"
(radio)
lower third:
Daily UN Security Report
(a man completes the form)
title cards:
Rebel activity in the hills meant that
Susan and Spes had to take a UN
plane to their northern Ngozi office.
They were attending a
Positive Solidarity Day for
Hutu and Tutsi women.
Burundian Women: (singing, clapping) "Let’s greet our guests. You are beautiful. We greet you and your loved ones. Let us welcome you."
Fides: "My name is Fides. In 1993, I was also a victim of the tragedy. When the killers were looking for me, I went to ask a man for help, a neighbor. He told me, ‘I can’t.’ I then went to another neighbor, a woman. Her husband was standing nearby, and was carrying weapons. I told this woman, 'Please hide me.' And the woman told me, ‘I can’t, but let me ask my husband.’ She went to ask her husband. The husband simply left. The woman opened the door and locked me inside. Then the killers came to look for me because they knew where I was hiding. She refused to open the door. The attackers broke in. When they finished hacking me with a machete, my rescuer saw that I was not dead. She covered me with banana leaves, and pieces of cloth. When I regained consciousness, I was wearing that cloth. They nursed me, they fed me, they helped me. Later, security officers arrived and were told that I was still alive and needed a doctor. As you can see, it is time for women to convince their husbands to do what is right."
Susan: (interview) "The pain of being in a violent conflict is so great that it shuts people down from their own humanity, let alone anybody else’s. The telling of the story connects us each with what happened. It brings it out, and it allows for healing to take place. This was one of the very strong features of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
Fides: (cont.) "Now I have forgiven those who attacked me. It’s a good thing to forgive, for the sake of peace. If we don’t overcome the obstacles, then we will never achieve peace. Thank you."
(music; Jeannine in her home)
Jeannine: (interview) "I hope that the war will end and that there will be other things to report about besides gunfire. This isn’t really a good environment for a child. But maybe I can have a part in the education of my child and teach them that it’s not someone’s ethnicity that matters but what is deep in their hearts."
Burunidian Women: (dancing, singing) "Women of Burundi, we are looking for peace! We are sure that peace will return!"
title cards over footage:
Fifty million refugees have been
displaced by global conflict.
Close to 80 percent
are women and children.
Susan: (interview) "I once asked somebody, 'What do the people you know say about peace, how do they see peace?’ And without missing a beat, he said, 'When we’ve killed all the others.’ When people kill, something happens inside of them. It’s a line that is crossed. And, generally speaking, because in war men do most of the killing, men have crossed that line. So women can be peacemakers, women can be the weavers back of that society.
Jean Shinoda Bolen: (interview) I don’t see us as on different teams, the women over there and the women over here. Somehow the male aggressive principles seem to see the world in terms of teams in which we have to go win.
Azizah al-Hibri: (interview) In the hierarchical sense, you could achieve mechanical peace by having one view suppress the other, and you’re done. But now the other side has lost its voice, and it’s going to wait for the moment when it can regain its voice, and you’ve only created violence for later. The real solution is: how can we hear all the voices and then make them harmonious in a song, rather than the shouts of war.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
lower third:
Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
(woman plays classical piano in her home)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "We just didn’t think we would have war here in Bosnia. There were so many nationalities. We always lived together without any problems. There was Olympic Games in ’84 and Sarajevo was really, really - was very prepared for the games. And you know, we were in Europe and we really didn’t think that what would happen, would happen to us."
Farida Musanovic: (exterior) "You see, especially the hill between those two peaks of minarets. They were shooting from that hill day and night. And we could see those shells going into town, towards us, sometimes towards us, sometimes towards the other part of the town. You never know when you would be shot."
(music)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "I was surprised for all the cruelty that was shown during that war. And I think about why they are doing it, why they are doing it. Just because we have different names, because we have different faiths?"
(view of town, mosque)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) I am a Muslim. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslim faith came from Turks because they were here for about 5 centuries. But we are just European people.
(shots of Sarajevo, current and during wartime)
narration by Jessica Lange:
Sarajevo’s most visible scars are the gravestones that cover the landscape. Even parks and playing fields are now cemeteries. Yet Sarajevo was once called the Jerusalem of Europe. For hundreds of years Muslim Slavs, Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats coexisted in the Bosnian capital. But underlying ethnic tensions erupted in 1992. Serb nationalists, led by Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic, began a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Motels became rape camps, entire villages were destroyed. For more than 3 years Sarajevo was under siege, its residents cut off from the outside world. War crimes were committed by both sides, but overwhelmingly it was Muslim civilians who were murdered by sniper fire, landmines, and in concentration camps. More than 200,000 Bosnians were killed, another 2 million were displaced. Serb forces pounded 6 centuries of coexistence into rubble.
In August 1995 NATO issued an ultimatum to the Serb nationalists: withdraw, or they would bomb. Two weeks later, the Serbs agreed to NATO’s conditions. The war was over. The Dayton Peace Accord divided Bosnia-Herzegovina into 2 states: Republic Srpska, controlled by Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, run by an alliance of Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. Almost a decade later, peace is kept by a NATO-led stabilization force. Nearly half the workforce is unemployed, and the government is ensnared in bureaucracy. A million landmines remain buried.
graphic title card:
RAVNOPRAVNOST
equity
(Farida rides in back of car through Sarajevo)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "Women for Women is an organization that was established in Washington in 1993 because of the war. Its director, Zainab Salbi, wanted to help refugees. She asked me to help her, so I was the first field representative of the Women for Women organization. She started to send money for those refugees and letters of support."
