Women of the Amazon Defend Their Homeland Against New Oil Contract on International Women's Day

8.3.16

Women of the Amazon Defend Their Homeland Against New Oil Contract on International Women's Day: [ecowatch.com] -- At the forefront of this ongoing struggle are courageous Indigenous Amazonian women leaders who have declared, “We are ready to protect, defend and die for our forest, families, territory and nation.”

In marches, protests, conferences and international forums, the women of the Ecuadorian Amazon are standing with fierce love and conviction for the forests and their communities, and navigating a brutal intersection of environmental devastation, cultural dislocation and violence and persecution as women human rights and land defenders.

The women have repeatedly put their bodies on the frontline in an attempt to halt oil extraction across the Amazon, often facing harsh repression by the state security.

“Women are the main victims [of oil extrction]—their ability to feed their families becomes impaired. There is deterioration of family health and they suffer the division of their communities and other forms of violence,” women representatives of the Sapara and Shiwiar Nationalities and the Kichwa Kawsak Sacha and Sarayaku Peoples explained in a collective statement.