LETTERS OF SUPPORT - EL SALVADOR
|
San Salvador
December 5, 2000
|
Dear Women of Vietnam,
Warm and revolutionary greetings from the women of the Farabundi Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). We wish you much success in the struggle for equity and equality among women and men.
In a special manner we are grateful to be able to take on the work you propose - the getting together of women called "Among Sisters". The relationship that will be established between women of the Front and Vietnam women. We consider the exchange of experiences very important. Your memories will help us to make more profound our struggle to reach gender equity and equality.
The challenges that we already face in our country are very great. However, we think that we have achieved some advances and consider that the struggles going on in other countries, as in yours, are not isolated works and will also contribute to the efforts for advancement that we do with other countries.
We are women who during the time of the war lived in our country, most of us were combatants who took up arms with the guerrilla front. Others contributed to the struggle in other ways such as union leaders and participants. Others worked in a clandestine way to assist the armed struggle.
As you know, the armed conflict ended here through dialogue and negotiation. We didn’t win the war, but neither did we lose it. The Peace Accords were signed December 16, 1992 and from this time we became a political party. It was at this time the women of the Front began to demand political participation and to work in a way that began to focus on the role of gender in the party as you would in Asia in your plans for municipal governments and legislature.
In actuality, out of 84 Legislative Deputies, the Front has 31. Out of this 31, 7 are Deputies and 10 are alternates. The Frente, then, is the political party in this country that has more women in positions dedicated to politics.
For the meeting, we would like to propose some themes that we consider important to exchange with you:
1. How does globalization and privatization affect women.
2. Domestic violence.
3. Exchange regarding the experience of women living in conflict zones during the war.
4. How does your country’s government and party system work in general.
5. How have we experienced the post-war period in both countries.
6. How we have confronted the post-war period in both countries.
7. How we promote women leadership in both countries.
For us it has been a pleasure to address you in this letter. We will await a response and your proposal on themes for the exchange. We accept the proposal for the encounter in September of 2001 in Madison.
|
Sincerely,
Emma Julia Fabian
Coordinator of the FMLN Women
El Salvador, Central America
|
|
