The women are the spiritual and material support of this army; if we can survive in large numbers, it is thanks to them .... (Subcommandante Marcos)
When EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) began to organise some years ago, the women understood that they too could and should fight with all their people against the exploitation, discrimination and abuse of power they are victims of because of the fact that they are indigenous . But at the same time they understood that because of the simple fact that they are women, they had another front to fight on. They had to put an end to the discrimination they suffer within their own society, a traditional and extremely macho society in which they are considered inferior beings with no right to a place in public life or to education. After long debates between all the groups of the different communities, the women spoke out through their spokeswoman Ramona, a member of the Indigenous Clandestine Revolutionary Committee (CCRI), to demand that their rights be recognised. Thus, on the eighth of March, 1983, the Womens' Law of the EZLN was passed.
The ten points of the law are: 1. Women, regardless of their race, creed, colour or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in ways determined by their desires and ability. 2. Women have the right to work and receive a fair salary. 3. Women have the right to decide the number of children they will bear and care for. 4. Women have the right to participate in the affairs of the community and to hold positions of authority if they are freely and democratically elected. 5. Women and their children have the right to primary attention in matters of health and nutrition. 6. Women have the right to education. 7. Women have the right to choose their partner and are not to be forced into marriage. 8. Women shall not be beaten or physically abused, neither by family nor by strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished.
9. Women will be able to hold positions of leadership in the organisation and military rank in the revolutionary armed forces. 10. Women will have all the rights and duties laid down in the revolutionary laws and rules.
The acceptance of this law has permitted the women to join their people in the struggle against the oppressor.
Some decided to join the armed struggle. They are the insurgents, a generation of very young women that the people have sent to war. They joined the EZLN and make up 35% of it. The majority hold some rank. They are in positions of responsibility, organised and possess a great capacity for the struggle, because as they explain themselves: We have nothing to lose because before we did not exist. They were born into rural indigenous communities in Chiapas but they have never lead a normal life, do not live in houses or have children, nor any project for the future other than to put an end to the injustice that has been killing them for many centuries. The Zapatista Army has given them something: they have learnt to read and write, learned about politics, combat tactics and the use of arms. But the most important thing is that they are respected by their male comrades and share the same rights and duties as them: a great cultural leap compared to their mothers, which is the reason it is the latter who urge them to join the EZLN.
The others, those who cannot join the army because they have children to look after, fight from their communities. They are members of the CCRI and their work is organisational and ideological. They are busy organising womens' groups so that little by little they teach each other what they learn: mainly Spanish (to be able to defend themselves against the oppressor) and politics (so that they all understand better what they are fighting for and against). They are also busy providing food, clothes etc..
But the struggle is the same for all of them: a struggle to get their rights as women respected by their own people and that the right of this people to live a dignified life in their own land.