今年4月7日，是盧旺達種族大屠殺第15個紀念日。盧旺達，這個“千丘之國”，本來國小名微，然而15年前，就是在這個非洲小國，80萬生命在一百天之內(nèi)消隕于屠刀和槍彈之下。這是20世紀的一大慘劇，人類歷史上難以言說的痛。

然而，歷史無法重來，對于幸存者來說，未來才是可以把握的。在經(jīng)歷這場浩劫后，這個國家的男性大多在戰(zhàn)亂和屠殺中喪生，未來的重擔(dān)落在了那些無辜而脆弱的婦孺身上。于是，我們看到，滿身傷痕的盧旺達女人們勇敢地站了起來，在政壇和商界施展拳腳，用她們的堅強重建家園，撫平昔日傷痛。也許，這條路注定是漫長而崎嶇的，但我們相信，她們會以無懼的決心走下去，去書寫屬于她們的歷史篇章。

——Terry

Judith Kanakuze pauses at the mention of her family. “God saved me，” she says. “He did not save them.” Fifteen years ago， 11，000 1)Tutsis were murdered in Kanakuze’s home province of 2)Kibuye， in the west of Rwanda， in the town’s Roman Catholic church. Almost everyone in her extended family had fled to the 3)chapel for 4)sanctuary. The next day another 10，000 people were murdered in the town stadium in a 5)pogrom led by Kibuye’s governor. Kanakuze does not want to say much more. The survivors of the 6)genocide often speak of the pain of being “condemned to live.” But she admits to an unexpected optimism as a member of the first parliament in the world to have a majority of female MPs. “This is a different time，” she says. “We are transforming our society， and women are part of the solution.”

In September of 2008， Rwanda’s parliamentary election saw women win 45 of the 80 seats. Nearly half were elected in women-only seats， with the rest 7)triumphing in 8)open ballots. The women MPs include former rebels and genocide survivors， war widows and peasant farmers， and although the election was a landmark， the women’s success was not unexpected. Under the requirements of a new constitution， women already held a third of cabinet posts. The heads of the supreme court and the police are also women， as are the majority of the country’s prison governors.

Before 1994， women held only around one in five parliamentary seats. The genocide changed

everything. When the killing ended there were twice as many women as men in Rwanda， and while the gap has since narrowed， more than a third of households are still headed by women. Women also make up 55% of the workforce and own about 40% of businesses.

Aloisea Inyumba is a Tutsi former rebel fighter， who has been part of the 9)Rwandan Patriotic Front-led (RPF) government since it overthrew the extremist Hutu regime in 1994—serving first as Minister for Women and the Family， before moving to the gender and social affairs 10)brief. She is now a senator in the upper house of parliament， and says that women began to 11)exert political muscle partly as a means of survival.

“After the genocide there were property disputes，” she says， “so we worked on a strong family bill. For the first time the women of this country were given rights to inherit.

Traditionally， if a woman married a man， the property belonged to him. If your husband died， the property would go to the 12)in-laws. This bill has become a legal protection for families.

Women can now inherit， women can own property. A girl child and a boy child have equal entitlement to inheritance.”

Another issue that women forced the government to 13)address is rape. Sexual attacks were an 14)integral part of the genocide， with local political leaders running what amounted to rape camps in some villages. The international 15)tribunal for Rwanda—which 16)tried some of the organisers and 17)perpetrators of the killings—defined rape as an act of genocide under international law， if part of a systematic move to wipe out an ethnic group. Yet when it came to Rwanda’s own law to punish genocide， rape was almost 18)relegated to a relatively minor offence. The draft genocide law split offences into four categories， with sentences of death or life imprisonment for murder. But rape was placed in the lowest category， alongside offences such as 19)looting， with the draft law requiring only a light prison sentence or community service. Groups such as the Widows of the Genocide and Ibuka， the survivors’ association， were outraged. Many Tutsi women who had been raped had been infected with HIV， while others bore the children of their attackers. “The women were not happy with that draft law，” says Inyumba， and so “we advocated for a change. We

regarded the genocide law as very important in ensuring that the issue of sexual abuse was taken seriously.”

This transformation seems all the more unlikely given that it was 20)engineered by what had been a male-dominated rebel group. But Inyumba says a focus on gender equality infused the RPF from the start because the party was focused on a broader rejection of discrimination of all kinds.

Men have， on the whole， remained silent on the new laws. But Evarist Kalish MP， a member of the Liberal party and the chair of parliament’s human rights committee， says that many men recognise that women may provide the best leadership.

“More than men， women are the victims of the war，” says Kalish. “They have different priorities to those of men. They have more concern about issues related to violence in general， and gender-based violence in particular. Women have faced discrimination so they want to put a stop to discrimination. All of this will contribute to preventing another genocide.”