Farida Musanovic: (exterior) "Here I have the first list in September ‘94 with 17 women. The end of ’96 we had about 600 women who were getting that support. Now it’s Women for Women International. The organization works in many counties, especially in those countries - in post-war countries."
(office bustle)
Woman on phone: "Women for Women. May I help you?"
Seida Saric: (interview) "As Director of Women for Women International, I’m involved in our big project, which is micro-credit. We are providing financial support to women, providing for them loans which help them to start or to develop their different income-generating projects. And transferring them into businesses, real businesses. To have peace, means that you have food, it means that you have education, it means that you have what you need. Micro-credit helps our women to have that."
(music; women at work)
Seida Saric: (interview) "Micro-credit is helping woman, that she is occupied by something, that she’s helping her family, that she earns money, that she is sending her daughter to school. And it is whole cycle."
(drive through country)
title cards:
There are 2500 women
in Bosnia's micro-credit program.
Over 7000 loans, totaling
$1.5 million, have been distributed.
Seida Saric: (riding in car) "This is one of our client’s new house. And in the future it will be a restaurant, or café. It is not open yet, and for the time being we are using that as our Center."
(women talking in the center)
WFW Rep. 1: "800. 810. 815. Right?"
Woman 1: "Yes. Thank you very much."
WFW Rep. 1: "Is anyone interested in a loan? Seida will talk about that later."
Seida Saric: "I noticed that somebody has chickens here."
Woman 2: "At the moment I have 200. I need to get 200 more. And everything I produce, I sell here. I sell everything here. I have two stores. I have Tima, I have my neighbors, I sell everything here."
Woman 3: "Ten days ago I needed to make 100 gloves for a company. Dijana and Tima helped me. I was drawing, they were cutting. We turned them right side out. We help each other."
Seida Saric: "So you made good money."
Woman 3: "I haven’t been paid yet. When I get paid, I’ll treat them." (laughs)
(music; drive through the country; Zainaba tends to her farm animals; Seida and her coworker talk with her)
Seida Saric: "Zainaba, did you have a cow before our loan?"
Zainaba: "No."
Seida Saric: "What about before the war?"
Zainaba: "No, I never had any. I worked for a company."
(the women talk, Seida interprets)
Seida Saric: "Never, ever did she have a cow before. Before the war she was working. Where did you work?
Zainaba: "At Ukras in Bratunac."
Seida Saric: "In her hometown, which is Bratunac, she used to work in a ceramic factory.
Zainaba: "Tell them I lived in the city, and now I live in the country."
Seida Saric: "How much milk does she produce?"
Zainaba: "About 30 liters per day. Now that she has a calf, she’s feeding it, but the rest I sell."
Seida Saric: "How much is this cow worth now? How much would you sell it for?"
Zainaba: "I wouldn’t. There’s no way."
Seida Saric: "She says, she says that there is no way that she would sell this cow, because I asked her how much would you sell this...she said that there is no price which can pay, you know, the value of this cow."
Zainaba: "If I don’t have time to take care of the sheep, my husband helps. Or sometimes the children do. But they’re going to school, and I don’t want them to work. The war broke us, and now I don’t worry about what happens to my husband and me. I only want my children to be well. I’m happy that I finally have a house. Now I am settled. And that’s it."
Seida Saric: (interview) "Micro-credit is helping woman, that she is deciding that she, as a member of her village, can do in that village more than she did before. Because being in a position – maybe for the first time in her life – that she has money, that she has, like, public responsibility, really gives her power."
Orchestra plays
lower third: ODE TO SARAJEVO, Phillipe Chamourd
title cards over footage:
There are 7000 micro-credit
institutions in the world.
Over 90 percent of the
25 million borrowers are women.
Azizah al-Hibri: (interview) "You cannot have deep democracy without active participation by the people. People make deep democracy. Not the government, not the laws. You need the people to practice the deep democracy and fend for it."
Isabel Allende: (interview) "I have seen in Chile, when we had the dictatorship in Chile, women getting out there in the streets, protesting. And being beaten up by the police, sitting in front of the places where their children, or their husbands, or their fathers, were tortured, and protesting. And they had to pick them up and pull them out, because they would sit there. And then, when we finally had democracy, the women stepped back and the men took over."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "When people grasp their power, then the movements of the bottom-up, become clearly a seminal and deep part of how any society is going to go forward. I don’t believe that the bottom-up should be ruling the society, just as I don’t believe that the top-down should be. What we need to do is to bring the two together, into a national voice."
ARGENTINA
lower third:
Buenos Aires, Argentina
(Tango music; images of election posters)
Elisa Carrio: (interview) "Argentina is a difficulty country. It is a country with an enormous amount of natural resources. It is a country that has had a huge middle class, and excellent public schools, a great culture. But is has also fallen because of the tremendous fiction of trying to be something more than it was. The country has paid a high price for these fictions, for the fiction that one peso equals one dollar, for the fiction of thinking that we were more than we were. It is an Argentina that I love profoundly, but even more so, I love her in the same way she causes me pain. Because it’s as if for one night of partying, generations will pay with hunger.
narration by Jessica Lange:
Not since the end of the military dictatorship in 1983 have Argentines suffered as they have since 2001. The once-thriving South American economy collapsed after a decade of free market reforms and a mounting debt to the International Monetary Fund. The peso lost 70 percent of its value. Furious at government handling of the crisis, Argentines began to withdraw their savings in droves. The government responded by limiting how much they could withdraw. Argentines, many now unemployed, took to the streets. More than 1 million people protested as the economy hit rock bottom. The debt to the IMF had reached 141 billion dollars. The protest escalated into riots. Fire hoses and rubber bullets turned quickly into tanks and tear gas. At least 25 people were killed in the mayhem. President Fernando de la Rua fled the presidential palace. Three presidents were in and out of office over the next 2 weeks.
