Giving voice to the voiceless

In a stirring speech delivered at the London School of Economics, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak said that world peace can only be achieved through education and understanding and that women had a central role to play in its realisation. Dahlia Hammouda attended

---

Click to view caption

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak delivering her keynote address at the event hosted by the British Red Cross; Anthony Giddens, president of the London School of Economics, congratulating her on her speech

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak delivered a strong message at the London School of Economics last week: that nothing is more in the interest of the world community than the renunciation of war; that a genuine sense of universal responsibility must govern international relations and that women should be more closely involved in peace-building activities worldwide.

"Today we are truly at a major crossroads in history," she told the nearly 400 public figures, academics and students gathered in the university's Hong Kong Theatre last Wednesday to attend her talk. "We are asking ourselves: is the world going to be led by fear and aggression, or will it be driven by diplomacy, morality and peace? Will the revolving door of hatred and violence continue to spin or can we stop this cycle and open new doors of trust and tolerance?"

In an age of uncertainty, it was time to rise to the challenge of creating a better world where peace and inclusion were the norm, not the exception, she told her audience. "The rapidly globalising world is full of promise," she said. "Development can indeed reach the unreached. But this will require a dedication on our parts to universal ideals, a determination to wage peace, sensitivity to fellow humans and a commitment to the cause of rationality, dialogue, learning and understanding."

Despite the fact that humankind now lives in a world of plenty and of dazzling scientific and technological advances, too many people are being left behind. "This disregard of the needs of some amid an unprecedented pace of global change has produced environments of inequality that breed alienation and desperation," Mrs Mubarak said. "Some may dismiss these human situations as sad, but too distant to matter. But if there is one thing recent history has taught, it is that when one country suffers the devastation of famine, desperation, lawlessness and loss of hope, that level of suffering is rarely contained within geographic or economic boundaries."

Indeed, she said, our age is one of great paradox. "Few would have imagined that the new millennium would see so much of humanity still blighted by insecurity stemming from violent conflict, abject poverty, poor health and illiteracy," she said. "Few would have thought that universally enshrined political ideas and the core values of tolerance, justice, equality, respect for the other and the right to self determination would still be denied to so many. Fewer still would have expected to see the credibility of international legitimacy and legality reach such a low ebb, leaving the international community troubled, confused and uncertain."

Genuine peace, security and development must be explored by thinking across boundaries -- national, ideological, cultural and disciplinary. "It is quite easy to fall into the trap of a dangerously simplistic view of peace and security -- one that defines them in terms of strength and military might," she said. "Indeed, peace has been elusive to humankind so far, but it is possible to achieve. It can exist, but it must be radically redefined."

A good place to start would be to correct the view that might equals right and to rectify situations where double-standards clearly exist. "Two recent examples of this spring to mind," she said. "Many in the world were seriously troubled when ancient statues were demolished by the Taliban in Afghanistan, while the same degree of concern was not displayed when the world's heritage was plundered in Iraq after the war. Also, only some countries are being chastised for their perceived ownership of weapons of mass destruction, while others who have well-known stockpiles of these weapons are not admonished."

Most importantly, as much as the promotion of democracy within states has become an ultimate goal to be attained, democracy among states is equally important to fostering a culture of peace. "It is difficult to promote ideas of participation and decision-making inside a country, while the same principles are ignored at international level," she said. "The call for the democratisation of the decision-making process in international organisations is urgent -- one that can no longer go unheeded."

Today, Mrs Mubarak said, international peace and order has been gravely impaired. "A serious healing process is in order to restore harmony to the world political body and to ensure that the 'we the people' in the charter of the United Nations remains the capital 'We' -- a strong, united 'We' that enhances collective action and restores trust to the system. What is needed is a soul- searching exercise and a genuine dialogue."

At the very least, she said, we must stop and realise that warfare, under any name, "is reckless, irrational and inexcusable". The scourge of war dislocates societies, disperses people, causes environmental degradation and creates vicious cycles of destruction, poverty and misery.

"I am not a politician," Mrs Mubarak said. "I have always been far more concerned with people than with power. But when policies are made, let me urge again and again that people are placed at their centre. That principle must be paramount, especially in the serious decision any country can make -- the determination to go to war."

Peace and security will not be achieved through confrontation, she stressed, but through the ongoing, ceaseless pursuit of understanding, on all sides. "We have been forced to realise in the most horrific of ways that peace is not a matter of circumstance or even politics, but requires, in the words of UNESCO's constitution, 'the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind'," she said.

Meanwhile, despite frequent political declarations of commitment to peace, military spending today has reached unprecedented levels. "Surely, it does not reflect well on the priorities of the rich and powerful segments of humanity to see such patterns of spending, at a time when there is no doubt that half the human family lives a marginalised and highly vulnerable existence. The wealthy nations of the world have an obligation to do more to spread the benefits of globalisation so that it reaches the underdeveloped world."

