Meet the Mexican Women who fought Like Men for their Freedom

In the villages of Chiapas in Mexico some years back, women had little freedom to work, participate in political activities and enjoy other fundamental human rights.

Eyewitnesses account confirmed that woman in those days could not leave the house without her husband’s permission, and women’s confinement to the private sphere translated into very limited participation in public life. Some added that Women of Chiapas were the most subjugated, the most forgotten and marginalized. That was the real life for any woman living in the Zapatista territory before 1994.

But in 1994, a rebellion broke out in the territory against the Mexican government. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) captured the world’s attention with its armed uprising, demanding land and freedom, justice, and equality for the rural population of Chiapas. Little was known then that women could take advantage of the situation to ask for their freedom. In the next 20 years to follow, the rebellion inspired grassroots activists with women taking the frontlines.

Women became part and parcel of the EZLN. Some fought as insurgents in the rebel army, some as political leaders in the civilian support base communities, some as health and education promoters in the construction of autonomous infrastructure, and some as members of economic collectives in the development of the local and regional economy.

Breaking this history of silence and rising up to take on their government through armed struggle was remarkable and inspiring. Soon, the women captured international attention for their brevity.

At the EZLN’s first public celebration which coincided with the International Women’s Day, Captain Irma who played a significant role in the struggle explained that “I would like to invite all our compañeros, from the cities and from the countryside, to join in our struggle and our demands. Women continue to be the most exploited. In order for this no longer to be the case; we need to take up arms, together with our compañeros, so they will understand that women can fight too, with a weapon in our hands. We will continue onward with our struggle until we achieve our demands: bread, democracy, peace, independence, freedom, housing, and justice, because these things do not exist for us, the poor. We don’t want to live like animals anymore. Today, more than ever, we should struggle together so that one day we will be free.”

This bold step by the women has not only helped shape the Zapatista movement but also has improved the indigenous people of Chiapas by transforming their own lives, their families, and their communities.

In an interview published by the Seven Stories Press in February 2015, Eva-one of the elderly women from Miguel Hidalgo in Zapatista territory said despite the enormous progress made by the women, they are not leaving anything to chance as they are continuing to hold on to their freedom.

“The path of this struggle is long and there is much we still want to accomplish. There are many things we will probably not achieve ourselves. It will be up to our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and our great-great-grandchildren”, she said.

Another woman-Guadalupe also explained that “I’m making this effort because, even if I never see it myself, I want my daughters not to suffer the way we suffered, with the landowners for example. They’ll be able to go to school, they’ll know how to read and write. We’ve already lived through what we lived through, but we want our daughters to have the right to an education.”

The women have made a strong case for women all over the world. They have demonstrated that women have the capabilities to participate at all levels of movement to fight for their rights, justice and dignity.

Undoubtedly, these women from Zapatista can be compared to the civil rights movement in the United States, the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, the blacks struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the Arab Spring uprisings and recently, the many women who have been involving in the Kurdish resistance to the Islamic State group.