1.1 February 1974

2February 1974 is a historical period in Ethiopian history where many female students, teachers, factory workers, women in the informal sector, and Muslim women joined an uprising against the monarchy. People demanded democratic rights such as religious freedom, women’s rights, the right to organise and the economic right of “land for the tillers” through continuous demonstrations and boycotts. During the demonstrations, women carried banners demanding gender equality measures such as “equal pay,” “equal rights for women,” “paid maternity leave,” “the right to organise,” “the right to property,” and so on. What makes the February uprising unique is that peasant women also joined hands with men. Thus, the uprising was very significant for Ethiopian women as they dealt the first and most important challenge to the patriarchal belief that women have no business participating in public affairs; however, a military government known as Därg took power and shattered the Ethiopian people’s aspiration for democratic order.

1.2 The creation of the Ethiopian Women’s Coordinating Committee (EWCC) in February 1975

3At the beginning of its rule, the Därg tried to address some of the demands of the people. For instance, as people demanded “land to the tiller,” land reform was declared in March 1975, where land was nationalised and distributed to the farmers; but women were not included in the distribution. The Därg also wanted to set up women’s organisations and held a seminar in 1975 where about 55 women were in attendance, representing government and non-governmental organisations, and they discussed various gender issues. The members at the seminar agreed to plan for a women’s association that advocated for women’s equality. Therefore, an organising committee, the Ethiopian Women’s Coordinating Committee (EWCC) with a membership of 18 women was set up. The mandates of EWCC were to: (a) raise political consciousness among women in the rural and urban areas; (b) prepare publications and distribute them to the general public; (c) disseminate research outcomes and information pertaining to women through the mass media; (d) organise seminars, conferences and discussion forums regarding gender issues. The first action of the committee was therefore to set up branches in factories, government and non-government organisations, etc.

4In April 1975, EWCC held a second seminar for two weeks where about 300 women participated as representatives of different organisations, the informal sectors including commercial sex workers, homemakers (housewives), domestic workers and interested individuals. In the end, an agreement was reached to establish a women’s organization and increase the number of members of EWCC; this was enlarged from 18 to 25.

5In March 1976, EWCC held the first-ever celebration of March 8, International Women’s Day in Ethiopia which took place over three days. The venue of the celebration was Meskel Square. Poems were read, dramas performed, photo exhibitions were set up, and demonstrations were held. Discussions on the women’s situation in Ethiopia took place among female students’ organisations both at home and abroad though they had limited audiences. In any case, EWCC succeeded in adding women to the political agenda of Ethiopia, albeit limited to the urban areas.

Figure 13. Pro Därg Official, International Women’s Day rally, 1978

1.3 The use of “zämäch’a” as a platform to create awareness about “women’s issues”

6The Därg declared “Land to the Tiller” with Proclamation Number 26/1975 and abolished tenancy by nationalising all rural land. IdgätbäHibrätzämäch’a usually referred to as zämäch’a or “Development Through Cooperation Campaign” was initiated to create awareness about “Ethiopian Socialism.” Thus, all senior secondary schools as well as higher education institutions were closed and their students, teachers and administrators were sent to the rural areas to participate in the campaign.

7Using the zämäch’a as a handy platform, the female students who were exposed to EWCC’s advocacy took the opportunity to sensitise women in the rural areas where they had been assigned. Thus, some female students raised and discussed issues about women’s equality in their awareness creation or sensitisation programmes. Though the issues were not discussed in detail, the fact that women’s rights had to be respected in society was raised by female students in some of the remotest corners of the country. I (the author) was informed by female students who participated in the campaign that they wanted to initiate a national mass women’s movement; however, they were not able to effect change as their numbers were small.

8Because of its advocacy and organising activists, EWCC galvanised many women in the urban areas (Addis Ababa, a few other cities and in factories) to rally and articulate the issues of women’s rights and equality. However, the activities of EWCC made the Därg uncomfortable as some members of its leadership (including the chairperson) were members of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) which opposed the Därg and called for a “Provisional People’s Government.” Consequently, as the campaign for the leadership gained support and control of EWCC, the Därg launched fierce repression against the EWCC leadership. Thus, some of the leaders went underground, others were imprisoned and few of them were murdered, and eventually it was abolished.

1.4 The Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Association (REWA) in 1980

9In July 1980, the Därg set up its own women’s organisation known as the Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Association (REWA). The objectives of the association were (a) to make women politically and economically independent; (b) to safeguard their rights and so on. Nevertheless, they could not be achieved, as women did not have the power to set their own agenda. Still, REWA helped to popularise the view that special measures were needed to address women in the society. For instance, Ethiopia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1987. Women were to some extent allowed to organise themselves beyond domestic affairs, which challenged tradition.

10The participation of women in many associations, though under state control, helped many of them to be aware and knowledgeable about public affairs, and some started their own businesses. However, the government’s concern was more to educate women in its political ideology.

Figure 14. Cover of a booklet used by the Därg and the Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Association, 1984

11In the same manner, while REWA involved an unprecedented number of women being concerned about their rights, they were forced into membership where they had to attend the meetings. In fact, as soon as REWA was created, all other independent women’s associations were banned. However, though women were organised under REWA, not many women came to high political positions. In 1987, there were no women among the government’s 20 ministers, and only one female vice-minister.