Two years later, the economy is showing slow signs of recovery, but half of all Argentines still live below the poverty line. At night, the streets are filled with tens of thousands of trash pickers, the ‘cartoneros,’ who earn a meager living by recycling cardboard. Argentines call them "the night shift."
graphic title card:
LA DEMOCRACIA
Democracy
(presidential election rally)
title cards over images:
In April 2003, Argentina held its
first election since the crisis.
Congresswoman Elisa Carrio was a
candidate in the race for president.
Elisa Carrio: "Some believe that to be the president of a country one needs a machine. In reality, to be the president of a country you need to have high morals. (applause)
And that’s why those in the street know we are winning. Those who are with the people know we are winning. Even if there are some who are embarrassed to vote for a fat woman. (applause
We are the only party that was not financed by any large Argentinian corporation. But we are also the only party that will not have to pay off anyone this Sunday."
Crowd: (chanting) "I will give you a couple of things. I will give you one thing. One thing that starts with 'C.' Carrio!"
Elisa Carrio: (interview) "Argentina has become a country where lies are the norm, and people are surprised when someone tells the truth. It’s become a country where everyone steals, and people are shocked by honesty, especially in the government. Therefore the moral obligation is to build peace by not lying, by not stealing, by not voting against the poor. These are the three most important objectives for a civilization. Judeo-Christian civilization, as well as any other civilization. For us, peace is a militant fight for truth and justice."
(protestors banging and chanting.)
Protestor 1: "I’ve been protesting for a year and four months because I lost my life savings in the Rio Bank. Look, the results of the election are always the same. We demand that everybody leave, but the same ones still come back."
(Menem rally.)
title cards over images:
Carlos Menem was Argentina’s
president from 1989 to 1999.
He led the polls a week
before the election.
Carlos Menem: "Many ask me why I’m back. I am back to rebuild the Republic of Argentina."
title card over shot of TV studio:
Carrio’s last official day
of campaigning.
Elisa Carrio: "I can’t live in an Argentina that lies. How can we explain to our children next week that he who took everything from our country, who stole from our country, is president! How do you explain that?"
Luisa Valmaggia: "I can see that this is making you very emotional."
Elisa Carrio: "The lies make me indignant. Profoundly indignant. The lies in the media, the lies of the political scientists. These cynical lies that they tell the people sicken me."
(Elisa at airport)
title cards over images:
Resistencia, Chaco
Elisa Carrio’s home town
April 27, 2003 – Election Day
(Elisa greets supporters)
TV Reporter: "How do you feel about voting here?"
Elisa: "Very happy. I went to this school, and my great-grandmother founded it. This is my town."
Crowd: "Lilita! Lilita! Bye, Lilita! Go! Good luck! Let’s go, Lilita!"
Matthias: "It’s 11:10 in the morning. In 10 hours, maybe we’ll be celebrating."
(music. voting montage)
Reporter (male): "Here they’re saying that Menem won the whole country. The whole country! Unbelievable! God help us all."
(Election Day press conference)
Elisa Carrio: "Good evening. I wanted to hold this conference before having all the official results, more than anything to communicate to all those who voted for us and supported us that we’ve had an extraordinary campaign throughout the country. And the truth is that with 400,000 pesos, and without commercials or other affiliations, we have shown that we can change politics. I thank the men, but I especially thank the women of this country for sticking behind a woman in this campaign."
Reporter: "Carrio, over here for a minute. Are you surprised by the good results for Menem?"
Elisa Carrio: "No, no. He was strongly supported by those in power. Now, if you ask me how we did against the power that be, I’d say we did wonderfully."
title cards over image of Carrio with arms raised:
Elisa Carrio finished fourth
out of eleven candidates.
She plans to run again in 2007.
title cards over images of protest:
Thousands protested
on election night.
Protestors: (chant) "To all the corrupt ones who stole from our nation…to all the corrupt ones – give back our nation."
title cards over images of protest:
Carlos Menem withdrew from a
run-off election when it became
obvious he would lose.
Nestor Kirchner became president
on May 25, 2003.
Women speaking to camera:
Burundian: "My wish is for all women to have one heart in order to support peace."
Bosnian: "I want to say to all the women of the world to fight for a better tomorrow.
Argentine: "I think anything in the world is possible, because women are leading the fight for change."
Isabel Allende: If we can share our stories, we can get to know each other, and we can erase all boundaries.
Jeannine: "If one lives in a peaceful country, one should do everything to keep this peace."
Fatima Gailani: "Let’s be part of each others’ lives. Then we could help each other."
Spes: "The life is a gift. Take care of it. Thank you."
** END OF PROGRAM SCR
On October 24, 2000,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
introduced UN Resolution 1325
on Women, Peace and Security.
voice-over of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s speech over treated visuals:
The nature of conflict has changed a great deal, in the decades since our Charter was written. The age of interstate wars has been replaced by the age of ethnic conflict. Militias have multiplied, and small arms have proliferated. International law has been flouted. Civilians do not only make up majority of victims, they are increasingly the targets of conflict.
From rape and displacement, to the denial of the right to food and healthcare, women bear more than their fair share of the suffering. But women, who know the price of conflict so well, are also often better equipped than men to prevent or resolve it. For generations women have served as peace educators, both in their families and in their societies. They have proved instrumental in building bridges rather than walls. They have been crucial in preserving social orders when communities have collapsed.
Noeleen Heyzer:(interview) "When you look at the First World War, only 15 percent of the casualties were civilians. After the Second World War, it was 65 percent. But in today’s world, it is 80 to 90 percent of casualties are civilians, and of that, the majority are women and girls."