Judith Kanakuze在講到她的家人時停頓了一下。“上天救活了我，”她說，“卻沒能救活我的家人?！?5年前，在Kanakuze的家鄉(xiāng)——位于盧旺達西部的基布耶，1.1萬圖西人在一個天主教堂里被殺害。當時，幾乎她所有的親人都逃到那個教堂以躲避殺身之禍，結(jié)果卻無一幸免。事件后的第二天，又有一萬圖西民眾在當?shù)氐捏w育場上遇害，這次的種族大屠殺由基布耶當權(quán)者發(fā)起。Kanakuze對此不想多說。種族屠殺的幸存者常常說他們背負著一種痛——“受著詛咒活下去”。 盧旺達議會是世界上首個女議員占多數(shù)的議會，作為其中一員，Kanakuze感到無比樂觀，這種樂觀是她不曾料到的?！斑@是個不同凡響的時代”，她說，“我們正在改造我們的社會，而女性是其中的一股推動力?！?/p>

2008年9月，盧旺達的議會選舉結(jié)果顯示，80個席位中有45位由女性奪得。其中，將近半數(shù)議員是在純女性候選人當中產(chǎn)生，其他席位則是以記名投票方式產(chǎn)生。當選議員的女性包括前反政府武裝分子、種族屠殺中的幸存者、因戰(zhàn)爭喪偶的寡婦，以及農(nóng)民。盡管這次選舉具有劃時代意義，但女性的崛起卻早就有跡可尋。根據(jù)一項新法規(guī)的規(guī)定，女性已占到內(nèi)閣1/3的席位。最高法院院長和國家警察總長也是女性，同時在盧旺達，監(jiān)獄長也是女性居多。

在1994年以前，女性在議會中僅占約1/5的席位。但種族大屠殺改變了一切。大屠殺發(fā)生以后，盧旺達女性人口的數(shù)量是男性的兩倍。雖然此后男女人口比例差距不斷地縮小，但如今，在超過1/3的家庭中，女性仍然是占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位。同時，女性在勞動力中占的比例是55%，掌控著這個國家40%的商業(yè)。

Aloisea Inyumba曾經(jīng)是一名圖西反政府武裝戰(zhàn)士，自從1994年極端的胡圖政權(quán)傾覆以后就一直在盧旺達愛國陣線（RPF）這個政黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下的政府任職，最初擔(dān)任婦女內(nèi)務(wù)部長，然后開始從事性別和社會事務(wù)方面的政府工作。如今，她是上議院的參議員，她說女性開始在政界大展拳腳，部分原因在于，這是生存的一種方式。

“種族大屠殺以后，財產(chǎn)問題存在紛爭”，她說，“所以我們設(shè)法制定一部更強有力的家政法案。這是有史以來，這個國家的女性第一次被賦予財產(chǎn)繼承權(quán)。按照傳統(tǒng)，婦女一旦出嫁，財產(chǎn)就歸她的丈夫所有。如果她的丈夫去世，財產(chǎn)即由婆家繼承。這部法案為家庭提供了法律保障。女性現(xiàn)在可以繼承、擁有財產(chǎn)。女孩和男孩在財產(chǎn)繼承問題上擁有平等的權(quán)利?！?/p>

女性促使政府解決的另一個問題是強奸。強奸是那次種族屠殺的重要一環(huán)，在一些村莊，甚至出現(xiàn)了由當?shù)卣筒倏?，堪稱強暴營的地方。盧旺達問題國際法庭審判過部分盧旺達屠殺事件的策劃者和參與者，依據(jù)國際法將“強奸”定義為種族屠殺的一種罪行，因為這是旨在清除一整個族裔的有計劃有步驟的行動的一環(huán)。然而，根據(jù)盧旺達本國懲治種族屠殺的法律條例，強奸幾乎只能算是一種相對輕微的犯罪。關(guān)于種族屠殺的草案將此罪行分為四類，犯有謀殺罪會被處以死刑或終生監(jiān)禁。但強奸罪則歸在最輕的一類，和搶掠相提并論，而且根據(jù)草案，量刑也僅為輕微的監(jiān)禁或者社會服務(wù)。種族屠殺遺孀協(xié)會和幸存者組織“伊庫卡”都被激怒了。很多被強暴的圖西婦女因此感染了艾滋病病毒，有人甚至懷了施暴者的骨肉?！澳切┡詫Σ莅负懿粷M，”Inyumba說，因此“我們提倡改變。我們認為這部種族屠殺草案對促使人們正視性侵犯這個問題有著舉足輕重的

作用”。

倘若盧旺達的政權(quán)仍掌握在一個男權(quán)主導(dǎo)的叛軍政權(quán)手中，這樣的轉(zhuǎn)型似乎更是不可能的。然而，Inyumba說，從一開始盧旺達愛國陣線就把重心放在爭取性別平等上，因為這個政黨著力于在更廣的范疇內(nèi)消除各類歧視。

總體說來，盧旺達的男性一直對這部新的法案保持沉默。但國會議員、自由黨人兼議會人權(quán)委員會主席Evarist

Kalish說，許多男性承認，女性也許可以更好地領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這個國家。

“與男性相比，女性更大程度上是戰(zhàn)爭的受害者，”Kalish說，“她們所優(yōu)先考慮的問題也和男性的不一樣。她們通常更關(guān)注和暴力相關(guān)的問題，尤其是基于性別歧視的暴力行為。女性一直備受歧視，因此她們想要終止這種狀況。這些都有助于防止種族屠殺的歷史重演?！?/p>