![]() |
![]() |
BACK | EDUCATION HOME |
![]() |
![]() |
PART 8: WOMEN'S VOICES |
Tortures Wislawa Szymborska Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.
|
INDEX the first world war
See also:
|
|
INFORMATION IDEAS The Geneva Conventions state that 'violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture', and 'outrages upon human dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment' are banned. The 4th Convention specifically refers to the treatment of women, who should be defended against 'rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault'.rape had long been acknowledged as a crime of war, but it was not until 1998 that its use as a weapon of war was also acknowledged. In 1984 an international Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defined torture as 'any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession'. It may be 'inflicted by or at the instigation or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity'. Sometimes the victims of torture, if they survive, are kept in prison until the wounds and bruising heal, so that torture is difficult to prove. But the marks on the mind and heart leave permanent scars. Animals do not make war, though they do fight. In the early days of our species, we did not make war either, though we may sometimes have hurt each other in conflicts between individuals or small domestic groups. Torture is probably much older than war, but when we began to organise armed men to slaughter each other, we soon understood that torture was a weapon in itself. Torture is personal, even intimate: person-on-person acts of pain and humiliation. It is one of the human race's deepest shames. Almost as deep a shame is the difficulty we have in preventing it. This is a harsh note with which to end this selection of poems. There is a reason. This poem brings us face to face with what is easily forgotten. However large or small the conflict, whatever weapons are being used, war means murder, and more often than not a painful and possibly slow death. The dead may be counted, but that's just a number. What's important is that each one is an individual, each one's 'body is susceptible to pain', each one shudders, writhes, bleeds, and cries out. Each one could be oneself. The mind or soul may wander, but the body, the individual physical being of each one of us, inescapably 'is, is, is'. It's the same for all of us, tortured and torturer, killer and victim. We should not inflict on anyone the pain we would not want inflicted on us. There is another reason for choosing this poem. It is a translation (it was written in Polish). Translating from one language to another means crossing the frontier of 'otherness'. It means communication across a divide. It means wanting to understand, wanting to be understood. (Even a poem in the same language as our own attempts this.) A basis, could one say, for building peace? Something many women, in particular, may have the insight, qualities and skills to do? |
|
|
|
||
|
||
![]() |