Isabel Allende:(interview) "We need to find new forms of solving conflict. We cannot go into another war, because now we have the resources to destroy each other completely and destroy the planet."
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri:(interview) "Now we’ve come to understand that not only no man is an island, but no country is an island. And that unless we look globally for peace, we cannot find peace at home."
title cards, black text over white:
For one year, we followed
women peacebuilders from
Afghanistan, Burundi,
Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Argentina.
This is how they are
redefining peace.
title card, over aerial view from airplane window:
PEACE by PEACE
Women on the Frontlines
AFGHANISTAN
(Fatima Gailani flies to Kabul)
Fatima Gailani: (interview) “Most of the time I never doubted that I will not be back, I knew that I’d be back. But it was at the end of Taliban's era that I thought maybe I will never see my country. And I hated that feeling. I always wanted to have hope. And here I am, back where I was born.
My name is Fatima Gailani. I am from Afghanistan.”
lower third:
Kabul, Afghanistan
(music; scenes of the city)
Fatima Gailani: (interview) "I was born and brought up in a country where women, in the constitution, under an Islamic law, under an Islamic constitution, they were equal. We had equal rights in education and work and political participation, and I could see it was getting better and better. Then I went for my further studies to Tehran in Iran. I was still a student in Tehran when I heard on the radio that there was a communist coup in the country. We were lucky that some of us were already out and then my father decided that we have to get out immediately. So, thank God, we are safe. And most of us spent of the whole of the 24 years working for the country."
narration by Jessica Lange:
A quarter century of war has devastated Afghanistan. Its strategic position between Central Asia and the Middle East has turned it into a battleground of competing ideologies. In 1979 Afghanistan was on the brink of democracy when the Soviet Union seized power in a communist coup. For the next 11 years, war between Russia and the US-supported Afghan guerillas would bleed the nation dry.
When the Soviets withdrew, Afghanistan’s internal wars continued as warlords and ethnic groups fought for dominance. By 1996 Islamic extremists, the Taliban, were in control. Women were denied education and faced public execution for breaking Taliban law. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the U.S demanded the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, head of Al Queda. When they refused, the US launched air strikes. A month later, coalition forces controlled Kabul and most of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, appointed interim Head of State, was charged with drafting a new constitution.
More than 18 months later, violence and intimidation again threaten women. Girls’ schools have been attacked, and children harassed on their way to class. Outside of Kabul, where there are fewer peacekeepers, women are routinely beaten and raped. The human rights situation seems to be getting worse.
graphic title card:
TA’LEEM
Education
Fatima Gailani: "I’m going to meet a circle of women whom I’ve been looking forward to meet for quite a long time."
(to group) "What can Afghan women do to bring peace?"
Woman 1: "We want all women to get a proper education, so they can stand on their own and do something."
Woman 2: "Education means a better life. It will prevent terrorism and prevent people from being misled. The terrorists behind the September 11th attacks were used because they were poor and not educated properly."
Fatima Gailani: "Until about ten months ago, we couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go to work, we couldn’t even raise our voice.
Woman 3: "For now, more than 50 percent of our problems are solved.”
Fatima Gailani: "Imagine how hurtful it was during the Talibanist era that we couldn’t even be educated; women could not be educated. Those who didn’t have any means to help themselves, they lost a lot.
(a girls’ classroom)
Students: (repeating teacher’s prompts aloud in unison) "Zakira is a good girl."
"Zakira helps her mother."
Naheed Sharfi: "What is this word?"
Students: "Girl."
Naheed Sharfi: (interview) "My name is Naheed. Naheed Sharfi. I teach about ten classes. There are 300 students who attend these courses. The young girls are from seven to ten years old, and there are some older girls as well who are learning how to read and write."
Naheed Sharfi: (to students) "Ahmed went to the bazaar.
Always remember to put a period at the end of a sentence."
title card:
Girls now make up 32 percent
of the 3.5 million children
attending school in Afghanistan.
Mary MacMakin: (interview) "I have a little NGO here in Kabul, Afghanistan, dedicated to helping women earn a living for themselves and their families. We started back in ’97 with our first home school, in which we found a woman teacher who would gather the kids in her neighborhood and form them into a class and teach them. All during this time the Taliban had put a special, heavy emphasis on locating home schools, and they were following our supervisor, Naheed. She was very, very brave. She continued on with her work even though the Taliban were following her. So that’s how she got started, and she's just – flowered, blossomed in this job. She does a wonderful job.
The fact that all these tradition-based families have allowed their girls to go to these schools is a big step forward. And that’s why we don’t want to endanger it, we don’t want to take any chances that the men will totally (swats fly) stop the whole process."
(group of young girls)
Interviewer: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Girl 1: "I want to be a doctor."
Girl 2: "Teacher."
Girl 3: "Minister of Defense."
(Fatima Gailani enters a house; greetings)
Naheed Sharfi: "Hello. How are you? I am Naheed."
Fatima Gailani: "How are you? I am Fatima."
Naheed Sharfi: "It’s very nice to meet you. I have always heard about you and the things you are doing for Afghan women. I am a fan of yours. I always hoped that the women working for us outside the country would come back to Afghanistan and work for us here."
Fatima Gailani: "I have been here since February."
Naheed Sharfi: "After the Taliban?"
Fatima Gailani: "Yes, after the Taliban. I couldn’t have come earlier because they would have killed me."
Naheed Sharfi: "Oh, God forbid.
Here, please have a seat.
What are you doing now?"