She called upon the London School of Economics and other similar institutions to focus on education and culture as the keys to "bridging the chasm between the present we endure and the future we seek".

It is, she said, first and foremost, through education that the values of non-violence, tolerance, democracy, solidarity and justice, which are the very essence of peace, can be passed on to individuals at a very early age. "The task is not to reject what is different, but to explain and understand it," she said. "If we have failed to cross the divide, to realise that diversity is not a synonym of adversary and, in doing so, we have built walls rather than tearing them down, it does not mean that the new generation cannot transform those walls into bridges and walk across them."

Lasting peace cannot be constructed around a conference table, she said. It has to be deeply rooted in the minds of men. "Peace means building up: it cannot be invented from scratch, but it is built up, from day to day. It is a task that requires a long-term view and a daily struggle at individual, national and international levels."

And it is a task to which women have a great deal to contribute. "In Egypt, we have realised that women need to be more involved in the peace and security activities of the world," she said. "Given women's disproportionate suffering in times of war and armed conflict, their traditionally limited role in the area of peace advocacy, promotion and preservation appears to be unjust. It is against this background that we launched the Women for Peace Movement at an international women's peace conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in September last year."

Participants believed that women have a central role to play in advocating, defending and participating in the realisation of peace, as well as in the reconstruction and rehabilitation activities that follow armed conflict. They urged women to work alongside men to find sustainable ways to foster a culture of peace, tolerance and human security.

The conference, she said, was a first stage in a longer process of formulating and institutionalising a global women's peace movement. The subsequent conference to be held in 2004 will provide the opportunity to reach a common framework and agreement on methods and mechanisms for launching the next phase of the campaign for world peace through the collective strength of diverse women's organisations.

"The meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh reinforced our belief that we women of the world have a message to deliver to be heard worldwide: that we, as women and mothers, want to pass on to our children a world that offers the promise of peace, development and stability," Mrs Mubarak said.

The 2004 conference will be held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. "The choice of venue is not accidental," she said. "The library promotes rationality and civility in discourse. It calls to the better angles of our nature, at a time when conflict and suspicion need to be replaced by mutual respect and understanding and a dialogue between cultures and individuals. Its activities address the profound issues that underlie the problems of the world today."

On a poignant note, Mrs Mubarak spoke of the elusive peace in the Middle East. "Anyone who has been monitoring the history of the Middle East knows how important peace and development are to the peoples of this region," she said. "Today, two peoples in our region, the Palestinians and the Iraqis, are still awaiting an uncertain future. The Palestinian people have been longing for their freedom for too long. They have suffered tremendously under oppressive occupation and their call for a just peace has not materialised. Nothing is as deeply embedded in the psyche of the Arab people as the suffering and injustice perpetrated against the Palestinian people. Why is the Arab-Israeli conflict, which constitutes the most serious threat to peace and stability in the region, not addressed with the same vigour as other issues? It is the answer to such questions, or unfortunately, the lack thereof, that is the reason why so many people in the Arab world are angry. And this anger has fed extremism and violence. We need to re-inspire hope in the peace process and to demonstrate to the Palestinians by deeds, not words, that there is truly a light at the end of the tunnel."

The weakest and most vulnerable groups in society are usually the first casualties of war, she said. "In Iraq, beyond the casualties, the suffering and the deaths, we have just witnessed the heritage of the world and the memory of a nation destroyed in a few moments of looting and vandalism, while concerned citizens around the world watched, helpless, to stop this enormous calamity."

Mrs Mubarak said that we cannot begin to understand the extent of the suffering of those people. "Most of us sit in our living rooms sipping tea or having dinner watching the various media channels give gruelling accounts of what is happening in areas of conflict and war, the most recent being Iraq," she said. "We watch with mixed feelings -- horror, anger, sympathy and frustration. But do we really feel the trauma and pain the victims are suffering? Is it possible that people have to suffer war to appreciate the need for peace and to realise that the value of human life is the same regardless of whose side we may be on? The fact that millions of people rallied against war in every city of the world proves that this is thankfully not required."

A strong message needs to emerge soon, Mrs Mubarak urged. "We must ensure that the voices of the under-represented, the excluded and the marginalised are amplified, rather than silenced or drowned out. Many of those are silenced before they even have a voice -- those are the voices of our children. We must give our children a chance; we must give peace and development a chance."

The London School of Economics is a wonderful venue to advocate these timeless values, she said. "Through spreading the power of knowledge, elevated by humanistic ideals, yours and other similar institutions can be a driving force for the understanding and peace we so deeply need."