Arms to Fight, Arms to Protect Women Speak Out about Conflict

While the impacts of armed conflict the world over have a shocking familiarity - death, disability, rape, displacement, family separation and economic destruction - women's experiences are not uniform. These testimonies reveal the views and experiences of women as fighters, participants, refugees, victims caught between warring factions, organisers for peace and rehabilitation, carers, and mothers, relatives and partners of the dead and the disappeared. Women from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Tigray (Ethiopia), Uganda, Somaliland, Liberia, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, Lebanon, Bosnia and Croatia speak of the psychological and physical damage of war, and the battle for economic survival. Long after conflict has died down, its impact continues. Women talk movingly about their efforts to rebuild their lives and those of their families and communities: taking on new roles and extra responsibilities, coping with traumatised children, finding ways to break a cycle of violence and revenge.