Fatima Gailani: "I am trying to educate the world about Afghan women. I want people to realize that the doors are open, but that Afghan women still need help."
Naheed Sharfi: "I know, it takes time."
(music; scenes of construction, signs, traffic; Fatima rides in a car)
title card:
Fatima is one of 35 people
appointed by Hamid Karzai to draft
Afghanistan’s new constitution.
Fatima Gailani: (en route) "This is the first meeting, in Kabul. This is, I think, the most important place to start because these people know exactly what a constitution is, what impact it will have on the lives of the people of Afghanistan, and what changes they want to see. And it’s an exciting day and I think it’s a great honor.
lower third:
Meeting of Afghan scholars, Kabul University - June 2003
(Muslim prayer leader finishes prayer at meeting)
Fatima Gailani: (in meeting) "No constitution, anywhere in the world, has involved as many people as we have here today. Think of the constitution as a blank book. Nothing has been written. Addressing women’s rights is important because half of society is women. We should consider all the pain and sorrow that women have gone through for so long. The two honorable professors here have said that Islam was the first religion to give women rights. That’s also why we should consider women’s rights in the constitution. Today, I am asking that we make something from our hearts, and from our minds, that will address all the shortcomings of our past."
Fatima Gailani: (interview) "Education will come when we have a true democracy in Afghanistan. It is up to us, women, how serious we take this, that we – regardless of our background – should live and respect each other and get from that country equally, and give to that country equally."
(music)
title cards:
200 million girls worldwide
have no access to education.
Almost two-thirds of
illiterate adults are women.
Isabel Allende: (interview) "We need a critical number of educated women participating in government, in power, in decision making, so that the paradigma will change."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "Women make up 50 percent of the population. In war-torn societies, they make up more. And yet they’re excluded from peace tables. One of the absolutely basic platforms that has to be established in the world today is that women are at the negotiation table, women are involved in the peace accords - the creation of them, and women are involved in the implementation of those peace accords."
Noeleen Heyzer: (interview) "Women stay longer at a peace table. They know that no matter which side wins, they are going to lose. And therefore they need peace in order to get on with every day life."
BURUNDI
lower third:
Bujumbura, Burundi
(music; woman entering workplace)
Spes Manirakiza: (interview) "My name is Spes Manirakiza. I am married, I am the mother of three children, I’m a journalist by profession, and I work at the Women’s Peace Center as the Director. In our country, people are separated by ‘la crise.' At one time, people said that the life expectancy of a Burundian was 24 hours. Killing a person was like killing a chicken." (images of the violence)
narration by Jessica Lange:
Like its northern neighbor Rwanda, Burundi was devastated by a genocide that made headlines around the world. Ethnic tensions between Hutus and Tutsis turned to war in October 1993. Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically-elected president, a Hutu. A year later, the plane carrying the new president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down by Hutu extremists. He was killed alongside the President of Rwanda. The Hutu-Tutsi violence exploded.
Voice from radio: "The vampires of Bikomagu can only attack pregnant women, children, and old people."
narration by Jessica Lange continues:
Hutu extremists took over the airwaves, calling on all Hutus to kill all Tutsis. Machetes were delivered. Overnight, neighbors turned on neighbors, teachers turned on students. Not a single Burundian, Hutu or Tutsi, has been left untouched in this ongoing civil war. Close to 300,000 people have been killed, and 600,000 displaced. In 1999, Nelson Mandela joined the faltering peace talks. A year later, the Arusha accords were signed by Hutu and Tutsi political leaders. But ‘la crise,’ as it is known in Burundi, continues. Extremist rebel groups remain outside the accords. Attacks, robbery, and rape are the daily realities of living here.
graphic title card:
IBIGANIRA
Communication
lower third:
Displaced Persons Camp
Buterere
Spes Manirakiza: (interview) "My vision is still to find a solution to this crisis through different programs, we are giving women a voice to promote peace and reconciliation in Burundi."
(Spes and Susan meet upon Susan’s arrival)
Susan Collin Marks: "Spes."
Spes Manirakiza: "Hi, Susan. Thank you for coming."
Susan Collin Marks: "Did you get my e-mails? Because they kept bouncing back."
Spes Manirakiza: "We have...we've got a lot of problems with our server, you know."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "In 1994, in the wake of the Rwanda genocide, we sat at Search for Common Ground in Washington in a state of shock and horror. And we said, 'what’s the international community doing about this to heal this?' There didn’t seem to be any real action and there was a sense of helplessness. And so John Marks and I came to see if there was anything that we could do. We found that there was a lot that we could do, that we were welcomed here."
(music; radio clips)
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "One of the reasons for starting Studio Ijambo was to counter hate radio. Hate radio had been one of the tools of the ‘genocidere’ in Rwanda and had spurred people on to do the killing. Radio has been for so long, and continues to be, the main connector. You’ll see people in remote areas gathering around a radio to listen. So the radio has been the source of information. We have Hutu and Tutsi journalists working together to make the news, features, soap opera, to provide just professional journalism."
Jeannine (on air) "You’re listening to Radio Isanganiro. You can call us at
Nahigombeye: 24-66-01."
Jeannine: (interview) "My name is Jeannine Nahigombeye. For three months, I have been the director of this radio station. By giving information in a country at war, like Burundi, we truly discourage rumors . Because if there were only one station that just reported what the government wanted you to hear, there would be no way to verify what you heard in the streets."
(Annick communicates with her station from the field)
Annick: "Yeah, we have a signal now. Okay."
Jeannine: "Annick, can you hear us?"
Annick: "Can you hear me, Jeannine?"
Jeannine: "Yes. What is the situation in Ruyaga now?"
