Any time is a good time to listen to what half the population of the world has to say. But the month of March seems best, as the whole world at this time of the year is awake from winter’s dark and damp stupor. There are of course more revolutionary reasons that the United Nations had in mind when it declared March 8 as International Women’s Day but walking hand in hand with the wonderful will of nature is good enough. To rise with the sun and to retire with it is to also make the heart beat along with everything that is perfect about Mother Nature. The women of the world mean that they do not want madness to spoil their March especially of the aggressive kind only because another war lord wants to decorate his cap with an extra feather.

Perhaps it was in celebration then of many more buds in bloom or because their path at this time of the year is better lit with much more sunshine that nine women from three continents decided to march into Vienna last Sunday as if in tune to an entire cantata of humming birds just to talk to each other while Leena from Texas sang something like, Never had time to day dream, Never had time at all... Noorie joined in from Afghanistan, Hana from Bosnia, Marie and Mmabatho and Mandivavarira from different parts of Africa. Parastou is Iranian, Rosina is from Iraq, Violet a Palestinian and Tsvia from Israel.

And Women Without Borders the Vienna based human rights organisation that hosted the Women in War meet did not stop to waltz. I listened to all the stories of these women who are forced to live with war but I chose to follow Tsvia around. For it is Jews like Tsvia I feel who hold the key that will perhaps one day unlock rusted hearts and closed minds of big bullies like Bush so that some kind of sanity is restored around Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Today this region remains one of the worst theatres of war with tragedy having taken over as the longest running act. There are at least 30 other countries at the moment that are also involved in some kind of war, forcing approximately 40 million people to flee their homes due to armed conflicts and human rights violations out of which an estimated 80 percent of this dispossessed population are women and children. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says that it is able to provide some solace to only about 20 million refugees for the time being.

But the irony of it all is that few want to flee their country and run away from all those, and that which they love. If people were allowed to live in peace and relative prosperity in their own homes there would be little reason for them to roam the world. Then the handful of affluent countries of the world would not have to waste cash, time and energy dreaming up even more draconian laws with which to further assault the self esteem of the homeless. The arms manufacturers and those peddling other gizmos of war would of course have to look for other ways to make money but 32 year old Violet would at last have the satisfaction of getting on with her life. Violet says that she was forced to leave Bethlehem after Israeli soldiers occupied her house and inflicted indignities on the entire family. Violet’s movement was so restricted that she felt like a prisoner in her own home. It became difficult for her to earn a living. She now lives in Vienna, perhaps grateful for the asylum but forever pinning to be back in her own home really, reminding me of Ali an Iraqi engineer friend who fled his country more than two decades because he did not believe in a career in the army. He preferred to sell newspapers on the streets of Vienna instead.

Tears of joy flowed freely as dozens stared at Tsvia and Violet share the same coffee table in Vienna. “If this kind of decency is possible between two individuals why cant governments do the same?” sighed one sitting next to me. Easier said then done perhaps but the daughter of assassinated Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Tsvia is a linguist and author of The Language of Peace and determined to work first and foremost for deepening cultural understanding between people.

Tsvia says that the Jews have seen two of their most cherished dreams fulfilled. They have succeeded in giving new life to Hebrew, a language that was dead only till a 120 years ago, and in having regained the land promised to them even as they remained homeless for centuries.

Now it is time for the Jews to just listen, to all those who still dream of having a home of their own.

 

-----Mehru Jaffer