Women Hold Up the Sky

By Momii Palapaz

A recent instagram video from Bojongo, Bonaberi, Douala, Cameroon revealed an intense confrontation between a middle aged man and about 10 women. Armed with long sticks, the women in the village surrounded him and took turns whacking his body. What happened was, this man was beating his wife regularly. For fear and shame or whatever, she did not seek help. That changed when neighborhood women heard her crying. That’s when they found out the man was giving her bruises.  That’s when the community sisters banded together and beat his ass.

I’ve been there and still experience episodes of gender violence. I have never gotten any physical support from others while in the depths of abuse.  I’ve run and got motel rooms, spent days away and thwarted encounters that put me in harm's way.  

In the US it is a rare sight to see women backed by their neighbors and communities standing up to abusive partners. If at all.  The perpetrators of gender violence are met with fear and distance. The abusers are cowards. Their fears are transferred into anger and directed at those closest and the most vulnerable.

In Mexico City, I stayed at one of two apartment buildings called the Organización Popular Francisco Villa de Izquierda Independiente (OPFVII).  They also have a compound of homes, schools, library, apartment building and radio station. The land was liberated by single mothers and women who turned a dump site into a gated women and children community with OPFVII.  

One day, a woman reported that her husband was hurting her. All the women from the building came out of their units and confronted him. He was pushed out of the apartment and onto the streets.  He was not allowed to return. This is the same policy at the compound and all programs of the OPFVII.  Liberating a community of women and children has to have solidarity in action within the community. Protection, self defense and education arm the OPFVII to fight for not only the women and children but outside the walls of liberated communities. 

Women and children are the worst off in the USA. There are no remedies for immediate or long range supports.  When a woman and her child are met with gender abuse, the system looks the other way, or gives status to the “man” of the house.  Centuries old traditions of patriarchy put the woman and children as property.  When a woman decides to leave, she will have to take the chances that a partner will not come after her.  To hold off the attacks, women have to pay the law to keep herself safe. This is not good enough.

On March 8, and 11, International Women’s Day in Ohlone/Huicin/Yelamu land will honor those women, Indigenous, disabled, refugee and comfort women communities who all experienced, still endure and have turned the corners to aid their sisters and children.  Whether it's the violent control by partners at home, work on the streets, March 8th marks an everyday struggle for women's liberation.   Women hold up the sky.