Annick: "Jeannine, we are in the Kanyosha Commune, Ruyaga zone. We are with many young people in a very heavy rain. I will ask the first one here to tell us how youth can help to bring back peace."
Youth: "I ask these politicians not to play games with those of us who have not been to school. I am strong enough to cultivate the land, but I have no place to do it. I ask others who have not been to school to not blindly follow what the politicians tell them. Politicians are guided by their own interests, and their children are in school in Europe."
Annick: "Let’s stop because the rain is too much."
(French rap music; truck drives through the streets of Bujumbura; Jeannine enters a building in the city)
Jeannine: (interview) "I know that from time to time we talk about very sensitive topics on the radio, so there have been moments when I’ve been afraid. When I’ve turned around to see if someone was following me, or if a car pulled up beside mine. And I’ve thought, ‘Okay, it’s my turn.’"
(radio)
lower third:
Daily UN Security Report
(a man completes the form)
title cards:
Rebel activity in the hills meant that
Susan and Spes had to take a UN
plane to their northern Ngozi office.
They were attending a
Positive Solidarity Day for
Hutu and Tutsi women.
Burundian Women: (singing, clapping) "Let’s greet our guests. You are beautiful. We greet you and your loved ones. Let us welcome you."
Fides: "My name is Fides. In 1993, I was also a victim of the tragedy. When the killers were looking for me, I went to ask a man for help, a neighbor. He told me, ‘I can’t.’ I then went to another neighbor, a woman. Her husband was standing nearby, and was carrying weapons. I told this woman, 'Please hide me.' And the woman told me, ‘I can’t, but let me ask my husband.’ She went to ask her husband. The husband simply left. The woman opened the door and locked me inside. Then the killers came to look for me because they knew where I was hiding. She refused to open the door. The attackers broke in. When they finished hacking me with a machete, my rescuer saw that I was not dead. She covered me with banana leaves, and pieces of cloth. When I regained consciousness, I was wearing that cloth. They nursed me, they fed me, they helped me. Later, security officers arrived and were told that I was still alive and needed a doctor. As you can see, it is time for women to convince their husbands to do what is right."
Susan: (interview) "The pain of being in a violent conflict is so great that it shuts people down from their own humanity, let alone anybody else’s. The telling of the story connects us each with what happened. It brings it out, and it allows for healing to take place. This was one of the very strong features of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
Fides: (cont.) "Now I have forgiven those who attacked me. It’s a good thing to forgive, for the sake of peace. If we don’t overcome the obstacles, then we will never achieve peace. Thank you."
(music; Jeannine in her home)
Jeannine: (interview) "I hope that the war will end and that there will be other things to report about besides gunfire. This isn’t really a good environment for a child. But maybe I can have a part in the education of my child and teach them that it’s not someone’s ethnicity that matters but what is deep in their hearts."
Burunidian Women: (dancing, singing) "Women of Burundi, we are looking for peace! We are sure that peace will return!"
title cards over footage:
Fifty million refugees have been
displaced by global conflict.
Close to 80 percent
are women and children.
Susan: (interview) "I once asked somebody, 'What do the people you know say about peace, how do they see peace?’ And without missing a beat, he said, 'When we’ve killed all the others.’ When people kill, something happens inside of them. It’s a line that is crossed. And, generally speaking, because in war men do most of the killing, men have crossed that line. So women can be peacemakers, women can be the weavers back of that society.
Jean Shinoda Bolen: (interview) I don’t see us as on different teams, the women over there and the women over here. Somehow the male aggressive principles seem to see the world in terms of teams in which we have to go win.
Azizah al-Hibri: (interview) In the hierarchical sense, you could achieve mechanical peace by having one view suppress the other, and you’re done. But now the other side has lost its voice, and it’s going to wait for the moment when it can regain its voice, and you’ve only created violence for later. The real solution is: how can we hear all the voices and then make them harmonious in a song, rather than the shouts of war.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
lower third:
Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
(woman plays classical piano in her home)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "We just didn’t think we would have war here in Bosnia. There were so many nationalities. We always lived together without any problems. There was Olympic Games in ’84 and Sarajevo was really, really - was very prepared for the games. And you know, we were in Europe and we really didn’t think that what would happen, would happen to us."
Farida Musanovic: (exterior) "You see, especially the hill between those two peaks of minarets. They were shooting from that hill day and night. And we could see those shells going into town, towards us, sometimes towards us, sometimes towards the other part of the town. You never know when you would be shot."
(music)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "I was surprised for all the cruelty that was shown during that war. And I think about why they are doing it, why they are doing it. Just because we have different names, because we have different faiths?"
(view of town, mosque)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) I am a Muslim. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslim faith came from Turks because they were here for about 5 centuries. But we are just European people.
(shots of Sarajevo, current and during wartime)
narration by Jessica Lange:
Sarajevo’s most visible scars are the gravestones that cover the landscape. Even parks and playing fields are now cemeteries. Yet Sarajevo was once called the Jerusalem of Europe. For hundreds of years Muslim Slavs, Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats coexisted in the Bosnian capital. But underlying ethnic tensions erupted in 1992. Serb nationalists, led by Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic, began a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Motels became rape camps, entire villages were destroyed. For more than 3 years Sarajevo was under siege, its residents cut off from the outside world. War crimes were committed by both sides, but overwhelmingly it was Muslim civilians who were murdered by sniper fire, landmines, and in concentration camps. More than 200,000 Bosnians were killed, another 2 million were displaced. Serb forces pounded 6 centuries of coexistence into rubble.