2.1 Secretive Political Parties and Women’s Struggles (EPRP, EWOS and AESM)

13Despite the regime’s restrictive policies, secretive political parties and organisations proliferated. Most of them had left-oriented ideology and included “women’s questions” on their agenda. As a result, young women, mostly university and high school students, joined them. Many members of the banned EWCC joined the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) while others joined the All Ethiopian Socialist Movement (AESM). The women members of EPRP organised a women’s wing of the party named the Ethiopian’s Women’s Organization for Struggle (EWOS), which expanded to most parts of Ethiopia. EWOS had a monthly paper called ድርብታጋይዋ meaning “the one that fights against the dual oppression of women,” that produced articles on gender relations. EWOS was a left-oriented organisation which propagated the idea that the abolition of class struggles would pave the way for the abolition of women’s oppression. Study circles were also organised in universities, high schools, factories, towns and even villages where the causes of women’s oppression and the nature of the struggle were discussed.

Figure 15. EPRP Ethiopian Women demonstration in 1976 (Goh Magazine)

2.2 The life of women and children in detention

14During the period of “The Red Terror,” women, as well as men, regardless of age, economic conditions and ethnicity were imprisoned. Some were pregnant, others were nursing mothers, and even elderly women were imprisoned for hiding their children from security forces and were labelled “anti-revolutionary.” Women were physically and mentally tortured with no medical treatment. As visiting restrooms was allowed only twice a day, many women developed urinary tract infections. However, inmates supported each other mentally and materially by sharing with each other clothes, food, and milk for children. As men were not allowed to come into the women’s section of the prison children born and raised in prisons became scared of men. During research for my book, I interviewed many imprisoned women like Saba Kidane Mariam, who spent five years in detention without natural light in the prison called Military Police (see Source 33). Gifty Abeseya also gave birth in prison without any medical facilities, while being mistreated by the guards during labour. She raised her child there till he was two and a half years old.

15However, not all prisoners were lucky enough to be released. Some were killed after a lengthy imprisonment, while others within a few days of detention without due legal process. Azeb Girma a university student was killed after seven months of detention in the Third Police Station. Daro Negash, a Labour Union leader of Berhanena Selam Printing Press and a member of the EWCC, was nine months pregnant when she was detained and brutally murdered, along with other members of the Labour Union. Other militant women preferred to commit suicide instead of being detained and tortured to protect the secrets and members of their organisation. For example, the case of Nigest Teffera, the chairperson of the EWCC, and an undercover agent of the EPRP and EWOS who took a cyanide pill that she always had with her when she was apprehended by the Kebele guards. These stories demonstrate women’s commitment to fight for a cause they believed in. Most of those who escaped prison changed their form of resistance by joining the armed struggle.

3.1 From peaceful resistance to armed struggle

17The two main organisations that women joined in large numbers were Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM). They started resistance in different localities of Northern Ethiopia until they established the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1990, which took the fight to the rest of Ethiopia. During the armed struggle that lasted about seventeen years, women joined the movement. Out of the 37 founding members of ANDM, two were women: Gennet Taddesse and Assefash Tassew. Eight months after the formation of TPLF, a peasant woman called Kahassi joined the organisation. A few months later, many women dropped out of university and high school to join the army. Kahassi was renamed Marta, in memory of Martha Mebratu (also referred as Marta Mebratu) (see Chapter 4.2). Thereafter, thousands of women joined both organisations.

3.2 The creation of a women’s organisation in the army

18The women members of the organisations mentioned above set up women’s organisations within the army. The members of the association were not only women members of the army but also women in the areas where the army operated, as well as the “liberated” areas

19Therefore, both the TPLF and the ANDM included women’s challenges in their programs as societal problems that needed to be tackled. In distributing land to the farmers in the areas which the army “liberated”, women had equal access and control of land and other properties, which changed their lives. Moreover, the laws enacted in the “liberated” areas acknowledged the equal rights of women to vote or be elected to any office, the right to organisation, education and the entitlement to marriage based on the consent of both parties. Few women were elected to political posts such as district administration or military leadership (commanders and commissioners at the war front). Women also served as members and/or chairs of law and justice committees.

3.3 Challenges faced by women fighters within the struggle

20The few rights women achieved did not come easily. They still had to face the gendered challenges from the chauvinistic attitudes of the male fighters. Like men, women had to walk for long hours through the mountainous terrains of northern Ethiopia carrying rifles and ammunition, as well as brave hours of hunger and thirst. Some of their activities were: (a) Mobilising the peasant and town dwellers (b) Engaging in political and military training (c) Providing health care services to the wounded and the sick, etc. Most women fighters withstood the challenges they encountered on the frontline because of their gender. For instance, since pregnant women were not allowed to be in the frontline, some never revealed their pregnancy, since fighting on the war front was regarded as an honorable contribution to the cause.

3.4 Mothers’ shouting “UUTA” and providing shelter

21Many mothers (housewives) joined and supported their children in the fight against the Därg. The Ethiopian Mother’s Association (EMA), a relatively radical (clandestine) women’s association, emerged during the time of the EPRP-led Women’s Committee in 1976. They expressed their support in many ways. In many localities of Addis Ababa, they organised themselves and warned their children whenever the Kebele Guards came to their neighbourhoods to arrest the so-called “counterrevolutionaries” by making loud “UUTA” (outcries) together, a sound also used to call attention when atrocities were carried out. In towns and in rural areas, they provided hideouts for the fighters, often without the knowledge of their husbands. The women also gathered information from their neighbourhoods, or from peasants for the organisations. While some prepared dry rations, others opened their houses as meeting and hiding places. Many encouraged their children (male and female) to join the armed struggle gave their blessings, though, they were well aware that they might not survive the war. Some “mothers,” like Berhane Abera, left everything behind, including their husbands, to join the armed struggle; she went along with some members of her family, including her seven children one of whom was a 5-year-old boy.