In August 1995 NATO issued an ultimatum to the Serb nationalists: withdraw, or they would bomb. Two weeks later, the Serbs agreed to NATO’s conditions. The war was over. The Dayton Peace Accord divided Bosnia-Herzegovina into 2 states: Republic Srpska, controlled by Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, run by an alliance of Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. Almost a decade later, peace is kept by a NATO-led stabilization force. Nearly half the workforce is unemployed, and the government is ensnared in bureaucracy. A million landmines remain buried.
graphic title card:
RAVNOPRAVNOST
equity
(Farida rides in back of car through Sarajevo)
Farida Musanovic: (interview) "Women for Women is an organization that was established in Washington in 1993 because of the war. Its director, Zainab Salbi, wanted to help refugees. She asked me to help her, so I was the first field representative of the Women for Women organization. She started to send money for those refugees and letters of support."
Farida Musanovic: (exterior) "Here I have the first list in September ‘94 with 17 women. The end of ’96 we had about 600 women who were getting that support. Now it’s Women for Women International. The organization works in many counties, especially in those countries - in post-war countries."
(office bustle)
Woman on phone: "Women for Women. May I help you?"
Seida Saric: (interview) "As Director of Women for Women International, I’m involved in our big project, which is micro-credit. We are providing financial support to women, providing for them loans which help them to start or to develop their different income-generating projects. And transferring them into businesses, real businesses. To have peace, means that you have food, it means that you have education, it means that you have what you need. Micro-credit helps our women to have that."
(music; women at work)
Seida Saric: (interview) "Micro-credit is helping woman, that she is occupied by something, that she’s helping her family, that she earns money, that she is sending her daughter to school. And it is whole cycle."
(drive through country)
title cards:
There are 2500 women
in Bosnia's micro-credit program.
Over 7000 loans, totaling
$1.5 million, have been distributed.
Seida Saric: (riding in car) "This is one of our client’s new house. And in the future it will be a restaurant, or café. It is not open yet, and for the time being we are using that as our Center."
(women talking in the center)
WFW Rep. 1: "800. 810. 815. Right?"
Woman 1: "Yes. Thank you very much."
WFW Rep. 1: "Is anyone interested in a loan? Seida will talk about that later."
Seida Saric: "I noticed that somebody has chickens here."
Woman 2: "At the moment I have 200. I need to get 200 more. And everything I produce, I sell here. I sell everything here. I have two stores. I have Tima, I have my neighbors, I sell everything here."
Woman 3: "Ten days ago I needed to make 100 gloves for a company. Dijana and Tima helped me. I was drawing, they were cutting. We turned them right side out. We help each other."
Seida Saric: "So you made good money."
Woman 3: "I haven’t been paid yet. When I get paid, I’ll treat them." (laughs)
(music; drive through the country; Zainaba tends to her farm animals; Seida and her coworker talk with her)
Seida Saric: "Zainaba, did you have a cow before our loan?"
Zainaba: "No."
Seida Saric: "What about before the war?"
Zainaba: "No, I never had any. I worked for a company."
(the women talk, Seida interprets)
Seida Saric: "Never, ever did she have a cow before. Before the war she was working. Where did you work?
Zainaba: "At Ukras in Bratunac."
Seida Saric: "In her hometown, which is Bratunac, she used to work in a ceramic factory.
Zainaba: "Tell them I lived in the city, and now I live in the country."
Seida Saric: "How much milk does she produce?"
Zainaba: "About 30 liters per day. Now that she has a calf, she’s feeding it, but the rest I sell."
Seida Saric: "How much is this cow worth now? How much would you sell it for?"
Zainaba: "I wouldn’t. There’s no way."
Seida Saric: "She says, she says that there is no way that she would sell this cow, because I asked her how much would you sell this...she said that there is no price which can pay, you know, the value of this cow."
Zainaba: "If I don’t have time to take care of the sheep, my husband helps. Or sometimes the children do. But they’re going to school, and I don’t want them to work. The war broke us, and now I don’t worry about what happens to my husband and me. I only want my children to be well. I’m happy that I finally have a house. Now I am settled. And that’s it."
Seida Saric: (interview) "Micro-credit is helping woman, that she is deciding that she, as a member of her village, can do in that village more than she did before. Because being in a position – maybe for the first time in her life – that she has money, that she has, like, public responsibility, really gives her power."
Orchestra plays
lower third: ODE TO SARAJEVO, Phillipe Chamourd
title cards over footage:
There are 7000 micro-credit
institutions in the world.
Over 90 percent of the
25 million borrowers are women.
Azizah al-Hibri: (interview) "You cannot have deep democracy without active participation by the people. People make deep democracy. Not the government, not the laws. You need the people to practice the deep democracy and fend for it."
Isabel Allende: (interview) "I have seen in Chile, when we had the dictatorship in Chile, women getting out there in the streets, protesting. And being beaten up by the police, sitting in front of the places where their children, or their husbands, or their fathers, were tortured, and protesting. And they had to pick them up and pull them out, because they would sit there. And then, when we finally had democracy, the women stepped back and the men took over."
Susan Collin Marks: (interview) "When people grasp their power, then the movements of the bottom-up, become clearly a seminal and deep part of how any society is going to go forward. I don’t believe that the bottom-up should be ruling the society, just as I don’t believe that the top-down should be. What we need to do is to bring the two together, into a national voice."
ARGENTINA
lower third:
Buenos Aires, Argentina
(Tango music; images of election posters)
Elisa Carrio: (interview) "Argentina is a difficulty country. It is a country with an enormous amount of natural resources. It is a country that has had a huge middle class, and excellent public schools, a great culture. But is has also fallen because of the tremendous fiction of trying to be something more than it was. The country has paid a high price for these fictions, for the fiction that one peso equals one dollar, for the fiction of thinking that we were more than we were. It is an Argentina that I love profoundly, but even more so, I love her in the same way she causes me pain. Because it’s as if for one night of partying, generations will pay with hunger.
narration by Jessica Lange:
Not since the end of the military dictatorship in 1983 have Argentines suffered as they have since 2001. The once-thriving South American economy collapsed after a decade of free market reforms and a mounting debt to the International Monetary Fund. The peso lost 70 percent of its value. Furious at government handling of the crisis, Argentines began to withdraw their savings in droves. The government responded by limiting how much they could withdraw. Argentines, many now unemployed, took to the streets. More than 1 million people protested as the economy hit rock bottom. The debt to the IMF had reached 141 billion dollars. The protest escalated into riots. Fire hoses and rubber bullets turned quickly into tanks and tear gas. At least 25 people were killed in the mayhem. President Fernando de la Rua fled the presidential palace. Three presidents were in and out of office over the next 2 weeks.
Two years later, the economy is showing slow signs of recovery, but half of all Argentines still live below the poverty line. At night, the streets are filled with tens of thousands of trash pickers, the ‘cartoneros,’ who earn a meager living by recycling cardboard. Argentines call them "the night shift."
graphic title card:
LA DEMOCRACIA
Democracy
(presidential election rally)
title cards over images:
In April 2003, Argentina held its
first election since the crisis.
Congresswoman Elisa Carrio was a
candidate in the race for president.
Elisa Carrio: "Some believe that to be the president of a country one needs a machine. In reality, to be the president of a country you need to have high morals. (applause)
And that’s why those in the street know we are winning. Those who are with the people know we are winning. Even if there are some who are embarrassed to vote for a fat woman. (applause
We are the only party that was not financed by any large Argentinian corporation. But we are also the only party that will not have to pay off anyone this Sunday."
Crowd: (chanting) "I will give you a couple of things. I will give you one thing. One thing that starts with 'C.' Carrio!"
Elisa Carrio: (interview) "Argentina has become a country where lies are the norm, and people are surprised when someone tells the truth. It’s become a country where everyone steals, and people are shocked by honesty, especially in the government. Therefore the moral obligation is to build peace by not lying, by not stealing, by not voting against the poor. These are the three most important objectives for a civilization. Judeo-Christian civilization, as well as any other civilization. For us, peace is a militant fight for truth and justice."
(protestors banging and chanting.)
Protestor 1: "I’ve been protesting for a year and four months because I lost my life savings in the Rio Bank. Look, the results of the election are always the same. We demand that everybody leave, but the same ones still come back."
(Menem rally.)
title cards over images:
Carlos Menem was Argentina’s
president from 1989 to 1999.
He led the polls a week
before the election.
Carlos Menem: "Many ask me why I’m back. I am back to rebuild the Republic of Argentina."
title card over shot of TV studio:
Carrio’s last official day
of campaigning.
Elisa Carrio: "I can’t live in an Argentina that lies. How can we explain to our children next week that he who took everything from our country, who stole from our country, is president! How do you explain that?"
Luisa Valmaggia: "I can see that this is making you very emotional."
Elisa Carrio: "The lies make me indignant. Profoundly indignant. The lies in the media, the lies of the political scientists. These cynical lies that they tell the people sicken me."
(Elisa at airport)
title cards over images:
Resistencia, Chaco
Elisa Carrio’s home town
April 27, 2003 – Election Day
(Elisa greets supporters)
TV Reporter: "How do you feel about voting here?"
Elisa: "Very happy. I went to this school, and my great-grandmother founded it. This is my town."
Crowd: "Lilita! Lilita! Bye, Lilita! Go! Good luck! Let’s go, Lilita!"
Matthias: "It’s 11:10 in the morning. In 10 hours, maybe we’ll be celebrating."
(music. voting montage)
Reporter (male): "Here they’re saying that Menem won the whole country. The whole country! Unbelievable! God help us all."
(Election Day press conference)
Elisa Carrio: "Good evening. I wanted to hold this conference before having all the official results, more than anything to communicate to all those who voted for us and supported us that we’ve had an extraordinary campaign throughout the country. And the truth is that with 400,000 pesos, and without commercials or other affiliations, we have shown that we can change politics. I thank the men, but I especially thank the women of this country for sticking behind a woman in this campaign."
Reporter: "Carrio, over here for a minute. Are you surprised by the good results for Menem?"
Elisa Carrio: "No, no. He was strongly supported by those in power. Now, if you ask me how we did against the power that be, I’d say we did wonderfully."
title cards over image of Carrio with arms raised:
Elisa Carrio finished fourth
out of eleven candidates.
She plans to run again in 2007.
title cards over images of protest:
Thousands protested
on election night.
Protestors: (chant) "To all the corrupt ones who stole from our nation…to all the corrupt ones – give back our nation."
title cards over images of protest:
Carlos Menem withdrew from a
run-off election when it became
obvious he would lose.
Nestor Kirchner became president
on May 25, 2003.
Women speaking to camera:
Burundian: "My wish is for all women to have one heart in order to support peace."
Bosnian: "I want to say to all the women of the world to fight for a better tomorrow.
Argentine: "I think anything in the world is possible, because women are leading the fight for change."
Isabel Allende: If we can share our stories, we can get to know each other, and we can erase all boundaries.
Jeannine: "If one lives in a peaceful country, one should do everything to keep this peace."
Fatima Gailani: "Let’s be part of each others’ lives. Then we could help each other."
Spes: "The life is a gift. Take care of it. Thank you."
** END OF PROGRAM SCR